This article uses a citizen science project carried out by three schools on Aotea Great Barrier Island as the context to explore marine debris and the dangers it poses to marine life. It also provides a useful framework for schools that are considering the undertaking of a similar project.
Plastics is part of our everyday lives.
Plastic pieces that are smaller than 5 mm are called microplastics. Check your ruler. Can you find 5 mm?
Learn more about microplastics in this article.
There are significant levels of microplastics polluting the ocean, freshwater and land, and research is showing that animals including humans are eating these microplastics. For some animals, they mistake the particles as food, while others are ingesting them when they consume animals that have eaten them.
So are these microplastics harmful for us and other animals?
Plastic is an amazing material. It has changed the way we store and carry food, drinks and other items.
Learn more about plastics in this article.
Choose an images of plastic and discuss:
- How is the plastic being used?
- s the plastic causing a problem?
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Think of a favourite beach you have. If you don’t live near a beach, maybe you can imagine one. Imagine there’s lots of rubbish on it. What question could you ask about all the rubbish?
When we throw something away, how do we know where it goes? The Sustainable Seas National Science Challenge is developing online tools to help us find out. Ocean Plastic Simulator is an interactive computer tool that shows where plastic is likely to end up when it is dropped in the ocean.
This article unpacks an ocean seafloor survey. Some of the findings are quite shocking - for example:
“Most of the deep sea remains unexplored by humans and these are our first visits to many of these sites, but we were shocked to find that our rubbish has got there before us.”
Part of what makes plastic so useful is that it lasts so well. But it’s because it doesn’t break down that it’s also such a problem when we’ve finished using it.
Learn more in this activity.
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In this activity, students are introduced to the PET plastic recycling process. They track a plastic bottle as it is transformed from a waste product to a new food-grade package at the Flight Plastics plant.
The article Thinking about plastic – planning pathways contains pedagogical and curriculum information. It includes the interactive Planning pathways – thinking about plastic, which curates many of the Hub’s resources.