RIPPLES

    RIPPLES, for teachers of children ages eight to eleven, contains sixteen activities to help students learn the importance of environmental stewardship and the harmful effects of marine debris by building an understanding of how litter and pollution impact the water cycle. RIPPLES activities that emphasize how litter can have a negative impact on animals include "Getting Out Of A Bind", "Litter To Critter", and "Little Orphan Eddy". To compare and contrast the needs of society to costs associated with pollution, see "Who's Who In Plastic", "Hidden Trash", and "Turning Trash Around". Link below to view individual RIPPLES activities. To obtain a hard copy of RIPPLES, send $3 per copy to North Carolina Big Sweep, PO Box 126, Zebulon, NC 27597.

  • Getting Out Of A Bind. Simulated entanglement. Objective: to teach empathy for wildlife by simulating an animal's entanglement in plastic litter. Estimated time for activity: 15 minutes. Materials needed: one large rubber band for each child.

  • Litter Letters Crossword Puzzle. Objective: to expand litter vocabulary by solving a crossword puzzle. Estimated time for activity: 30 to 45 minutes. Materials needed: pencils.

  • Hidden Trash. Finding hidden items in a picture. Objective: to develop data collection skills and to identify and classify hidden litter. Estimated time for activity: 30 minutes. Materials needed: packages of crayons or colored markers.

  • Who's Who in Plastic? Plastic charades. Objective: to use charades to increase awareness of plastics in daily life. Estimated time: 30 minutes. Materials needed: none.

  • Be A Sport. Trash Sort! Recycling relay game. Objective: to identify and sort recyclable trash in a relay game. Estimated time for activity: 30 minutes. Materials needed: two large boxes, six paper bags, resealable plastic bags, aluminum (drink cans, foil, pie pans), paper (newspaper, computer printout, junk mail) and compostable items (banana peels, dead leaves, coffee grounds, grass clippings), paper and pencil.

  • Litter Bar. Graphing litter data. Objective: to analyze data from a shoreline litter collection by making bar graphs. Estimated time for activity: 45 minutes. Materials needed: paper, pencils, colored pencils, rulers, graph paper or facsimile, protractors (optional).

  • Breaking The Litter Code. Coded message with a litter theme. Objective: to learn how to read a grid by decoding a litter message. Estimated time for activity: 10 to 20 minutes. Materials needed: pencils, crayons or colored pencils (optional).

  • A Beautiful Day. Guided imagery exercise. Objective: to recognize some of the intrinsic values of litter-free woods and streams through guided imagery. Estimated time for activity: 30 minutes. Materials needed: art and writing materials, tape of sounds from a forest or stream environment (optional).

  • Litter to Critter. Matching dangerous litter to vulnerable wildlife. Objective: to recognize danger waterway litter poses to wildlife by matching litter to the animals it threatens. Estimated time for activity: 20 to 30 minutes. Materials needed: pencils.

  • Little Orphan Eddy. Adopt-a-waterway group project. Objective: to accept responsibility for the care and cleanliness of a particular stream, beach or boating access area. Time for activity: as much as you can give. Materials needed: trash bags, enthusiasm and good attitude.

  • Turning Trash Around. Creating an aquatic storyboard. Objective: to illustrate how to prevent or eliminate pollution in an aquatic environment by creating an aquatic storyboard. Time for activity: one or two class periods. Materials needed: squares of corrugated cardboard at least 10 inches by 10 inches (one per team), poster board rectangles (10 per team), colored markers, paint, knife, crayons, scissors, construction paper, glue tape.

  • The Early Bird Gets The...Plastic? Plastic ingestion simulation. Objective: to see how animals can mistake plastic for food. Estimated time for activity: 30 to 40 minutes. Materials needed: a tray or shoe box for every five children; plastic resin pellets, packing pellets or plastic foam pieces (from beanbag chairs or potting soil), 1/2 cup each tray; bird seed or popcorn, 1 1/2 cups per tray; a spoon and cup per child.

  • Paper Caper. Group recycling project. Objective: to learn about recycling through an active recycling campaign in a classroom or community. Estimated time for activity: several hours a week. Materials needed: information about recycling in your community.

  • Trash-To-Treasure Art. Making buttons and bookmarks. Objective: to recycle trash into bookmarks and buttons. Estimated time for activity: 30 minutes. Materials needed: construction paper scraps, old greeting cards, jar lids (shallow, such as spaghetti sauce or pickle jar lids), thin paper, cereal box cardboard, colored pens, scissors, clear plastic contact paper, safety pins, hot glue gun, glue and tape.

  • Wildlife Tug-Of-War. Six-pack ring pull. Objective: to understand the danger of six-pack rings to wildlife by demonstrating their strength and durability. Estimated time for activity: 30 minutes. Materials needed: new six-pack rings; two long pieces of rope.

  • Designs On Litter. Making collages from litter. Objective: to draw attention to litter found in a school or community by using it in a collage. Estimated time for activity: at least 45 minutes. Materials needed: large sheets of paper for mounting collages, glue, assorted "clean" litter.

  • RIPPLES Glossary.

     

     

     
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    Our statewide headquarters is:
    North Carolina Big Sweep
    P.O. Box 126
    Zebulon, NC 27597
    Phone: (919) 366-3888
    Fax: (919) 366-3890