Students will launch the school waste-sorting challenge by connecting prior ecosystem models to expert information about waste, matter cycling, and local environmental impacts.

Students will investigate local waste-sorting rules and school waste data, connect disposal errors to ecosystem science, and select an evidence-based sorting-station concept using measurable criteria and constraints.

Students will build a locally accurate waste-sorting station, conduct controlled user tests with peers and school partners, and revise the system using quantitative performance data, feedback, and ecosystem science.

Students will present, defend, and demonstrate their tested waste-sorting systems to an authentic audience, then reflect on how evidence and feedback shaped their engineering and ecosystem thinking.