Tech Directions - December 2008 - (Page 19)

THINK GREEN Increase Awareness of Garbage and Recycling By Harry T. Roman htroman49@aol.com HIS activity has mathematics, environmental concerns, recycling themes, and uses input from the whole class. It’s a project that can span a week or more, and it really drives home the point of how math can be used in a very relevant and meaningful way. Detectives can learn a great deal by inspecting the garbage of people they have under surveillance. Your students can be detectives and investigate their own garbage. Here is a chance to take a close look at how much garbage a typical family produces. T weights of garbage bags leaving their home. Some towns ask homeowners to recycle their garbage by removing all metal cans, glass and plastic bottles, and newspapers. You can add another dimension by measuring these items, too. To include recycling in your calculations, use Table 2. To weigh the cans and bottles, Table 1—Weekly Garbage Form Day Sunday Monday Tuesday Weight of Bags pounds pounds pounds put them in a bag or small cardboard box before putting them on the scale. (Don’t forget to weigh the box ﬁrst, then subtract it from the total weight.) If you add up all three Total Weight columns on your form, you get the Grand Total. This will be a good estimate of how much garbage leaves a house in a week. Now take the information gathered by all students and develop a class average for a grand total. Once you have the average grand total for the week, how would you ﬁgure out how much garbage a home produced in a whole year? First, calculate the average daily total. Start with your weekly total and divide by 7, because there are 7 days in a week. Then, multiply by 365 (number of days in a year), and you will get what a house produces in a year. The average American produces 4-6 pounds of garbage a day. See how this compares to a single house in your survey. Divide the daily number you calculated by the number of people in a typical house and compare it to the 4-6 pounds a day per person number. Epilog Now that you know this important information, what suggestions would Wednesday pounds you make to reduce garbage from a The Challenge home? For instance, how would you How might you measure the Thursday pounds reduce paper garbage and newspaamount of waste your family proFriday pounds per garbage? duces? An easy way involves using Saturday pounds Now take a very careful look a bathroom scale to weigh each around a house. Are there other garbage bag that leaves a house. Total pounds sources of garbage that should be Record the weight of the bags disincluded in your form? carded over the period Table 2—Weekly Garbage and Recycling Form Can you spot other of a week, then use the sources of garbage we numbers you obtain to Day Weight of Weight of Weight of did not try to measure? make some interesting Bags Newspapers Bottles/Cans [Hint: Are there sources estimates of daily and Sunday of garbage in your front yearly garbage generaMonday and back yards? How tion. about materials in the Each student can use Tuesday garage or basement?] Table 1 to record the Wednesday Conducting these Thursday activities can help stuHarry T. Roman is an dents to become garelectrical engineer, inFriday bage detectives—and ventor, writer, and strong Saturday lead to cleaning up the supporter of technology Total environment. education. www.techdirections.com TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION 19 http://www.techdirections.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Tech Directions - December 2008

Tech Directions - December 2008 Contents Advertisers Index Technically Speaking Direct from Washington The Report Technology Today Technology’s Past Mastering Computers Digital Portfolios—Powerful Marketing Tool for Communication Students Choosing the Right CC Welding Unit—Student Success Depends on It Think Green—Increasing Awareness of Garbage and Recycling Think Green—Teach Students Smart Ways to Reduce Home Energy Use Go International! Build a Simplified Shortwave Receiver Mooresville Middle School Snags Web Site of the Month Gifts for Geeks More than Fun

Tech Directions - December 2008

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