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PLASTIC IN THE OCEAN
General information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Title of the activityPlastic in the Ocean |
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SubjectChemistry, Biology, Environmental Education / Life Science |
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Keywordsanalytical problem solving, inquiry-based learning, interactive and motivational |
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Learning outcomesTeacher 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 |
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Transversal skillsResponsibility and ability to resolve conflict, Awareness and openness, Reasoned decision-making |
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Number of participants and target age groupNumber of participants: 1 to 4 per set of material; age: from 13 years |
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Duration
60 min |
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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:
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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. |
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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.
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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. |
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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. |
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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 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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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. |
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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. |
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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 |
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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: | |||
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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. |
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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. |
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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 |
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Step by step description: | |||
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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 |
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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:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWNq4SJFCjA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHCgA-n5wRw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiH3f6AKFbc
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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? |
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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. |
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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:
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