In this lesson, students expand their understanding of solid waste management to include the idea of 3RC (reduce, reuse, recycle and compost). They will look at the effects of packaging decisions (reducing) and learn about engineering advancements in packaging materials and solid waste management. Also, they will observe biodegradation in a model landfill (composting).

In natural systems, there is no such thing as waste. Everything flows in a natural cycle of use and reuse. Living organisms consume materials and eventually return them to the environment, usually in a different form, for reuse. Solid waste (or trash) is a human concept.......

Students will discover which kinds of trash break down naturally and which do not when they make their own landfills.

This OLogy activity shows kids that there are simple, but very helpful things they can do to protect the ocean -- even if they live nowhere near the water. The activity opens by introducing kids to Gabby, a future marine biologist who wants to study dolphins. Then it has a checklist of 14 ways kids can be ocean helpers that includes asking for tap water instead of bottled water and leaving plants and animals where they find them.

Exploring our use and relationship with water: This unit explores the relationship between people (individuals and populations) and water across the world. The lessons begin at a personal level, inviting students to think about how much water they use and how they could conserve water. The unit broadens to national and international/multicultural issues and perspectives as students compare how much water people use in different parts of the world and contemplate why there is such a wide gap.

The students will measure the surface area and wrapper area of five pieces of candy. They will use appropriate formulas and measuring techniques to complete information needed for a spreadsheet and database. They will write a letter to the company with the most wasted paper to explain how the waste affects them as consumers and a suggestion for correcting the problem.

The U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration (EIA) hosts a student-friendly website with a variety of information and activities about energy. NEED assists EIA with web content. The Energy Kid's Page consists of several main categories: Energy Facts, Fun and Games, Energy History, Classroom Activities, Related Links, and a Glossary. This teacher guide provides extension activities for using the Energy Kid's Page as a resource to incorporate technology use in your classroom.

Choice of material has implications throughout the life-cycle of a product, influencing many aspects of economic and environmental performance. This course will provide a survey of methods for evaluating those implications. Lectures will cover topics in material choice concepts, fundamentals of engineering economics, manufacturing economics modeling methods, and life-cycle environmental evaluation.

During this activity, students will try to construct model landfill liners out of two-inch strips of garbage bags within resource constraints. The challenge is to construct a bag that will hold one cup of water without leaking. This represents similar challenges that environmental engineers face when building a liner for a real landfill.

Lesson objectives: Students will be able to identify what a pollutant is and its affects on the environment. The students will demonstrate knowledge of the vocabulary used in environmental management by the DOE and other federal agencies. The students will attain a basic understanding of waste problems within our environment and the fundamental concepts of the laws of nature, science, physics, and engineering. Students will construct and operate a small-scale leach-bed barrier system.

Students will understand how they and their families can make buying choices that help
reduce the waste stream. Students will discover packaging choices available for grocery
products by researching a local store’s groceries, and then sharing their lists of items that have the least wasteful packaging.

Waste disposal has been an ongoing problem since medieval times. Environmental engineers are employed to develop technologies to dispose of the enormous amount of trash produced in the United States. In this lesson, students will learn about the three methods of waste disposal in use by modern communities. They will also investigate how engineers design sanitary landfills to prevent leachate from polluting the underlining groundwater.

In this lesson, students will extend their knowledge of matter and energy cycles in an organism to engineering life cycle assessment of a product. Students will learn about product life cycle assessment and the flow of energy through the cycle, comparing it to the flow of nutrients and energy in the life cycle of an organism.

Every animal must eat, and every animal must also eliminate waste. Scat is animal waste. You can sometimes identify the animal the scat came from by examining the length and shapes of the scat.

This BioBulletin reports on a California organization, the Mothers of East Los Angeles, which initiated a community-wide water conservation project, with dramatic results.

What happens to nuclear waste? This video segment adapted from FRONTLINE explores the controversy surrounding the United States' first nuclear repository site.

Students learn about the types of waste produced from lunch packaging and plan a lunch that yields less waste.

In this activity, students investigate the life cycle of an engineered product and how the product impacts the environment. They analyze a product using a simple life cycle assessment that assigns fictional numerical values for different steps in the life cycle. They use their analysis to compare the impacts of their product to other products, as well as suggest ways to reduce the product's environmental impact based on their analysis.

Sedimentation is the build-up of runoff from agricultural, urban, and industrial waste containing sewage, fertilizers, metals and other chemicals.