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The sole responsibility for the content of this document lies

with the authors. It does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Union.

PLASTIC IN THE OCEAN

General information

Title of the activity

Plastic in the Ocean

Subject

Chemistry, Biology, Environmental Education / Life Science

Keywords

analytical problem solving, inquiry-based learning, interactive and motivational

Learning outcomes

Teacher learning outcomes:

– Will be able to raise the awareness towards environmental problems

– Will be able to provide a basic understanding of density, the factors for swimming/floating/sinking

– Will get better insight in problem solving strategies of their students

Student learning outcomes:

– Will get a better understanding of the challenges given by environmental problems

– Will be able to assess the complexity of environmental problems

– Will be able to develop methods of analytical problem solving– Will develop skills of media literacy

Transversal skills

Responsibility and ability to resolve conflict, Awareness and openness, Reasoned decision-making

Number of participants and target age group

Number of participants: 1 to 4 per set of material; age: from 13 years

Duration

60 min

Short activity description
The students get to explore and experiment with different types of plastic and their density using different salt solutions. The experiment is embedded in a reflection session on Plastic in the Ocean, providing the students with some information and reflexion moments on the real-life situation, supported by relevant news articles. They also get introduced to „The Ocean Cleanup“-Project.
Preparation
Materials
List of materials:

Technical backline:

Depending on the salt concentration, the plastic samples and sticks will either swim on the surface or sink. A key to make the experiment work is the right salt concentration. This needs some experience. However, the table below will help and might need some tiny adaption, as pressure and temperature is affecting the density of the water as well.
The plastic sticks recommended from Plastics Europe all have the same shape, the same weight and defined density values. Therefore, they are comparable with each other and are well suited for experimentation.

Additional preparation instruction:

To make the experiment work, you need three different salt concentrations, in the erlenmeyer flask and the preserving jars with the three different salt concentrations each. You don’t need to label them, or put them in a certain order to be able to solve the task but to do so will lower the complexity of the task.

The first table below shows the specific information about the different types of plastic. Make sure your plastic samples are of the right type. The second table shows the necessary salt concentration for the experiment. The goal actually is not to have the most accurate salt concentration as there is no floating of plastic.

Moreover, it is important to make sure there is enough salt in the water, that the right type of plastic is swimming. Test the concentrations with the sticks and the samples in the water as you add the salt. Start with a quite accurate amount and then add tiny amounts until the right plastic is swimming. If your jars and flasks have different volume, adapt the amount of salt accordingly.

Type of Plastic Abbreviation Recycling nr. Density (range) Density (Sticks)
Polyethylen soft LDPE / PE-LD Datei:Plastic-recyc-04.svg 0,91 – 0,94 0,91
Polystyrol PS Plastic-recyc-06.svg 1,04 – 1,05 1,04
Polyamid PA https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6d/Plastic-recyc-07.svg/50px-Plastic-recyc-07.svg.png

(other)

1,04 – 1,15 1,13
Polymethylmethacrylat PMMA https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6d/Plastic-recyc-07.svg/50px-Plastic-recyc-07.svg.png

(other)

1,18 – 1,32

1,18

Flask & preserving jar 1 Flask & preserving jar 2 Flask & preserving jar 3
Swimming PE PE, PS PE, PS, PA
Sinking PS, PA, PMMA PA, PMMA PMMA
Salt concentration 0 % 3,9 % 11,5 %
Salt (gram) per litre 0 g 40 g 130 g
Announcement
Announcement for teacher trainings:

Get to know a simple experiment in which you raise awareness of environmental problems, increase media literacy and foster analytical problem solving. In this experiment your students are ask to investigate which forms of plastic swim, float or sink in the ocean/saltwater and will understand, that problems like the Great Pacific Garbage Patch are getting a lot of attention by media and environmental NGOs, but are by far not the only problem when it gets to plastic in the ocean.

Announcement for students:

Have you heard of the project “The Ocean Cleanup”, will it be likely to solve this problem? Try this experiment and find out about facts which will answer this question.

Hook
Every year, millions of tons of plastic enter the oceans. “The Ocean Cleanup” tries to combat this problem. Will it be likely to solve it? Try this experiment and find out more facts about the problem
Activity type/strategy
Lower order thinking Higher order thinking
Knowing / remembering Comprehending / understanding Analysing Synthesizing / evaluating Creating
  • Examples
  • Questions
  • Discussion
  • Inquiry based Learning
  • Critical Review of Media
  • Case studies
  • Simulation
  • Simulations
  • Complex case study
  • Hands-on
Delivery sequence
Epidemiological suitability
Is the activity suitable for execution in stricter epidemiological restrictions?

☐ Yes ☐No ☒ Partly

As with every hands-on-experiment there is the question of disinfection, social distance etc.

Is the activity suitable for execution in an online setting?

☐ Yes ☒ No ☐ Partly

It is quite impossible to let the students do the experiment on their own via distance learning, as the setup of the saltwater needs some experience and accuracy. An online setting will lead as well to a more teacher centred setting and will cause quite some impact to the inquiry based learning approach. It’s not to be said that the idea of this activity can’t work very well with an online set up, it would just mean quit some work and rearrangement.

Can the activity be sequenced? I. e. divided into smaller parts which could function as standalone parts which could maybe even be integrated into other activities.

☐ Yes ☒ No ☐ Partly

Step 1
Step type/strategy: Introduction Step duration

(minutes):

10
Step title:

(if applicable)

Can we get rid of the plastic in the Oceans?
Keywords: Plastic, Oceans, Recycling, Research, Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Subaims:

What teaching aims are you fulfilling with this part of the sequence?

Start to sensitize your students towards the problem; make sure they understand what the experiment is about and what the research question is.
Step by step description:
  • Depending on the previous knowledge of your students, this step is about to introduce the topic to them. What do they know about plastic in the oceans? Is there some up-to-date newspaper article you can refer to?
  • Make them curious and state a clear task: You are part of a research group, which has a specific task given by your local environmental agency. They want to know if a well-known program should be supported by them, a program which is about to collect plastic from the ocean’s surface. There are reports that the Great Pacific Garbage Patch covers about 1,6 million square kilometres. Your goal is to find out which kind of plastic you can find in this swimming patch, as it’s maybe possible to recycle it.
  • Explain what you provide them to answer the research question, by mentioning:
  • the role of salt concentration due to density and swimming/floating/sinking of the plastic
  • the role of the plastic sticks as a reference to the plastic samples inside the preserving jars
  • to find out what type of plastics the samples are about by analytical problem solving
Interpretation & analysis

(for teachers)

Give context to the task to make it more relatable.
Interpretation & analysis

(for students)

Give context to the task to make it more relatable.
Step 2
Step type/strategy: Student experiment Step duration

(minutes):

20
Step title:

(if applicable)

What type of plastic is this?
Keywords: Experiment, Types of Plastic, density, Polyethylene, Polysthyrene, Polyamide, Polymethylmethacrylat
Subaims:

What teaching aims are you fulfilling with this part of the sequence?

Train your students experimental skills and analytical problem solving.

Exploration.

Step by step description:
Give your students the research question: They need to find out what type of plastic sample is swimming in the preserving jars by testing with the experimental kit (plastic sticks and Erlenmeyer flask). This will help them to decide if your local environmental agency will support the Project Ocean Clean Up and which kind of plastic they will gather. Tell them that there are three different salt concentrations, which affects the sinking and floating of plastic of different density. The salt concentration of the jars and flaks are of three equal different quantities.
Interpretation & analysis

(for teachers)

Teachers should approach this task as students (see below), meaning they should try and not apply any knowledge they might have on plastic and focus on their observations.
Interpretation & analysis

(for students)

There are different approaches possible to solve the given task. However, it is essential that your students proceed analytical and make sure to remember which stick is a sample of which plastic type. Tell them not to label or mark the sticks, as you can’t use them again.

It is up to you and depends on the skills and experience of your students how much support you provide. We provided a worksheet (See attached handout) which shows a way of an analytical approach. However, it could be a learning goal that your students come up with a similar strategy by themself.

Step 3
Step type/strategy: Reflection on the outcome Step duration

(minutes):

10
Step title:

(if applicable)

What type of Plastic is this? – Solution
Keywords: Experiment, Types of Plastic, density, Polypropylene, Polythylene, Polysthyrene, Polyamide, Polyvinyl chloride, Polymethylmethacrylat
Subaims:

What teaching aims are you fulfilling with this part of the sequence?

Raise their awareness to the complexity of environmental problems and critical review of media.

Explaination

Step by step description:
  • Tell them now the three different salt concentrations and let them find out what kind of plastic will swim or think in the ocean.
  • As well they should fact check the following information (picture below, uploaded on Google Drive as well) provided from an NGO arguing against the Ocean Clean Up program.
  • Then they should decide if they would support the program Ocean Clean Up. Help them by raising these questions: How big do you think the problem of swimming plastic is in comparison to other issues of plastic in the ocean? What do you think could be good solutions to the issue of plastic in the ocean?
Interpretation & analysis

(for students)

Make the students reflect and discuss as much as possible. Especially in bigger groups, let them write down their own opinion by themselves first, before they have a discussion in small groups of 2-3 students. An open discussion will follow in step 4.
Step 4
Step type/strategy: Deepen the topic Step duration

(minutes):

10 minimum
Step title:

(if applicable)

So, what do we do?
Subaims:

What teaching aims are you fulfilling with this part of the sequence?

Dig deeper into media literacy, the topic of plastic in the Oceans.

Elaboration

Step by step description:
Again, depending on your given time, the previous knowledge and interest of your students, your local educational objective in the area of media literacy, environmental education / life science, experimental skills you could focus at least on one of the following tasks:

  • Show them a video about microplastic in the ocean:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWNq4SJFCjA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHCgA-n5wRw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiH3f6AKFbc

  • Show the different newspaper articles or environmental programs and discuss the pros and cons and the facts with your students.
  • Gather their strategies to solve the given task, make them aware, that there are often different solutions to a given task.
Interpretation & analysis

(for teachers)

Here teachers might reflect on how and where to find relevant and up to date materials on the topic.
Interpretation & analysis

(for students)

Follow up information – as the information given in the beginning of the class – is important to give context and real-life-substance to the problem.
Step 5
Step type/strategy: Reflection Step duration

(minutes):

10 minimum
Step title:

(if applicable)

What do I think about this?

How do I feel about this?

Keywords: Reflection, opinion, responsibility
Subaims:

What teaching aims are you fulfilling with this part of the sequence?

Evaluation & Assessment
Step by step description:
How you conduct this step is up to you. One option can be a Mind Map, where you collect the different opinions and ideas on the blackboard.
Interpretation & analysis

(for teachers)

Reflection round on:

difficulty levels; emotional and motivational impact of the activity; connection to school curriculum; discussion on hands-on activities/team work/problem solving and engineering/innovative and creative working as learning methods.

Interpretation & analysis

(for students)

Summarize and collect the opinions of your students and the results of the discussion.
Wrap up & sequence interpretation
Sequence interpretation & analysis

(for teacher trainings)

After an engaging introcdution into the topic, the participants are straight away given an opportunity to explore and analyse very specific sides of a big problem. After gaining some hands-on experience and through that – knowledge, they get to dig into a real-life problem, discuss solutions and responsibilities. This is an example sequence to introducing science and scientific processes in school providing some professional orientation as well.
Sequence interpretation & analysis

(for the activity/sequence when held in classroom)

After an engaging introduction into the topic, the participants are straight away given an opportunity to explore and analyse very specific sides of a big problem. After gaining some hands-on experience and through that – knowledge, they get to dig into a real-life problem, discuss solutions and responsibilities. Through this sequence they are given a glimpse into the work issues of real scientists and environmentalists.
Evaluation/assessment
Possible evaluation questions:

  • What types of plastic are there?
  • What types of plastic can I recognize at home?
  • How do I treat plastic at home?
  • What new ideas did I get after the experiment?
  • What more do I want to learn?
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