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

60 min

• Lukewarm Water
• 1 kg of salt (without anti caking agent)
• 3 preserving jars 0,75-1 L
• 3 Erlenmeyer flask 1 L
• Scale, measuring bowl, measuring jug 0,5 L, funnel
• Plastic samples (x3 each): PMMA e.g. acrylic glass; PE e.g. packaging foil; PS e.g. CD case; PA e.g. Nylon
• Labelled plastic sticks (x3 each): PMMA, PE, PS, PA (https://www.plasticseurope.org/de/resources/kunststoff-schule/unterrichtsmaterial-bestellen testing set for 19 €)

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.

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		0,91 – 0,94	0,91
Polystyrol	PS		1,04 – 1,05	1,04
Polyamid	PA	(other)	1,04 – 1,15	1,13
Polymethylmethacrylat	PMMA	(other)	1,18 – 1,32	1,18

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.

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.

• Examples

• Questions
• Discussion
• Inquiry based Learning

• Critical Review of Media

• Case studies
• Simulation

• Simulations
• Complex case study
• Hands-on

☐ Yes ☐No ☒ Partly

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

☐ 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.

☐ Yes ☒ No ☐ Partly

(minutes):

(if applicable)

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

• 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

(for teachers)

(for students)

(minutes):

(if applicable)

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

Exploration.

(for teachers)

(for students)

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.

(minutes):

(if applicable)

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

Explaination

• 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?
  

(for students)

(minutes):

(if applicable)

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

Elaboration

• 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.

(for teachers)

(for students)

(minutes):

(if applicable)

How do I feel about this?

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

(for teachers)

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.

(for students)

(for teacher trainings)

(for the activity/sequence when held in classroom)

• 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?