Answer the following questions on your own in your technology notebook.
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A city official has asked you to determine if the city should build a new landfill or a new incinerator. Make a two-column table for each method of garbage disposal. Label the first column “advantages” and the second column “disadvantages.” Fill out the table with as many ideas as you can.
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What improvements could you have made to your investigation to make it better represent a real landfill?
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How do landfills fit the definition of a technology? How do incinerators fit the definition?
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An important skill for working with other people is sharing responsibility.
- How did you share responsibility in this activity? Write the step number(s) and describe what you did.
- How did sharing responsibility affect how you worked in this activity? In other words, did practicing this skill make your work easier? Explain your answer.
Answers to Reflect and Connect
Have students work by themselves to answer the Reflect and Connect questions. Discuss some or all of the questions with students once they have had time to complete their work.
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A city official has asked you to determine if the city should build a new landfill or a new incinerator. Make a two-column table for each method of garbage disposal. Label the first column “advantages” and the second column “disadvantages.” Fill out each table with as many ideas as you can.
For landfills, advantages might include that landfills already exist and that improved technology keeps them from leaking. Disadvantages might include that they can leak, that people do not want them near their homes, and that hazardous materials might be disposed in them. There are others that students may list.
For incinerators, advantages might be that they do not require the space that a landfill does and that they leave little waste behind. Disadvantages include that they can cause air pollution and that they are expensive to build and run. Also, any waste that remains must go to a special landfill for hazardous waste.
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What improvements could you have made to your investigation to make it better represent a real landfill?
Student answers will vary. They may list improvements such as doing a better job of digging their hole or adding water more carefully.
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How do landfills fit the definition of a technology? How do incinerators fit the definition?
A technology is anything that extends human limits. Landfills allow people to have a place located away from their homes to dispose of waste. Landfills also allow a city to collect the waste from many people and consolidate it so that streets are not filled with trash. Incinerators are able to burn trash from many people all at once. They leave less waste than landfills do.
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An important skill for working with other people is sharing responsibility.
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How did you share responsibility in this activity? Write the step number(s) and describe what you did.
Students’ answers will vary. They should realize that they shared responsibility as they carried out the protocol in Step 7. During that step, they had different roles for each person to make sure the investigation was completed. They may have shared responsibility in other steps as well.
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How did sharing responsibility affect how you worked in this activity? In other words, did practicing this skill make your work easier? Explain your answer.
Students should realize that teamwork made their investigations easier because they were only responsible for one small part of the work. They may have had to make observations or keep time or add water. It would have been difficult for one person to complete all three of those tasks effectively.
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