Garbage and the Impact of Scale

Module 4 Lesson 1

LESSON 1: GARBAGE AND THE IMPACT OF SCALE OVERVIEW:

The main purpose of this lesson is to introduce garbage by way of exploring the concept of scale. The lesson begins by having students define garbage. Students will then think about their own garbage production. Their individual production will then be used to estimate garbage production at different spatial scales. In an optional activity, students can also explore how garbage and its management have changed over time.

SUB-QUESTION:
What is my role in garbage production?

WAYS OF KNOWING URBAN ECOLOGY:

Understand
Students will Understand that scale is an important factor when investigating the impact of garbage on the environment. (scale) Understand that the definition of garbage is context dependent. (ecosystem state and structure) Understand that the management of garbage has changed over time and continues to evolve. (ecosystem change) Define garbage through class discussion. Estimate the amount of garbage they produce taking into account different temporal scales. No specific goals connected with acting on urban ecology in this lesson.

Talk Do Act

SAFETY GUIDELINES
No specific safety issues are associated with this lesson.

PREPARATION:
Time: 1-2 class periods Day 1: Activity 1.1 Activity 1.2 Day 2: Activity 1.3 (Optional) Materials: Activity 1.1 Blackboard/ Butcher Paper Activity 1.2 PowerPoint presentation Garbage and Scale 64 oz. plastic storage container Copies of Student Sheets Calculators Activity 1.3

Garbage and the Impact of Scale Internet Access Newspaper print Conclusion Student Notebooks

Module 4 Lesson 1

Instructional Sequence
Activity 1.1: What is garbage? 1. Opening Introduction o State or write on the board the proverb One mans trash is another mans treasure or One mans garbage is another mans gold. Ask students to write an explanation for the meaning of this quote. 2. Ask students to brainstorm a definition for garbage Teaching Strategy Some questions that may help to spur the discussion are included below. If you were to look into a garbage bin, what would you expect to find? Are all items placed in the garbage bin necessarily garbage? Are there different types of garbage? If so, what might they be? o The purpose of this activity is just to get students thinking about what garbage is. No one definition of garbage is expected, but there should be an understanding that garbage is defined individualistically by the person that disposes of the items. In other words, its garbage to me if I throw it away because I have no use for it anymore. o Write students ideas on the board or on a piece of butcher paper o Students should come to the understanding that garbage is material believed to be useless or disposable Activity 1.2 How much garbage is produced and at what scale? 1. Show students the PowerPoint presentation Garbage and Scale o For each image have students guess what is being portrayed. The following slide will be a zoomed in image of what type of garbage it is. This will show students that different things, like trash, can be looked at from different perspectives. o Tell students that studying different levels or scales of the ecosystem give scientists different perspectives that provide different information. Using all of the information, scientists get a more complete picture of that which is being studied. Today we are going to be studying garbage production at different scales. 2. Distribute the activity 1.2 student sheet. Break students into groups. Have them read the directions before moving on to the calculations. o Have a 64 oz. plastic storage container in the room. Walk around the room with it to show students that this is an estimate of the amount of garbage they produce in a given day. o Have students complete worksheet 1.2 3. Discuss the students results and their responses to the worksheet questions

Garbage and the Impact of Scale

Module 4 Lesson 1

Conclusion 1. Either as discussion or a written reflection have students consider why it is important to look at garbage through different perspectives and scales Activity 1.3 Garbage and Management (Optional) 1. Ask students to brainstorm how garbage has changed over time. Write these ideas on the board o Some prompting questions might be What types of things are used now that did not exist 100 years ago? Technological advances like cell phones and computers, increased use of plastics. What does food come in? How is food stored? Packaging of food products contributes greatly to garbage. o To follow up, ask students to think about the consequences of this changing garbage. It is important to think about the change in garbage to understand the changes in management and disposal of garbage over time. o Ask students to give some reasons why garbage and its management would be an important topic to study in urban ecology. Teaching Strategy You may want to remind students of the idea of a city as a system and mention garbage as an output. 2. Students Complete Activity 1.3 o Divide students into 5 groups and give each group a different piece of the timeline to research (e.g., 1800-1900, 1900-1920, 1920-1950, 1950-1980, and 1980 present). Students will write 5 main points on a sheet of newsprint that can be posted in the class. These points should summarize what they think is important about garbage within the time period they were assigned. Sample questions they could focus on What type of trash was being produced most? How was this trash being disposed of? What typing of recycling might have been taking place? What type of laws were in place regarding garbage disposal? o If students have a hard time finding material, you may want to suggest http://www.bfi-salinas.com/kids_trash_timeline-printer.cfm as a source. o When the groups are ready, they should present their summaries to the class starting with the beginning of the timeline and moving chronologically towards the end of the timeline. They should also be able to explain why they selected the 5 points to represent their time period. 3. Have students discuss possible trends or shifts that garbage and its management have taken over time o Some questions that may help to spur the discussion are: How has industry and marketing played a role in the evolution of garbage? Were there any surprises in the timeline?

Garbage and the Impact of Scale

Module 4 Lesson 1

How has garbage management changed over the years? o Students may have some questions about how garbage from their community is managed. This could become a question which guides further independent investigation. Conclusion 1. Students should write 2-4 statements that answer the question Why should I care about garbage and its management? o Some possible answers may include such concepts as limiting disease, limited space, recycling to save non-renewable resources, and protecting the ecosystem.

Garbage and the Impact of Scale

Module 4 Lesson 1

Name: ________________________________Date: ________ Class/Period:________

ACTIVITY 1.2: GARBAGE AND SCALE

When thinking about garbage, it is important to consider scale. The amount of garbage you produce as an individual may seem small, but when you look at it from a city or national perspective the amount of garbage produced by humans is not so small. The following exercise will help you visualize how garbage can pile up quickly at greater spatial scales. A spatial scale is the size of area at which different ecological processes occur. It is important to look at ecological processes from different scales because the impact of different factors can vary depending on the scale. For example, if you were looking at some plant cells under a microscope, it would look different than looking at the leaf that the cells came from. In turn, looking at the leaves on the entire tree would give you yet a different perspective.

In order to understand the tree, it is important to study it from different perspectives. The same is true when studying ecosystems. Investigating ecosystems at different spatial scales allows scientists to examine environmental issues from different perspectives enabling a more complete picture of the ecosystem. In urban ecosystems, the most fundamental scale is that of the individual, while the most encompassing is the global level. Many scales exist between these two levels Individuals Households Communities Cities/Urban AreasNationalGlobal

How much garbage do I really produce? In your classroom there is a plastic container with a volume of 0.1892 m3. Let us suppose that each of you produces enough garbage to fill this container everyday.

Garbage and the Impact of Scale

Module 4 Lesson 1

1. After 1 week, you would produce 0.1892 m3 x 7 days = ______________ m3 of garbage. 2. After 1 year, you would produce 0.1892 m3 x 365 days= ______________ m3 of garbage. The amount you calculated in #2 above is about the volume of a school bus. Does this seem like a lot to you? (The volume of a school bus is approximately 71 m3 ) Looking at garbage at different scales Group 3. How much garbage would you as a group produce in a year?_____________________ 4. How many school buses would that fill? ___________________________________ City 5. The city of Boston has a population of approximately 620,000 people. Using the results above, that would equal 1652 school bus loads of trash a day? How many bus loads of trash would this be a year?

State 6. The State of Massachusetts has a population of approximately 6,437,193 people. That would equal 17,150 school bus loads of garbage a day. How many bus loads of trash would this be in a year?

National 7. The United States of America has a population of approximately 300,000,000 people. How much garbage (in m3) is produced in a day? A year?

Reflection Questions 1. Do these numbers surprise you? Why or Why not?

Garbage and the Impact of Scale

Module 4 Lesson 1

2. How would the national scale change if everyone at the individual scale produced less garbage?

3. List 3 things you could easily do to reduce the amount of waste you produce in a day.

Garbage and The Impact of Scale

Module 4 Lesson 1

Name: ____Teacher Version______________Date: ________ Class/Period:________

ACTIVITY 1.2: GARBAGE AND SCALE

When thinking about garbage, it is important to consider scale. The amount of garbage you produce as an individual may seem small, but when you look at it from a city or national perspective the amount of garbage produced by humans is not so small. The following exercise will help you visualize how garbage can pile up quickly at greater spatial scales. A spatial scale is the size of area at which different ecological processes occur. It is important to look at ecological processes from different scales because the impact of different factors can vary depending on the scale. For example, if you were looking at some plant cells under a microscope, it would look different than looking at the leaf that the cells came from. In turn, looking at the leaves on the entire tree would give you yet a different perspective.

In order to understand the tree, it is important to study it from different perspectives. The same is true when studying ecosystems. Investigating ecosystems at different spatial scales allows scientists to examine environmental issues from different perspectives enabling a more complete picture of the ecosystem. In urban ecosystems, the most fundamental scale is that of the individual, while the most encompassing is the global level. Many scales exist between these two levels Individuals Households Communities Cities/Urban AreasNationalGlobal

Garbage and The Impact of Scale How much garbage do I really produce?

Module 4 Lesson 1

In your classroom there is a plastic container with a volume of 0.1892 m3. Let us suppose that each of you produces enough garbage to fill this container everyday. 1. After 1 week, you would produce 0.1892 m3 x 7 days = __1.32____ m3 of garbage. 2. After 1 year, you would produce 0.1892 m3 x 365 days= _69.06___ m3 of garbage. The amount you calculated in #2 above is about the volume of a school bus. Does this seem like a lot to you? (The volume of a school bus is approximately 71 m3 ) Does this seem like a lot to you? This number will most likely seem like a lot to students. Looking at garbage at different scales Group 3. How much garbage would you as a group produce in a year? _207.17 m3___ 3 x .1892 m3 x 365 days= 207.17 m3 (if a group of 3) 4. How many school buses would that fill? ______3______________ 207.17 m3/ 69.06 m3 x 1 school buses = approx. 3 buses City 5. The city of Boston has a population of approximately 620,000 people. Using the results above, that would equal 1652 school bus loads of trash a day? How many bus loads of trash would this be a year? 1652 x 365= 602,980 bus loads of trash for Boston in a year State 6. The State of Massachusetts has a population of approximately 6,437,193 people. That would equal 17,500 school bus loads of garbage a day. How many bus loads of trash would this be in a year? 17,500 x 365= 6,387,500 bus loads of trash for MA in a year National 7. The United States of America has a population of approximately 300,000,000 people. How much garbage (in m3) is produced in a day? A year? 300,000,000 x .1892 m3 = 5,676,000 m3 a day 5,676,000 m3 x 365 days =2,071,740,000 m3 a year

Garbage and The Impact of Scale

Module 4 Lesson 1

Reflection Questions 1. Do these numbers surprise you? Why or Why not? Answers will vary

2. How would the national scale change if everyone at the individual scale produced less garbage? If everyone at the individual scale produced less garbage than there would be less garbage produced at the national scale too.

3. List 3 things you could easily do to reduce the amount of waste you produce in a day. Answers may vary. Examples may fall under the categories: Recycling, Composting, and Reusing.