The third and final day of the unit had us take a walking field trip to Cleveland's local public park, Eldon Park. At the park, there are tennis courts, two baseball diamonds, a playground, a mini water park and a surrounding forested area. Lots of places for careless folk to leave their trash and recyclables on the ground! Before getting started on the "Great Eldon Clean" (as I affectionately called it with the class), we paired the students up and split the class in half so that I could be responsible for one group on the field and the classroom teacher could be responsible for the other in the forested area. Each partnership got a plastic bag each, a pair of tongs to pick up the garbage with and some plastic gloves. Their job was to pick up every piece of garbage they spotted. The teacher and I had our own bag, tongs and gloves as well, as the best way to teach students is to model the behaviour you want from them! The two of us also had a separate bag, which was for our group's recyclables. Whenever a pair found something that should be recycled, they were to bring it over to myself or their teacher (depending on whose group they were in) and put it in the recycling bag.

Another component to the clean was that, prior to starting, we accepted estimates from the class as to how many pieces of garbage they thought we would find. We wrote everyone's estimate on a piece of paper so we could see which student would be the closest. Then, we instructed them to, every time they picked up a piece of garbage for their bag, count each and every piece. And off they went! Simply counting the garbage they were finding was enough to keep them entertained and interested for the duration of the time we were there (about 50 minutes) ... if a task is turned into a game, suddenly it becomes a lot more fun! I was glad that I'd thought of the counting idea, rather than just having them tediously pick up piece after piece of trash; I'm sure that would've gotten a little old after 10 or so minutes.

At around 2:30pm, we reconvened to tally up the class total, as well as to discuss the process of what we'd done, how we felt about it, etc. Every one of us was astonished when we learned that collectively, we'd collected 2,311 pieces of garbage and recyclables! How proud those students looked. Beaming smiles all around. During our discussion, one of the students said it best: "I feel really good about what we did, but I'm kind of mad at the people whose garbage we picked up. I mean, it's not our job to pick up after them!" She'd hit the nail right on the head. "That's right," I said to the class, "if only everyone acted responsibly and put their garbage in the garbage can where it belongs, we'd have a lot nicer of a park to enjoy". "How about the plants and animals?" I asked them, "why do you think they'd be happy with what we've done?" One of the quieter boys in the class raised his hand and said, "Garbage hurts their homes. Also, sometimes little snails and things think a piece of garbage is some food and might eat it and it could hurt them". Smart little group! A few of the major points I wanted to address and they were getting all the right answers.

We ended the day by each depositing our garbage bags into the park's dumpster, which I thought was a perfect way to end the unit. Overall, it was a very successful experience - I know the students learned a lot, the classroom teacher said she was going to use the lessons to future classes and I, of course, will too.

One of the main things I liked about the unit is that it incorporated many subjects into one easy-to-teach 9 period unit. A little bit of everything was offered - Language Arts with the speaking/listening of the discussions and the reading/writing of the homework assignment, Computer Skills with the online interactive games, Art with the Recycle Art lesson, Math with the estimating and counting of the park clean, PE with the walking, running, picking up garbage aspect of the walking field trip and Health & Career/Social Responsibility of the whole unit itself, teaching students how important it is to do these things to keep our city, country and world as clean and healthy as we possibly can.

Next year and the years to follow of my teaching career, I will definitely teach this unit to my classes of students. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to create it for the purpose of this course, Education 493. I enjoyed making it and I very much enjoyed teaching it!

Tara Parkinson
96110-1652

One by one, the students deposited their bags into the dumpster ... a great way to end a very successful unit!

Here are a few students from the class, showing their bags of garbage, tired but happy from the Great Eldon Park Clean. A job well done!

Two more students pose with the garbage they have found!

Day Three Pictures

Two students find lots of trash in and around the tennis courts!

The second day of my unit started with going over the homework, the worksheet from the previous class. We had a brief discussion about how easy or difficult it was to remember to recycle, what was recycled the most in each family, as well as if the class had had chats with their families about the number in the triangle, what it meant, etc. For the worksheet, I noted two things that I will change the next time I teach this unit. The first question read, "Was remembering to recycle easy or difficult?" In hindsight, I should have included the word, "Why?" at the end of this question, as every single student just answered in one word, "easy", which didn't allow for much thought or reflection. The other question I would have students expand on next time is the one that read, "When you recycled something, how did it make you feel?" Again, I should have said something to the effect of, "Please answer in detail", as most students again only gave one word answers, either "fine" or "good" or something to that effect. More thought needed to go into their answers. Definitely two questions to change for next time.

After collecting the homework, I showed the class the 45 minute DVD, "Schoolhouse Rock: Earth". In this, there are twelve 3-4 minute cartoons that teach children about different facets of the environment. This is done through song. A few examples of song titles are, "The Trash Can Band", "Save the Ocean", "You Oughta Be Savin' Water" and "Solar Power to the People". Each song is catchy, meant to help the viewer remember the important environmental issues that are depicted in the DVD. The students enjoyed watching it; smiling, laughing and even in some parts, singing to the repetitive choruses. It was cute! After, we discussed the cartoons. I had each person say which cartoon they liked best and why, as well as what they learned or didn't know before watching.

The next lesson that day was an art lesson. Prior to the class (for weeks, actually), I had cut up pieces of recycled "stuff" from my recyclables at home. Things like cereal boxes cut into little rectangles or circles, yogurt lids cut into triangles, bread tags, newspaper, etc. I had enough for every student to have dozens of choice. I told them that the idea was to be completely creative, that there were no real "rules". They could create a collage or make the bits into some form of picture; the choice was theirs. I also told them that they weren't stuck to the shapes I had given them, if they wanted to cut them into other shapes (stars, diamonds, etc), then they could. Each student just had a pile of "bits" on their desk. If they wanted to get up and trade with a piece that another student had, they could. One student said they were eager to start because most art projects they were used to had some sort of rule or teaching technique to follow. The ability to be 100% creative with no real rules was appealing to them. The class was focused and worked hard during the period; they really seemed to be enjoying what they were doing. The results, the "finished products" were very nice. The classroom teacher stapled them to her bulletin board and they made for a very nice - and educational in the environmental sense! - art display. One change I would make for the next time though would be to have the students bring in their own recycled material. That way, they have ownership and a sense of entitlement to the pieces, as they came from their own recyclables! Just handing them the pieces didn't offer that, and that is one thing I would change for next time.

Before leaving for the day, I explained to the class what we would be doing the next class - going on an "Eldon Park Clean"! I told them to be sure to dress for the weather, whatever the weather would be that day, as we would be out for the majority of the afternoon. Again, I had a great time in the class and felt the students enjoyed themselves and learned a lot, as well!

One of the finished masterpieces! So neat that this student was so creative, to turn the recycled bits into flowers with an environmental message above!

Two girls hard at work on their art!

Here is the class, working on their Recycle Art. They really enjoyed this and I was impressed at how creative they were, turning the recycled pieces into objects on the page!

Here is the class (two more rows are behind these two) watching the DVD.

Day Two Pictures

Here is the DVD the class watched, as the first part of my lesson on day two. There are 12 short cartoons aimed at children, teaching environmental practices through creative songs and jingles. The students loved it!

The class I chose to teach my environmental unit to was a Grade 3 class at Cleveland Elementary School in North Vancouver. After introducing myself and explaining my reason for presenting to their class, I led the students in a discussion about what recycling is, why we do it and who/what it benefits. All of them have a blue box at home and recycle most things, but only a handful knew to look for the number in the triangle to see if a plastic item can be recycled and as well, what it can be made into once it is recycled. We read through the "Recycling Symbols" handout I gave them (David, I will provide you with a paper copy when we meet). The class was surprised to learn that when I was their age, recycling anything but pop cans and bottles was unheard of to most families and nearly no one did it! Same went for schools, where discarded paper just went in the garbage can, not in the class blue box! It seems second nature for children nowadays to recycle, which is fantastic.

This springboarded into a discussion about 'Plastic Island', the mass of plastic waste the size of Texas that is currently floating in the Pacific Ocean. The students were aghast to hear this. One of the students brought up the fact that the "homes of plant and animal life can get destroyed from recyclable pollution". The class agreed that this was very unfair, as the plants and animals didn't have anything to do with the garbage polluting their territory. This is one of the lessons I wanted them to take away from our discussion and I was pleased to see it came from one of the students, rather than from me!

Next, we discussed composting. I showed them my under-the-sink composter from home and asked if anyone knew what it was. There were mostly confused faces that looked back at me, but one girl raised her hand and said she thought it was what you can put "banana peels and apple cores and stuff like that in". She didn't know the name for it. I taught the class the name for it and explained to them that using one at home can shave 21% of their total household garbage. They were surprised to hear that. Using a pamphlet I picked up at one of the seminars during last year's Summer Institute, I showed them how composting worked and brought in as a sample some of the rich, black dirt that is produced from the act of composting. I told them how good it was for the garden, far better than anything you can buy from the store! A composter can be bought for a reasonable price at City Hall, I said to them. When I asked how many would tell their parents about how good of an idea it is to have one, the majority of the class raised their hand. I was pleased at this.

After our discussion, we headed to the computer lab to play an online game I found when researching for the unit, "Michael, Michael, Go Recycle". (This can be found at: http://resources.kaboose.com/games/michael-recycle.html) I wanted the game to be relevant to our discussion, as well as fun and engaging for the students. I had them work in pairs when doing this, as I felt they could talk about what items from the game needed to be recycled - discussions, especially with peers, help learners learn at a deeper level! To be honest, I wasn't sure how working in pairs would go - sometimes, it's a disaster to do this, as the students take it as socializing with their friends time, rather than learning time. I took a chance at doing it this way, but was pleasantly surprised at how well it worked out ... the entire class was engaging with their partner, enjoying the game and learning about recycling to boot! In teaching this unit again in the future, I will definitely keep with the pairs idea in the computer lab.

The final thing the class and I did that day was go over their homework assignment. I had them keep track of all the recycling their family did for three days. Then, they had to answer some questions about the experience. (Again, I will provide you with a hard copy of this, David)

My time in the class was a lot of fun! I left looking forward to "Day Two" with them.

Here are two boys from the class, taking a break from the game for a picture.

Here are two students playing the online environmental game. They are really into it!

We also talked about composting. The students were familiar with the idea of recycling their organic waste, but only a handful of them did this at home. I showed them a composting pamphlet that explained the process of how the food scraps get broken down over time and in the Ziploc bag beside the under the sink composter in the photo is the rich black soil (excellent for gardening!) that is produced from the composted material.

Once the class knew what kinds of items can/should be recycled, I showed them the blue box and explained how it gets picked up once per week, similar to the garbage their family leaves to be picked up by the garbage collectors. Every student was familiar with this box and each one of them used one at home.

These are a select few of the recyclables I brought from home to show the students what kinds of things can be recycled. I made sure to include items from every group, including cardboard, plastics, paper and metal. For the plastics, the students were taught how to look at the bottom of the item for the number in the triangle to know if it can be recycled and what new item can be produced from it.

Day One Pictures

This is the poster I used to show the class what the items they recycle can become.