The 3 R's

Teacher's Edition

You will need to tell the students to bring:  three different clean trash items from home (do not bring in food wastes) You will need to provide five bags labeled: glass, paper, aluminum, plastic, pure trash. and a spring balance.

For the graphing activities, you will need Microsoft Excel or another graphing program.

Follow the steps below to discover how to sort trash for recycling:

1.  Place each of the items that you brought from home in the correct container.

2.  When all items have been sorted, count the number of items in each container.

3.  Using Microsoft Excel or another graphing program, create a chart to show your results.

4.  Graph your results.

5.  Find the mass of each container using the spring balance to determine which of the five groups makes up the heaviest portion of our trash.

6.  Using Microsoft Excel or another graphing program, create a chart to explain your results.

7.  Graph your results.

8.  Click on these websites to learn more about things you can do to cut down on garbage.

Recycle City

The Environauts Mission to Earth

What Is Recycling?

Realm of Recycling

The ABC's of Superfund

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Assessment