These resources support students in levels 1–4 with learning about waste and recycling. Included are videos on Recycling, sorting technology and what we can recycle
For more on landfills try these activities:
- online labelling interactive or the paper-based version in this activity
- Looking at modern landfill systems
This level 4 Connected article looks at where plastics and other materials come from and how we can minimise our ecological footprint.
This includes our interactive planning pathway – use this to begin a cross-curricular look at plastics. It contains pedagogical and curriculum information and curates a wide range of useful resources on the Science Learning Hub.
This video is an excerpt from Science and the Plastics Problem, directed by Shirley Horrocks and produced by Point of View Productions. The full documentary can be viewed here.
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This includes the video Flight Plastics recycling plant in action for a detailed explanation of the plastic recycling process and how they sort and recycle PET plastics.
This activity uses a Flight Plastics video and written resources to design and operate a PET plastic wash and recycling plant, loosely based on the Flight Plastics process.
It is suitable for middle and upper primary students.
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This activity uses the New Zealand Ready to Read books At the Beach and What Does the Tide Bring In? to introduce the PET plastic recycling process.
New Zealand science organisations Royal Society Te Apārangi and the Office of the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor have created reports and resources to help us rethink plastic.
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 unit plan shows how teacher Dianne Christenson used the online citizen science (OCS) project The Plastic Tide as part of a year 2–4 unit to develop students’ science capabilities in a unit on sustainability.
Read about Dianne’s experiences implementing this unit as part of a year 2–4 unit on sustainability.