By J. A. Ginsburg
“Earth Day” is 40, which speaks both to the durability of the idea and to an enduring need. It is a celebration of Spring-cleaning on a global scale and a sobering reminder of how much still needs to be done. Earth Day? We need Earth Every Day!
When Stuart learned that he would be speaking at the annual conference for the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) on Earth Day, he thought it would be fun to feature teacher-created projects inspired by his MathStart book, “Earth Day – Hooray!”. Over the next few weeks we will be highlighting some of the projects here on vizlearning.
Today, though, we’re going to the source!
The Maple Street School Save-the-Planet Club is busy cleaning up Gilroy Park when Ryan has a brainstorm: Instead of throwing aluminum cans in the garbage, why not bring them to the Recycling Center and use the money to buy flowers to decorate the park for Earth Day? Mrs. Watson, the club’s adviser, says they’re going to need 5,000 cans. 5,000 cans!!! Luke is pretty skeptical, but the other kids are sure they can do it. Carly even dresses up as a can as part of a campaign to teach other students about recycling. They canvas the neighborhood collecting cans, clean up other parks and, of course, keep count.
Place value is the book’s math skill. Each group of 10 cans is put in a small (biodegradable, environmentally-friendly) bag. 10 small bags go in a larger bag (100 cans). 10 of larger bags go into a giant bag (1,000 cans).
Recycling, gardening, environmental facts and math. Hooray!
Each MathStart book includes two pages of activities. For several of the books (soon all of the books), we have created teacher-friendly downloadable pdf pages with a selection of some of the activities. (Earth Day – Hooray! Activities Page pdf)
THE PLASTIC PLAGUE
Recycling is something we can all do to reduce pollution, yet we don’t do nearly as much as we could. According to the Container Recycling Insitute’s figures, less than half of the all the aluminum cans, glass and plastic bottles in the U.S. are recycled. States that require bottle deposits have rates as much as six times higher than those that don’t.
“Only we humans make waste that Nature can’t digest,” notes Captain Charles Moore, who discovered “The Great Pacific Garbage Patch,” an area of the ocean twice the size of Texas covered with small bits of plastic – mostly from bottles (TED video):
A similar patch was recently discovered in the Atlantic and other oceans are thought to have them as well.
In the summer of 2009, photographer Christopher Jordan traveled to Midway Island where he photographed dozens of albatross killed by plastic from dining in the Garbage Patch. (warning: this video is extremely disturbing)
We cannot leave the world this way for the next generation. It is not just a matter of figuring out how to clean up the mess, but coming up with better answers. Fortunately, the next generation is already inspiring just such ideas. Imagine a water bottle made of paper…
"Earth Day - Hooray!" illustrations by Renee Andriani
Earth Day? Hooray!!!
ADDITIONAL LINKS
- Earth Day backgrounder (Wikipedia)
- The Algalita Marine Research Foundation (Captain Moore’s organization – website)
- Midway Journey: (documentary project blog – Chris Jordan, Manuel Maqueda, Bill Weaver, Jan Vozenilek, Victoria Sloan Jordan)
- The 360 Paper Bottle: On Guilt, Inspiration, a Better Idea, Birds & Oceans (TrackerNews, editor’s blog)
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Excellent read, I just passed this onto a colleague who was doing a little research on that. And he actually bought me lunch because I found it for him smile So let me rephrase that: Thanks for lunch!