Integration Idea of the Month -- May, 2001

School grounds often get littered with trash from student snack food containers. Below is a service activity that students can do to help keep their school grounds clean and trash free.

Curriculum Area: Science/Math

Standards Addressed:

The National Science Education Standards

Content Standard F:
As a result of activities in grades 5-8, all students should develop understanding of:

• Personal health
• Populations, resources, and environments
• Natural hazards
• Risks and benefits
• Science and technology in society

The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics

Data Analysis and Probability
Instructional programs from pre-kindergarten through grade 12 should enable all students to:

• Formulate questions that can be addressed with data and collect, organize, and display relevant data to answer them
• Select and use appropriate statistical methods to analyze data
• Develop and evaluate inferences and predictions that are based on data
• Understand and apply basic concepts of probability.

Technology Skill Level: Low

Student Grouping: Group/Whole Class

Time: Five days for trash collecting and two days for analyzing graphs and writing action plan.

Materials:

• AppleWorks Spreadsheet or Microsoft Excel
• The Internet

Procedure:

Part I: Day One -Five

1. Break the school grounds into Areas

2. Create a spreadsheet for students to enter their information. Below is an example:

3. Break students into enough groups so each group has a section of the school.

4. Assign each group of students a section of the school grounds to clean up.

5. Provide students with plastic gloves (non-latex) and paper bags.

6. Each afternoon (after snack, lunch and recess are finished) have students clean up their designated area.

7. Students should count each piece of trash they find and place it in the paper bag for disposal.

8. When they are done cleaning their designated area, students should record on the class spreadsheet how many pieces of trash they collected under the column Day One, Day Two, etc… for five days.

Part II: Day Seven -Eight

9. At the end of the five days, create a bar graph and pie chart for students to analyze.

10. Have students think about:

• What areas had the most trash altogether?
• Why do you think those areas had the most trash?
• What day had the most trash altogether?
• Why do you think that day had the most trash?

11. After students have discussed and analyzed the graphs, have each group create an action plan for their area. The action plan should explain how to keep their area free of trash.

Extension:

Students can present their action plans at a staff meeting for teachers or to the Principal of the school.

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