Learn how far plastic pollution can travel in the ocean and waterways by analyzing data from a study that tracked plastic bottles with satellites.
Learning Objectives
- Students identify the sources of plastic pollution, how plastics get to the ocean, and the problems posed by plastic pollution in the ocean.
- Students learn how GPS and satellite technology are used to track the movement of plastic pollution through waterways.
- Students consider the impacts of plastic pollution on their local watershed.
- Students design strategies to stop plastic pollution.
Educational Standards
- NGSS
- DCI ESS3.C: Human Impacts on Earth Systems
- DCI ESS2.C: The Role of Water in Earth’s Surface Processes
- SEP: Analyzing and Interpreting Data
- CCC: Patterns, Cause and Effect
National Geography Standards
Standard 1: How to use maps and other geographic representations, geospatial technologies, and spatial thinking to understand and communicate information
Ocean Literacy Essential Principles and Fundamental Concepts
Principle 1g: The ocean is connected to major lakes, watersheds, and waterways because all major watersheds on Earth drain to the ocean. Rivers and streams transport nutrients, salts, sediments, and pollutants from watersheds to estuaries and to the ocean.
Materials
- Projector and computer with Internet access
- Laptops or tablets with student access to the Internet or paper maps of your region
- The Plastic Path - Student Activity Sheet pages 6-8
- Video segment (0:26 - 4:55): Plastic Disaster (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1acjqraXMhs)
- Optional Infographic: Plastics in the Ocean at the NOAA website: oceanservice.noaa.gov/hazards/marinedebris/plastics-in-the-ocean.html
- Message in a Bottle figure page 9
- Video: Argos-4: Tracking from Space (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBc_MeKRMNc)
- Video: See the Journey of a Plastic Bottle in the Bay of Bengal (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1EtjcVc5es)
- Map of Ocean Gyres page 10