Where Are the Plastics Near Me? (Field Trip)
Figure 1. (bottom) Discarded roadway trash includes plastics that will never degrade. (top) U.S. recycling rates, 1960 to 2008, of municipal solid waste (MSW), which includes all trash from residences and many kinds of commercial businesses. Though the overall recycling rate has increased dramatically since 1960, much plastic is still not recycled and finds its way to waterways.Copyright (bottom) Environmental Education Station {PD} http://web.centre.edu/enviro/Photos_files/photolib_files/pollutionpics.htm (top) U.S. EPA report on US MSW in 2008 {PD} [1]
Through an adult-led field trip, students organized into investigation teams catalogue the incidence of plastic debris in different environments. They investigate these plastics according to their type, age, location and other characteristics that might indicate what potential they have for becoming part of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP). Students collect qualitative and quantitative data that may be used to create a Google Earth layer as part of a separate activity that can be completed at a computer lab at school or as homework. The activity is designed as a step on the way to student's creation of their own GIS Google Earth layer. It is, however, possible for the field trip to be a useful learning experience unto itself that does not require this last GIS step.
Field work is one aspect of environmental engineering. Environmental engineers collect samples of various media for chemical and biological analysis and make observations about the conditions in which those samples were found. Students in this activity collect environmental samples in the form of photographs of plastics contamination and execute a sampling plan designed by the teacher. Like engineers, they form their own theories for the source, fate and transport of what they find. They also need to be vigilant that the quality and usefulness of the data is high, just as practicing environmental engineers do.
After this activity, students should be able to:
- Take observational notes on field surroundings.
- Read and understand latitude and longitude coordinates from a handheld GPS device.
- Discern what kind of information is valuable to be gathered in the field.
- Determine what kinds of plastics are found disposed on land in a survey area and speculate reasons as to why they are there and their fate.
- Explain how environmental engineers use similar data collections to analyze highly concentrated areas of various types of pollution.