Skip to content

MWEE Opportunity

4th Grade

Issue Definition

This unit provides 4th graders with an opportunity to explore foundational concepts in environmental literacy. Students will examine how the decisions we make regarding the design, use, and disposal of materials impacts the larger ecosystem.

Outdoor Field Experience

In the initial learning activities students identify the complex process of making the stuff we use everyday. They trace materials back to their organic sources. In LE 1.3.4 students go outside and map where they find stuff that has been thrown away. This can be done in the schoolyard, inside school hallways, or in their own neighborhoods.

Synthesis and Conclusion

The subsequent LEs ask students to use the data collected about the stuff they saw that will ultimately make its way into the water system. They can then describe and demonstrate how the materials cycle from design through disposal plays a significant part in the health of our water system. They can formulate conclusions about the risks if these issues are not addressed.

Environmental Action Project

In LE 1.10.4 students are asked to identify one aspect of the materials cycle that they would like to address. Students may decide to focus on one category of “stuff,” such as water bottles, snack wrappers, etc. They can then collaborate to design a solution to address their problem.

Learning Experiences

LE1: The Stuff Stuff is Made From

All the “stuff” that we use everyday starts somewhere. Even though many of our objects are made by people, discover how the materials sourced for our everyday objects all come from nature originally.

ACCESS NOW

LE2: Materials Cycle

We will continue to explore the idea that everything that we use comes from somewhere and goes somewhere when we no longer need or want it. The source of the objects we use everyday come from nature originally. Are these sources unlimited?

ACCESS NOW

LE3: There’s No Such Place as Away

Where does all our stuff go when we no longer need or want it? It doesn’t just disappear. Once students discover in this Learning Experience that there is no such thing as away, they will learn some creative and innovative solutions in the next Learning Experience. (1.4.4).

ACCESS NOW

LE4: Renewable and Non-Renewable Resources

Students explore the concepts and characteristics of renewable and non-renewable materials and will discover some creative and innovative ways people are recycling and reusing products so that our used stuff doesn’t just pile up.

ACCESS NOW

LE5: Can We Make New Water?

Water is one of our most precious (and shared!) resources on the planet, upon which our life and the life of all living things depend. Is there an unlimited supply of clean, safe and reliable drinking water accessible to all? This Learning Experience will “unpack” that very question.

ACCESS NOW

LE6: Who Depends on Water? We All Do!

Once students start thinking of all the ways they enjoy water, but also depend on it, they will be glad to learn that they can play a role in taking care of it.

ACCESS NOW

LE7: Philadelphia Drinking Water System Explained

Discover where our drinking water in Philadelphia comes from and where it goes after we use it. In view is water flowing from our faucets, filling our flushable toilets and tubs, and sprinkling from outdoor spigots and hoses. Students will also learn about the hidden infrastructure system of underground pipes, pumps, filters and more.

ACCESS NOW

LE8: What Can We Do?

Now is the time to move from vision to action. Plan and do one action that will help make your school/community environment litter free and cleaner waterways, which provide drinking water, are fishable, swimmable, safe and accessible for all to enjoy, now and into the future.

ACCESS NOW
Back To Top
Skip to content