Designing Environmental Solutions

Have students work on their own to answer the following questions. Hold a class discussion about some or all of the questions once students have had time to complete their work.

1. In Reflect and Connect Question 2 of the Engage activity, you estimated how much garbage you throw away in a day. How did your prediction compare to the amount that most Americans throw away?

   Students will have different answers. If you collected trash and weighed it after Step 2, have students consider whether they thought they produced more or less garbage and how much what you collected weighed. During the Engage activity, they may not have had a good estimate for how much their garbage would weigh, so this comparison helps them think more about the amount of waste they produce.

2. Look at the line you drew on the graph in Step 4. This line shows your prediction of how the number of people in the United States has changed in the time shown on the graph.

   1. How do you think the total amount of garbage produced relates to the number of people in the United States?

      Students should note that as the population of the United States has increased, so has the amount of garbage produced.

   2. Do you think that the number of people in the United States is the only reason the total amount of garbage has increased? What evidence do you have to support your answer?

      This question may be more difficult for students. If they are having trouble, remind them that the graph from Master 3-1, Waste Disposal Rates, included information on the total amount of waste produced and the waste per person. If the increased number of people was the only reason the amount of garbage produced has increased, then the amount per person would have remained the same. Because the graph shows that the amount per person has increased between 1960 and 2008, it is evidence that the amount of garbage has increased for other reasons. Some students may go further and discuss evidence from the readings about the types of trash that were produced in the past and the types of trash we have today.

   3. If you think there might be other reasons why garbage has increased besides the number of people, what do you think those reasons might be?

      If students do feel that other reasons explain why garbage has increased, they should answer this question. They may say that garbage has increased because we have different kinds of trash, such as plastic bags and items that we buy that have a lot of packaging. They may also say that many people no longer give food scraps to pigs or other similar examples, so those items are also thrown away.

3. Archaeologists are scientists who study human culture. They mainly do this by looking at evidence that people in the past left behind. Archaeologists can learn a lot about groups of people by studying what they threw away.

   1. What do you think archaeologists might learn about you by studying what you throw away in a month?

      Students will have different answers, depending on the types of trash they throw away. This question not only allows students to think in the way scientists think, but also gives them a more personal connection to the concepts they are learning. They should give reasonable answers. For example, an archaeologist might guess that a student likes candy bars because he or she throws away a lot of candy bar wrappers, or that a student is an artist because of all the empty paint tubes in the garbage.

   2. What do you think they might learn about your school by doing the same thing?

      Again, students will have different answers. They might give an example about how the archaeologist might conclude that students at the school do not like fish sticks because of the number thrown away. They might say that the archaeologist could learn football schedules because the posters put up around the school are thrown away after the games. There are many other reasonable answers that students could give.