Where Does Your Trash Go?

 

This week at After School To-Go, girls reviewed concepts and learned skills used in the landfill engineer career! Fossil fuels, groundwater, and pollutants are all obstacles addressed by these engineers. To tackle these issues, landfill engineers receive training in toxic leak management, hazardous materials, and health dangers. Using a miniature model of a town, students worked together to solve these real-life problems.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Students received a tub full of sand with a model of a small town and dyed marshmallows, representing trash in a landfill. First, girls tried burying the trash under a shallow layer of topsoil. After simulating rainfall, the marshmallow trash was uncovered and the runoff carried the dye (or pollutants) into the town. Students discussed the effects of buried trash on the environment, including plant contamination, water contamination, and animal habitat destruction.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next, students began planning the construction of a landfill shield that would prevent pollutants from leaking into the nearby town’s resources. Each small group was given a budget and a list of materials, complete with prices. Students “purchased” plastic sheets, clay, sand, gravel, and other materials to create this shield. Each small group tested their prototype shield after another simulated rainfall, checking for pollutants with a cotton ball test.

 

 

River Pollution – Freddy the Fish

 

Last week, girls explored how pollution contaminates ground water. This week, they learned what effect this pollution has on organisms and how to reverse this as Environmental Engineers! The activity began with the girls brainstorming types of pollution on post-its and sharing their ideas on the board. Ideas ranged from usual pollution such as trash to more specific types such as feces, paint toxins and oil. The affect of these specific pollutants on aquatic animals was then discussed before hearing the story of “Freddy the Fish.”  

 

 

 

 

 

Groups were given a container of clean water with Freddy,  a sponge fish, and various containers with different materials representing pollutants. As the club leaders told the story of Freddy’s journey up the river in which he encountered various pollutants, the girls would add the according material into the water. Once all eight pollutants were added, the girls were informed Freddy had died! While the pollutants were added, many of the girls laughed due to the fun of playing with Freddy and the water, but at the end, once informed that Freddy had died, screamed with discontent. Some girls wailed “Why Freddy why!” while others made post-it tombstones.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the initial shock, the girls discussed solutions on how to clean up rivers. Some came up with extreme solutions such as shutting down all the factories and others said to use filters. To show how filters work, the leaders made a simple one through which the polluted water Freddy had died in was passed. The girls noticed that the large pollutants were removed yet the water remained dirty. Leaders emphasized the importance of keeping animals safe and how Environmental Engineers work to create new filters and materials in order to clean water. After the lesson the girls walked out proclaiming they were going to “grow up and help real Freddys!”

 

Fossil Detectives

 

This week’s To-Go activity was inspired by the Paleontologist career, which relies on knowledge of excavation, sediments, fossilization, and the geologic time scale. Students excavated models, observed different types of fossils, and analyzed the history of a sediment cutout.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In small groups, students worked together to use toothpicks, craft sticks, and forks to uncover fossil “layers” made of clay. Students first examined the layers of clay in their cups and observed the different colors and textures. Groups strategized the best way to unearth the delicate fossils and utilized different tools depending on the type of sediment layer. As they dug deeper into their cups, girls found fossils from older and more ancient times. Groups with plant fossils analyzed their models and formed hypotheses about the organisms’ environment: ocean, forest, desert, or swamp.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After separating all of the fossils in their cups, students organized them based on fossil type: trace, mold, cast, or petrified. Each group presented their excavated fossils, their hypotheses about the fossil environments, and the types of sediments found in their cups.