Cluster 1: How Does Garbage Impact Our Environment?
Cluster 1 is comprised of five 45-minute lessons. To launch the unit, students will observe the properties of materials in garbage and decide how to sort it into categories. They will also explore photographs of the impact of garbage on our world. They will be introduced to their Science and Engineering Notebooks (SENs) and use their SEN as a tool to make note of their wonderings and observations throughout the unit. Students then make predictions about what will happen to the materials in each garbage category based on their properties and develop a model of a garbage disposal system, identifying components and interactions in the system. The class will read about the Pacific Ocean “garbage patches” to learn about how garbage ultimately impacts the environment. Throughout the cluster, students will generate questions for investigation, and, by the end of Cluster 1, they will develop an overarching guiding question for the unit about the impact of garbage on our community.
Next Generation Science Standards
NGSS Performance Expectations
- 5-PS1-3. Make observations and measurements to identify materials based on their properties.
Science and Engineering Practices
- Asking questions and defining problems
- Developing and using models
- Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information
Learning Targets
- I can use properties to categorize garbage in our school (Lesson 1-1)
- I can brainstorm ideas and questions about garbage in our world (Lesson 1-1)
- I can make predictions about what happens to different materials when we throw them away (Lesson 1-2)
- I can use a video to learn about what happens to garbage when we throw it away (Lesson 1-2)
- I can create a model of the garbage disposal system (Lesson 1-3)
- I can read informational text to learn about how garbage impacts our environment (Lesson 1-4)
- I can identify scientific questions that we can investigate at school (Lesson 1-5)
- I can organize our questions into categories (Lesson 1-5)