Learning Goals
Students will be able to explain how incorrectly sorted school waste affects matter cycling, Earth systems, natural resources, and local ecosystem resilience.
Students will be able to classify common school waste as recyclable, compostable, or landfill material by applying local sorting rules.
Students will be able to analyze waste-audit and user-testing data to define a school waste problem with measurable criteria and constraints.
Students will be able to design, test, justify, and revise a school waste-sorting system that protects natural resources and supports local ecosystem health.
Products
Waste-Sorting Engineering and Science Notebook
Each student independently documents waste classifications, audit-data analysis, revised ecosystem-model reasoning, multiple annotated solution ideas, and a simple decision matrix. The student concludes with an evidence-based explanation of how the proposed solution protects resources and local ecosystem health.
Tested School Waste-Sorting Station and Community Demonstration
Teams build and test a sorting station with locally accurate bins, labels, visual examples, and educational materials, then revise it using performance data and feedback from users, staff, and community partners. At the Waste Wise Expo, teams demonstrate the system and use audit evidence and ecosystem models to explain its benefits, trade-offs, and limitations.
No rubric has been generated yet.