How can we help students throw their trash away and keep our playground clean?
Plants and the Environment- Grade:
- 4
- Teacher:
- Jennifer Loorz
The purpose of this project was to find out how to help keep our recess spaces - our playground and field - free from litter. Most classes eat snack outside, and trash is often seen left behind at the end of each day. We wanted to see what we could do to help keep our space clean. We decided to put more trash cans outside at recess to see if more cans made it easier for students to throw their trash away and lowered the amount of trash on the ground at the end of each day. We tracked data by collecting and weighing trash for three weeks to see if there was any improvement in playground cleanliness. Before placing trash cans out at recess, we collected 9.8 lbs. of trash from the playground and field and determined the areas with the highest trash concentration. During weeks two and three of our experiment, we added 7 trash cans to the areas with the most garbage, which more than doubled the number of cans that are usually outside. We collected 3.4 lbs. and 2.6 lbs. of trash at the end of weeks two and three, respectively. We found that more trash cans greatly reduced the amount of litter on the playground and field.
Amazing job! Your findings clearly proved that more trash cans meant less litter. That’s something to be proud of!
What a great idea to help beautify your playground! Great job reducing the trash by using quantifiable data.
This project has an interesting data collection process. Good job well-done!
Outstanding work, scientists and engineers! You identified a real problem in your community and used data, teamwork, and careful planning to create meaningful change.