When I heard about the Recycle Everywhere Classroom Challenge I thought it would be a great opportunity for my class to continue their learning about recycling, waste, and sustainability within in our school. In Science, we have learned about how humans can positively or negatively affect the earth and this project tied in to some other learning that was already happening in our Grade 3 classroom.
The Challenge asked students to collect any recyclable bottles and containers for one week and at the end of that week they were asked to take a creative picture with all of the recycling they collected. One of the struggles my class was having was, what is recycling and what is not? We learned about what could be recycled and how sorting it from the garbage was very important before starting. One discussion we also had before starting was how we could be creative for our photo that we would send in to Recycle Everywhere Manitoba. The winners of the challenge would receive Jets jerseys for every member of their class so we decided that we could try and create a Winnipeg Jets logo with some of the recycling. All of them, including myself, weren't really sure what our final product would look like but we knew why this challenge was important (regardless of the contest) and it started with an essential question:
How are humans and the environment dependent on each other?
http://www.mrlc.ca/pdf/science_early_years.pdf
We had so many powerful discussions about this. Students were heard saying things like, "Well if we trash our planet we won't survive" and "When we litter we harm living things. If we continue to destroy our planet we will have nowhere to live and things wills die." It was easy to see that this challenge was so much bigger than we thought and as we discussed this essential question a student put up her hand and said, "Mrs.Collette, I really want to win this contest...but if we don't we will have done something amazing, help the world." I asked the class, do you agree? Many students agreed with that student's statement and at that moment I knew students were intrinsically motivated and it wasn't all extrinsic.
In many cases in a classroom setting, you often need to ignite the flame.With this project, students were self-motivated and they set out to accomplish their goal: to collect and recycle as many containers as they could find in our building. At recesses, my students could be found digging through garbage bins and waiting next to teachers and students as they were finishing their drinks in the hallway. Some students even wandered into meetings to ask teachers if they could take their recycling off their hands. Clearly, my class was made for this project. I saw 16 students collect and rinse out other student's yogurt and drink containers without a single complaint. It was the opposite, they were grinning from ear to ear. Just picture students with their heads in recycling and garbage cans, rinsing and sorting containers, and SMILING. I became a guide on the side: I was there to make sure students were being safe, provided bags for students to collect with, and helped with some of the sorting.
After the first day, students were surprised by the amount of drinks that students consumed throughout the day in our K-12 school. The project became real when we had all of the recycling from one day in the middle of our classroom floor. A student whispered, "How is this possible?" They collected without hesitation for the entire week and assembled their logo with colours that worked and put the rest in clear plastic bags.
This project created a visual for my students. It is easy to tell students we need to recycle and show them pictures of how much waste is produced in an average day in North America. But when you participate in a project like this from start to finish, it shifts thinking and gives them a whole new perspective. In everything I do as a teacher, I want to make learning as relevant and real as possible. This project gave students some really important data about what our school is doing really well and what we need to work on with recycling and waste. It has also created some real math problems for students to solve and to go deeper with our learning. The learning hasn't stopped because the official challenge ended. Many students would like to talk to other classes about their noticings regarding recycling and waste in our building (things that are being done really well and things that are not). And, they would like to display their recycling at our RVS Project Fair to encourage students to bring reusable containers and use our brand new water fountains in our building. We still have some important work to do.
As their teacher, I am so proud of them for:
1. Setting a goal and sticking to it.
2. Working together as a team and being leaders
3. Wanting to use their knowledge to teach others
4. Taking responsibility for their planet
5. Always learning and growing
Overall, they collected 747 containers and used 319 of those containers to make their Winnipeg Jets Logo.
The Challenge asked students to collect any recyclable bottles and containers for one week and at the end of that week they were asked to take a creative picture with all of the recycling they collected. One of the struggles my class was having was, what is recycling and what is not? We learned about what could be recycled and how sorting it from the garbage was very important before starting. One discussion we also had before starting was how we could be creative for our photo that we would send in to Recycle Everywhere Manitoba. The winners of the challenge would receive Jets jerseys for every member of their class so we decided that we could try and create a Winnipeg Jets logo with some of the recycling. All of them, including myself, weren't really sure what our final product would look like but we knew why this challenge was important (regardless of the contest) and it started with an essential question:
How are humans and the environment dependent on each other?
http://www.mrlc.ca/pdf/science_early_years.pdf
We had so many powerful discussions about this. Students were heard saying things like, "Well if we trash our planet we won't survive" and "When we litter we harm living things. If we continue to destroy our planet we will have nowhere to live and things wills die." It was easy to see that this challenge was so much bigger than we thought and as we discussed this essential question a student put up her hand and said, "Mrs.Collette, I really want to win this contest...but if we don't we will have done something amazing, help the world." I asked the class, do you agree? Many students agreed with that student's statement and at that moment I knew students were intrinsically motivated and it wasn't all extrinsic.
In many cases in a classroom setting, you often need to ignite the flame.With this project, students were self-motivated and they set out to accomplish their goal: to collect and recycle as many containers as they could find in our building. At recesses, my students could be found digging through garbage bins and waiting next to teachers and students as they were finishing their drinks in the hallway. Some students even wandered into meetings to ask teachers if they could take their recycling off their hands. Clearly, my class was made for this project. I saw 16 students collect and rinse out other student's yogurt and drink containers without a single complaint. It was the opposite, they were grinning from ear to ear. Just picture students with their heads in recycling and garbage cans, rinsing and sorting containers, and SMILING. I became a guide on the side: I was there to make sure students were being safe, provided bags for students to collect with, and helped with some of the sorting.
After the first day, students were surprised by the amount of drinks that students consumed throughout the day in our K-12 school. The project became real when we had all of the recycling from one day in the middle of our classroom floor. A student whispered, "How is this possible?" They collected without hesitation for the entire week and assembled their logo with colours that worked and put the rest in clear plastic bags.
This project created a visual for my students. It is easy to tell students we need to recycle and show them pictures of how much waste is produced in an average day in North America. But when you participate in a project like this from start to finish, it shifts thinking and gives them a whole new perspective. In everything I do as a teacher, I want to make learning as relevant and real as possible. This project gave students some really important data about what our school is doing really well and what we need to work on with recycling and waste. It has also created some real math problems for students to solve and to go deeper with our learning. The learning hasn't stopped because the official challenge ended. Many students would like to talk to other classes about their noticings regarding recycling and waste in our building (things that are being done really well and things that are not). And, they would like to display their recycling at our RVS Project Fair to encourage students to bring reusable containers and use our brand new water fountains in our building. We still have some important work to do.
As their teacher, I am so proud of them for:
1. Setting a goal and sticking to it.
2. Working together as a team and being leaders
3. Wanting to use their knowledge to teach others
4. Taking responsibility for their planet
5. Always learning and growing
Overall, they collected 747 containers and used 319 of those containers to make their Winnipeg Jets Logo.