The Terracycle

Curriculum Series

Terracycle (our favorite upcycling company) has made an

entire company (and a lot of money) from waste. Now,

they’ve connected with The Cloud Institute for

Sustainability Education to create the Terracycle

Curriculum series. From Terracycle’s website: “In nature,

garbage doesn’t exist, but it does in the human system….[we

focus] on how we can solve this problem.” Find lesson plan

downloads by grade level at http://www.terracycle.net/

curricula. Curriculum additions are expected 3 times a year.

The focus of the Spring 2010 lesson sets (on Nature Laws

and Principles of the Materials Cycle) are as follows:

Grade K-2: Where Do Apples Go? A Story About the

Nature of Materials

Grade 3-5: The Materials Cycle and Me

Grade 6-8: Biomimicry--Nature as Model, Measures,

and Mentor

Grade 9-12: An exploration of Cradle to Cradle Design

Thinking

Create A Graph:

Computer Graph Attack

Data analysis and the ability to read

graphs are in the NCTM math standards

at every grade level. Invite your kids to do their own

Computer Graph Attack by using page 2 of this month’s

Green Team Gazette. The “Create a Graph” website

(http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/createagraph/) makes it easy

for youngsters to make a very professional-looking graph.

It also serves as an excellent “direction following” activity!!

Follow up the graphing activity by asking questions such as

the ones below about the newly-created graph:

What do you notice?

What is the mean? The median? The mode? The range?

What do you get when you add two countries’ waste?

How much more waste did New Zealand create than

Japan?

How much weight would a particular country have over

multiple years?

How much less is the annual amount of a particular

country than a ton (2,000 pounds)? How long would it

take at that rate to reach 1, 5, 10 tons?

The Green Team Gazette Volume 3, Issue 5, page 1 January 2011

Ringing in the

New Year With

Some Rocking

eResources

I’m always amazed by the wealth that is out there on

the internet. In part, that’s how Green Team Gazette

originated--to share all the great green goodies & finds

that are out there. This month’s Green Team Gazette is

dedicated to ringing in the new year with some out-of-

sight sites!!

PreCycle & PlanetPals

We all know about “Reduce, Reuse,

Recycle,” but perhaps the best New

Year’s resolution is to commit to not

an “R,” but a “P”--PRECYCLE. A quick

review on prefixes gets us to “pre-“ meaning “before.”

So before there’s a need to RECYCLE, perhaps we should

investigate what we can do first to PREVENT

RECYCLING. The PlanetPals website has a slew of simple

precycle ideas such as staying clear of disposables or

going with reusable items (batteries, cups, bags, etc.)

versus items with an ultimate landfill-ladened lifespan.

Use PlanetPal’s ideas as a springboard to your own

brainstorming list. Make a definite plan to pursue

precycling at http://www.planetpals.com/precycle.html.

The Green Team Gazette is a publication

co-sponsored by the founders of CynerGreen

CGKidz, and Eagle Cove School (formerly “Gibson Island Country School”), a Green

School in Pasadena, Maryland. Our mission is

to educate and share ways to “go green”—both big & small--

and be environ-mentally-proactive at home, in school, and

beyond. It is written by Vicki Dabrowka, 3rd grade teacher

& co-Green Team Leader at Eagle Cove School. To learn

more visit www.cynergreen.com, www.cgkidz.com, and

www.eaglecoveschool.org. You can also follow us at

http://greenteamgazette.blogspot.com/ or find us at “Green

Team Gazette” on Facebook or on Twitter.

Please print on recycled paper. Copyright © 2011 Vicki Dabrowka

Image you will see when you get to

http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/createag

Computer Graph Attack: Graphing Waste Per Pound, Per Person, Per Country

Directions: Use the chart below and the list of instructions below to make

a computerized graph of the average amount of waste (measured in pounds),

per person, per year, for each country. Spelling Counts! Pay attention and

don’t forget to follow the directions carefully!!

1. Go to www.google.com and type in “create a graph” in the search bar.

Click the “nces” link (which is probably the first one) or go to http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/createagraph/.

2. Choose “Bar” graph.

3. In the “Design” Tab:

a. Pick “Vertical” as the direction.

b. Pick any shape.

c. For style, change nothing.

4. Click the “Data” Tab:

a. Title your graph “Annual Household Waste Per Person, Per Country ”

b. For the “X Axis,” type in “Countries”

c. For the “Y Axis,” type in “Pounds of Waste”

d. For “Source,” type in “by __________” (your name)

e. For “Data Set,” select “18” items. Do not change the number of groups.

f. For “Group Label,” type in “number of pounds of waste per person.”

g. Under “Item Label,” write in the names of each of the countries from the list.

h. Under “Value” write in the household waste in pounds per country using

the chart.

i. For “Min-Value” write in “0.”

j. For “Max-Value” type in “2000.”

k. Choose colors for bars.

5. Click on the “Labels” Tab:

a. For “Show Label” type “yes.”

b. Change only “Label color” to the color of your choice.

Change nothing else in the top box.

c. For “Font,” pick a font in the first column only

(the other ones don’t always work well.) d. Pick a font color….do not change the font size.

6. Click the “Preview” tab.

7. Have your teacher view your graph before you print.

8. Click the “Print/Save” tab.

a. Click “Print.”

b. In the next window, click “print.”

c. Find the “print” icon and click.

d. Find where it asks you how many copies you want. Ask your teacher how many copies you should

print, type in that number, then click “print.”

e. Voila! Mission Completion!!

9. Study your graph. What do you notice? How much more waste does the US make per person than

the least wasteful country on this graph?

The Green Team Gazette Volume 3, Issue 5, page 2 January 2011

Copyright ©

2011 Vicki

Dabrowka

Image you will see when you get to

http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/createag

Image you will see when you get to the “Create A Graph” website.

Country Amount of

Waste per year

in Pounds for

Average Person

Australia 1,521

Canada 1,102

France 1,301

Germany 1,204

Iceland 1,433

Ireland 1,235

Italy 1,014

Japan 882

Mexico 683

New Zealand 1,400

Norway 1,322

Poland 705

South Korea 882

Sweden 794

Switzerland 1,322

Turkey 728

United Kingdom 1,058

United States 1,587

Data from http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/

env_was_gen-environment-waste-generation for the year 2000,

converted from kilograms to pounds.

Included in this list are the top 5 ranking WASTEFUL countries

in the world. Can you find them?