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Originally appears in the Winter 2020 issue.
By Andrew Allsup, Zoë Tauxe, Ursula Quillmann, Mike Viney, Andrew Warnock, Courtney Butler, and Lynne Judish
We live in the age of plastic; however, we have noticed that many students are not at all aware of how plastic is produced or the problems it can cause as an ocean pollutant when it is discarded. Plankton to Plastic Pollution, is a self-guided inquiry-based kit designed to teach students about the “plastic cycle.” The kit was developed through a collaboration between oceanography professor Dr. Ursula Quillman, two of her undergraduate students (Allsup and Tauxe), and the Natural Sciences Education and Outreach Center (NSEOC) at Colorado State University (CSU).
The amount of plastic in the oceans has risen with the near exponential increase in plastic production and use in the last 15 years. Plastics can facilitate the introduction of non-invasive species, entangle organisms, concentrate toxic chemicals, and reduce an organism’s appetite.1,2 Plastics weather by breaking down into smaller pieces called microplastics. Microplastics are small non-biodegradable pieces (less than 5 mm) that persist and become a permanent part of the marine environment and create multiple hazards to ocean life.3,4 Microplastics represent a threat to life in our oceans — a threat that must be addressed through education and public policy. Unfortunately, even some of our most effective methods for educating the public about ocean environments, such as public aquariums, often present ocean environments as pristine with no pollution.5
Plankton to Plastic Pollution is a hands-on, minds-on kit that explores the origin and problems with plastic pollution through five student-led investigations that weave together to engage the students in a compelling story tracing plastic from plankton to plastic and back to plankton. In Activity 1, microscopic examination of plankton is used to illustrate, measure, and better understand the base of the ocean food chain and ultimately the reason for why we have abundant hydrocarbons. In Activity 2, students graph real data to analyze the world’s past production of plastics and to estimate future production through extrapolation. Activity 3 utilizes a 3D printed model of the ocean basins that allows students to create their own currents to explore how microplastics are moved within and between oceans. This model is then compared with a real-world ocean current map. In Activity 4, students use a food chain model to graph and analyze data simulating biomagnification: the amplification of toxic substances as they move through the food chain. The final activity helps students plan how they can help with the world’s plastic pollution problem using a 4R framework (refuse, reduce, re-use, and recycle).
The kit is designed to work at multiple grade levels. We have successfully used it with fourth-grade and up. Table 1 lists the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSSs) that are addressed. The booklet has been translated into Spanish and is currently being used in Colorado, Hawaii, and Mexico. Soon it will be traveling with the Semester at Sea program hosted through Colorado State University where it will be used as an outreach tool as college students make port calls to visit local schools.
Materials
Plankton to Plastic Pollution kits are housed in fifteen durable Pelican™ cases that each contain the materials necessary for a pair of students to complete the self-guided inquiry within a single class period (Figure 1). The kits use a combination of locally-sourced items, 3D printed models, and materials that can be purchased from scientific educational supply companies. Materials used in the kit are designed for continued, future use; no plastic in our kit is used as single-use (Table 2).
Investigations
Activity 1: Plankton to Petroleum
Students use a microscope (Figure 2) and prepared slides to observe and illustrate marine diatoms (phytoplankton) and foraminifera (zooplankton) and then make a scale bar to estimate the sizes of these two examples of plankton using field of view width at 60x and 120x magnifications. Students then learn the role plankton plays in ocean food chains, how plankton moderates Earth’s oxygen budget, and how over great lengths of time, buried layers of plankton may be converted naturally into petroleum. Students draw a time-series diagram of observations they make of a settling model (Figure 3) that demonstrates seafloor accumulation of marine litter.
Activity 2: Petroleum to Plastic
Students describe the relationship between petroleum and plastic and explore the concepts of monomers and polymers using a plastic bottle and its lid as examples. Students graph and interpret data on world production of plastics from 1950 to 20106 before using the trend on their graph to infer future world plastic production over the next two decades. Students then read about what it means to be non-biodegradable and learn what happens to plastic when it enters our waterways and becomes a pollutant.
Activity 3: Plastic to Pollution
Students sketch a map of the world’s oceans and label the five major circulation gyres. Students use a 3D-printed model (Figure 4) of the oceans to simulate how currents move pieces of plastic around the globe and then compare and contrast their illustration of real ocean currents with the ones observed in their model. Plastic beads are added to the model roughly proportional to the actual accumulation of plastic pollution in the oceans: For example, two beads in 1970 represent two million tons, an additional 28 beads in 2000 represents 30 million tons, and an additional ~120 beads in 2030 represents 150 million tons.7
Activity 4: Problems with Pollution
Students are given four bags representing a simple food chain that includes phytoplankton, zooplankton, herring, and cod (Figure 5). Students record the number of microplastics in each organism before placing the phytoplankton bag into the zooplankton bag. These bags are then placed in the herring bag. Finally, the herring bag is placed in the cod bag. Students record and graph the microplastics as one moves up the food chain. It is important to let students know that while we do know that the chemicals found absorbed by plastics can be biomagnified in the tissues of organisms, it is uncertain that plastic ends up in tissues. We do know that ingesting plastic can cause many problems for organisms: blockage, reduced intake of nutrition, and transfer of toxic chemicals.8
Activity 5: Solution to Pollution
Students learn a framework referred to as the 4 Rs (Figure 6) for helping to solve the plastic pollution problem. Students design a plan for how they can help solve this problem and then share and compare it with their peers.
Interview with a Student
The instruction booklets for kits developed at the NSEOC conclude with an interview with a CSU student from a demographic group traditionally underrepresented in sciences. The hope is that her story will help inspire students to think about pursuing careers in STEM fields. The interview questions reveal how she became interested in science, who her favorite science teacher was, whether or not she participated in science fairs, and what her current research at CSU is about. This student’s story is particularly appropriate as she is working in a chemistry lab trying to develop a new polymer that can be recycled more efficiently.
Activity Extension
If the kits are used in locations with access to beach, lake, or river sand, students are encouraged to obtain sand samples and inspect them under the microscope to look for microplastics and estimate their abundance.
Evaluation of Effectiveness
To evaluate the effectiveness of the kit on student learning outcomes, we implemented a pre- and post-activity survey. The self-report survey assessed students’ knowledge through several open-ended, short-answer questions, including “Where does plastic come from?”, “What is biomagnification and the importance of it?”, “How does plastic get ‘stuck’ in the ocean?”, “Is plastic bad? Why or why not?”, and “What is something you can do to influence the amount of plastic pollution?” Answers to these questions demonstrated that most people had little knowledge about the answers before completing the activities in the kit. However, based on the post-test assessment, each participant demonstrated a growth in knowledge after completing the activities. The growth was measured on a scale from one to five and, on average, awareness after completing the kit went up by one full point.
Furthermore, based on student feedback and comments, the kit was well-received and enjoyable for those who participated. After completing the kit, students said that the ocean basin activity in Activity 3 was their favorite part. One student said, “This was awesome! Very fun to learn about plastic and how it affects the ocean.” Another one said, “Awesome project! This was very informational.”
Lastly, we assessed awareness of the plastic pollution problem with a 1–5 Likert scale, with 1 being not very aware, and 5 being very aware. A two-tailed paired samples t-test demonstrated a significant difference between the average awareness before completing the activity (M = 3.87, SD = 0.68, n = 47) and after completing the activity (M = 4.66, SD = 0.23, n = 47), t(46) = 6.93, p < 0.01. Thus, student knowledge and awareness about the plastic pollution problem significantly increased after completing the activities in the kit, with most students answering a 5 (very aware).
Summary
The Plankton to Plastic Pollution kit represents a collaboration between university scientists, undergraduates, and educational specialists with the aim of educating students about the origins and problems with plastic pollution. This self-guided, inquiry-based kit invites students to participate in the process of science by investigating natural patterns. Scientific participation takes the form of graphing and analyzing data, making predictions about the future based upon past data, creating scientific illustrations to make precise observations and measurements, using and evaluating models, collecting and sharing data, and applying new knowledge to journaling exercises. It is our hope that Plankton to Plastic Pollution will help students develop an awareness of the threats plastic pollution poses for Earth’s oceans and encourage them to make more sustainable decisions each day.
Acknowledgements
Funding for this project was provided through a grant from the Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Language Program, U.S. Department of Education, awarded to the Office of International Programs, Colorado State University.
Andrew Warnock, Lynne Judish, and Courtney Butler make up the Education and Outreach Center (EOC) at Colorado State University. This is an entity of the College of Natural Sciences where both Zoë Tauxe and Andrew Allsup are students. Andrew Allsup is a Student Assistant and Pre-service teacher working at the EOC. He met Ursula Quillmann while attending one of her classes. Mike Viney is a retired school teacher of 30 years and has worked for the EOC in his spare time for over 20 years. All of these individuals have come together to form the plastics team.
Endnotes:
- Toxicologic Threats of Plastic. United States Environmental Protection Agency, accessed 17, October, 2018: https://www.epa.gov/trash-free-waters/toxicological-threats-plastic
- Takada, H., 2013, Microplastics and the threat to our Seafood, Ocean Health Index, accessed 17, October, 2018: http://www.oceanhealthindex.org/news/Microplastics
- Thompson, R. C., Y. Olsen, R. P. Mitchell, A. Davis, S. J. Rowland, A. W. G. John, D. McGonigle, and A. E. Russel, 2004, Lost at Sea: Where is All the Plastic? Science, v. 304, n. 5672, p. 838.
- Jamieson, A. J., L. S. R. Brooks, W. D. K. Reid, S. B. Piertney, B. E. Narayanaswamy, and T. D. Linley, 2019, Microplastics and synthetic particles ingested by deep-sea amphipods in six of the deepest marine ecosystems on Earth, Royal Society Open Science, v. 6, n.2.
- Sam, M., 2018, Trashing the Tanks, American Scientist, v. 106, n.6, p. 340-343.
- Parker, L., Planet or Plastic? National Geographic Website, accessed 17 July 2019, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2018/06/plastic-planet-waste-pollution-trash-crisis/#close
- Jambeck, J.R., R. Geyer, C. Wilcox, T.R. Siegler, M. Perryman, A. Andrady, R. Narayan, and K. L. Law, 2015, Plastic waste inputs from land into the ocean, Science, v. 347, n. 6223, p. 768-771.
- Plastic bioaccumulation in the food web, GRID Arendal, accessed 17, October, 2018, http://www.grida.no/resources/6917.