EkoSkola Malta

Title

Plastic Breakdown

Activity 2 of 3 about plastic pollution

Author

Saviour Bonnici

Age Guide

Year 1-8

Subject Area

Physical Education

Additionally, this is a great activity to work on teamwork and improve their physical abilities mostly by responding to quick stimulus, running and agility.

– I am able to understand that I am responsible for my actions and capable of anticipating the problems of consuming plastic and adapt to reduce it.

SDG 14: Life below water

SDG 15: Life on Land

Internet connection is needed to watch the video links provided in the background information.

Part 1: Familiarize With The Game

1)     A class of say 25 students, hold hands – representing a plastic bag floating in the sea, the playing area (Diagram 1).

2)     The teacher calls out a smaller number. Students must quickly form new groups consisting of the mentioned number. This represents the plastic bag disintegrating into smaller pieces.

3)     Smaller numbers are called in sequence, each time forming new groups until eventually the number 1 is called out and students are now single individuals – this is the micro-plastic. The single plastic bag problem has now multiplied into unmanageable micro-plastics.

4)     The teacher explains about the process of plastic breakdown. Check the Recap section below for information.

Part 2: Introducing Marine Life

5)     Restart the game.

6)     Same as part 1 but this time 4 students wearing a bib represent marine life. These will be roaming around the playing area (diagram 2). All the other students representing the plastic bag try to catch the marine life.

Rule: A catch is valid if the plastic group has the correct amount of members last called by the teacher. If for some reason the group splits while catching, this does not count.

Being large the plastic will not be able to catch marine life at first. The situation turns when there are too many plastic pieces engulfing marine life.

Environmental factors such as the sun and salt, breakdown the plastic bag into very small pieces which are impossible to collect.  The video l

For Part 2:ink given below in the section Background information for educators provides further detailed information and can be shown to the class after the activity.

Teacher should explain that in reality micro-plastic does not catch fish, but the other way round. The more micro-plastics accumulate, the worse the situation for marine life becomes.

There are billions of these micro-plastics circulating in the sea. If you go in any local beach you will certainly find small micro-plastics mixed into the sand. Marine life will not be able to differentiate between food and micro-plastics, ending up consuming it and cause great harm.

In some localities around the world these particles, and all kind of human rubbish gather in huge amounts. It is calculated that in these places there is more plastic than marine life.

Next step is for students to experience how micro-plastics accumulate into the food chain and our bodies. The next follow-up lesson – Accumulation – will complete a series of 3 activities based around plastic pollution while engaging in physical activity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49OJoTsZYO0&t=23s

(Provides a holistic analysis about plastic-breakdown.)