Project lesson plan involving detecting floating marine debris. Connections to the oceans' garbage patches.   Resource using Micro:bit and extension equipment to wire devices and Microsoft Makecode to code the Micro:bit to perform processes. Engineering Design Process is used to design a floating platform to hold and protect all equipment from water while it performs its functions.

In the Web-based game Kure Waste Chase, students take on the part of an Ocean Adventures expedition member volunteering for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and explore various habitats (beach, water surface and underwater) to collect as much harmful marine debris as possible in a limited amount of time. Use the tips and handouts below to turn the Kure Waste Chase game into a structured learning activity for your students.

Students are asked to present a speech at the opening of the River and Ocean Film Festival, explaining why marine debris is such a problem for wildlife. Use information from the video, the fact sheet, the infographic, and the data collected on the shoreline to outline a speech. The audience is visitors to the Washington Coast. Includes Teacher directions and scoring notes.

As the name suggests, microbeads are very small (microscopic) beads of plastic. Since they are particles of less than 1mm, they are almost impossible to capture as they enter household drains. This leaves these small, solid balls of plastic to enter our aquatic ecosystems where they are ingested by organisms and accumulated within the food web.  In this activity, students are challenged to design and construct their own device to extract microplastics from cosmetic products such as facial cleansers, body wash, and toothpaste.

Students examine the nature of the problem and work collaboratively to create solutions to the issue of nurdles becoming evermore present in our oceans. Nurdles are small plastic resin pellets which are used to make many of the plastics we use every day. Unfortunately, they end up where they are not supposed to and cause a wide range of problems.  Nurdle Know-How is a series of activities that will ultimately prepare students to design and build a nurdle capture system to clean up their local bay, harbor, or coastal waters.

In this investigation, students design and create a Recycling Sorting Machine to eliminate the amount of waste that is incorrectly being sent to landfill. Students use basic resources (recycled and/or reused items in the classroom, home, or their community) to engineer a solution to the growing problem of waste in our schools.

In this investigative assessment, students describe the life cycle of man-made products that include or originate from plastic and other materials and evaluate how they may impact the environment. Students use a basic life cycle assessment – similar to assessments used by process engineers – that allows them to identify and order the different steps in the life cycle of a product. Using their analyses to compare the impacts of different products, students develop ideas to reduce the environmental impact of the production process or the lifecycle of the product.

Students will follow the engineering design process to design and create solutions to plastic packaging problems. They will create and adapt suitable and sustainable designs that will consider alternatives to plastic packaging for example juice boxes, plastic straws, straw wrappers, bin liners, and single-use containers.