1. Our school's Energy Team will start and maintain a school wide recycling program. We will be recycling white paper.
2. As the sponsor for our Energy Team, I will be organizing the recycling program and my team members will help to execute the plan. In addition to the Energy Team we will need cooperation from our custodial staff and classroom teachers. We will need each classroom to teacher to commit to having a recycle bin placed in their classrooms and we will need the custodians to help in emptying the recycle bins.
3.
· PL-04-3.1.4 Students will identify and describe consumer actions (reusing, reducing, recycling) that impact the environment.
· PL-05-3.1.4 Students will describe consumer actions (reusing, reducing, recycling) and identify ways these actions impact the environment (e.g., conserving resources, reducing pollution, reducing solid waste)
· RD-04-3.0.4 Students will identify main ideas and details that support them.
· RD-05-3.0.4 Students will identify main ideas and details that support them.
· T-I-ICP-S-P1 Students will develop, publish and present information in print and digital formats
4. As a school we use a ton of white paper and unfortunately at the end of the day a lot of that paper simply goes into the trash. By recycling students will become aware of the amount of paper we consume as a school. By making students aware of the amount of paper we use we will be able to teach them how to conserve paper. I hope that students will take what they learn about the benefits of recycling and conservation home and encourage their families to participate.
5. Our Energy Team meets once a week and will need one month to get the program up and running. At our first meeting we will read informational text about recycling and its benefits. We will also commit to the project at this meeting. I'd like to have a guest speaker come to the next meeting to encourage the students to promote recycling. At the third meeting students will design posters to advertise our school wide recycling plan. Students will also create skits/commercials to advertise the program on the school's morning news show. During the next week pairs of students will deliver recycling bins to each classroom and briefly talk to each class about how to use the recycling bin. By our fourth meeting we will be going room to room to collect the recycling bins.
6. In order to promote recycling and measure our program's success the Energy Team will weigh each class's bin when they pick it up. The energy team students will chart and graph the weights each week.
7. At the end of each month one classroom will be announced as the winner for recycling the most paper.
I think this is a great and pretty simple way to start a recycling program, and it would be easy to add components like aluminum cans and cardboard. The idea of a contest giving a prize to the class that recycles the most is a really good one--this would help with advertising the program and motivating kids to participate. One thing you might want to consider is contacting the waste management system in your town and asking if they can bring out a recycling container. Our school started a recycling program, and after a year we got a recycling dumpster, and the city picks in up once a week.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the suggestion!
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