Trash Talk
10 min
Narrative
The purpose of this Notice and Wonder is to introduce the idea of large amounts of trash floating on the water. In an earlier unit, students saw that large amounts of trash are shipped around the world. Before reconsidering trash in a volume context, this lesson focuses on the area that trash covers in some parts of the ocean. Students may notice and wonder many things about the image. The key discussion points are that the debris seen in the image is mostly trash and it covers a large area.
Launch
- Groups of 2
- Display the image.
- “What do you notice? What do you wonder?”
- 1 minute: quiet think time
Teacher Instructions
- “Discuss your thinking with your partner.”
- 1 minute: partner discussion
- Share and record responses.
Student Task
What do you notice? What do you wonder?
Sample Response
Students may notice:
- There is a lot of stuff floating in the water.
- I see cans, bottles, and paper.
- There are darker and lighter splotches in the water.
Students may wonder:
- Is that all trash?
- Is this a lake or the ocean?
- Where is this?
- Where did the trash come from?
- What is that gray stuff in the middle?
Activity Synthesis (Teacher Notes)
- "The image shows what it looks like in some parts of the oceans. The small pieces floating on the water are trash."
- "How do you think trash gets into the ocean?" (People throw away trash near the ocean. People throw garbage into the ocean when they are on boats.)
Standards
Building Toward
- 5.NBT.5·Fluently multiply multi-digit whole numbers using the standard algorithm.
- 5.NBT.B.5·Fluently multiply multi-digit whole numbers using the standard algorithm.
10 min
25 min
Knowledge Components
All skills for this lesson
No KCs tagged for this lesson
Trash Talk
10 min
Narrative
The purpose of this Notice and Wonder is to introduce the idea of large amounts of trash floating on the water. In an earlier unit, students saw that large amounts of trash are shipped around the world. Before reconsidering trash in a volume context, this lesson focuses on the area that trash covers in some parts of the ocean. Students may notice and wonder many things about the image. The key discussion points are that the debris seen in the image is mostly trash and it covers a large area.
Launch
- Groups of 2
- Display the image.
- “What do you notice? What do you wonder?”
- 1 minute: quiet think time
Teacher Instructions
- “Discuss your thinking with your partner.”
- 1 minute: partner discussion
- Share and record responses.
Student Task
What do you notice? What do you wonder?
Sample Response
Students may notice:
- There is a lot of stuff floating in the water.
- I see cans, bottles, and paper.
- There are darker and lighter splotches in the water.
Students may wonder:
- Is that all trash?
- Is this a lake or the ocean?
- Where is this?
- Where did the trash come from?
- What is that gray stuff in the middle?
Activity Synthesis (Teacher Notes)
- "The image shows what it looks like in some parts of the oceans. The small pieces floating on the water are trash."
- "How do you think trash gets into the ocean?" (People throw away trash near the ocean. People throw garbage into the ocean when they are on boats.)
Standards
Building Toward
- 5.NBT.5·Fluently multiply multi-digit whole numbers using the standard algorithm.
- 5.NBT.B.5·Fluently multiply multi-digit whole numbers using the standard algorithm.