This document provides resources for teaching a lesson on recycling to third grade students. It includes websites, videos, podcasts and other materials that teach about the importance of recycling, how recycling works, and what students can do to help. Some key resources highlighted are a recycling blog, NPR podcast on donated clothes, a video tour of a recycling plant, and EPA and WWF websites with games and information about reducing waste. The document also provides ideas for student projects, like using an expert chat site or global collaboration site to ask questions and complete recycling-focused assignments.

1. RECYCLING
Created by Adelia Couser
Intended Grade Level: Third

2. RATIONA
LE
Click video to play.
Recycling is something that is
very important in our daily
lives. Without effective waste
management strategies and
reusing materials, pollution
levels would rise and damage
our environment and
everything we need to live.
Therefore, it’s important to
teach children why recycling is
important and how they can
recycle. Integrating technology
into a lesson on recycling
enables students to learn more
about the topic, its relevance,
and what they can do to protect
the environment.

3. IMAGES FROM THE INTERNET -
BLOG
This Recycling Blog by RecycleNation
publishes informative blog entries and articles
every week.
This blog could be useful in teaching
students about recycling because it contains
information on topics such as climate change,
energy, water conservation, and reducing
waste at home, at school, and at work. A class
could also sign up for RecycleNation’s monthly
newsletter using this blog in order to receive
constant new information about recycling.

4. IMAGES FROM THE INTERNET –
PODCAST
National Public Radio (NPR) has published a
variety of podcasts on recycling in recent years
that can found here on their website.
One particularly interesting podcast is “The
Global Afterlife of Your Donated Clothes,” in
which NPR Foreign Affairs correspondent Jackie
Northam explains what happens to a person’s
clothes after he or she donates them. This could
be eye-opening in a lesson on recycling because
many people don’t think about what happens to
materials after they are recycled. The podcast
also contains information on what happens to
clothing that is thrown away instead of donated,
which could be used to educate students on the
consequences of waste.

5. IMAGES FROM THE INTERNET -
VIDEO
The video “Take A Tour of this Recycling
Plant in Philadelphia” was uploaded to
YouTube by All for Recycling in January 2015.
The video shows footage of the Philadelphia
Material Recovery Facility, as well as
interviews with the Waste Management staff
members.
This video might be useful in a lesson about
recycling because it would show students
“behind-the-scenes” footage of what happens
to material once it is recycled, and how
recycling plants work.

6. INTERNET RESOURCES #1
• Waste Management, Inc.
Waste Management is an American
organization that is responsible for waste
collection and environmental services. This
resource is reliable because it is Waste
Management’s official website and contains a
variety of information on education,
sustainability, and other trash disposal services.
This website could be used to educate students
about various aspects of the waste disposal
process and recycling in the United States,
Canada, and Mexico. Specifically, it could be used
to answer the following essential questions: “Why
is recycling important?” “What can we recycle?”
and “How can we recycle it?”

7. INTERNET RESOURCES #2
• The United States Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA)
The EPA is a federal government agency that is
responsible for protecting human and
environmental health through various legislation
and regulations. This is a reliable resource
because it is a government website.
This website contains a lot of information and
resources about recycling, including how to
reduce waste production, how to reuse materials,
how to properly recycle, recycling
activities/games, and what students can do to
help protect the environment.

8. INTERNET RESOURCES #3
• World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
The WWF is an international organization that
is responsible for wildlife preservation and
conserving natural resources. This is a reliable
resource because it is WWF’s official website and
contains information on topics such as WWF’s
global projects and the effects of environmental
efforts.
This website could be used to educate students
on the effects of harmful waste disposal and
pollution - how animals and nature are affected
when humans don’t recycle.

9. DIAGRAM CREATED USING
INSPIRATION

10. TEACHING MATERIALS
Used with permission from SweetPatternDays.com

11. TEACHING MATERIALS
Created using puzzle-maker.com

12. SUBJECT-SPECIFIC INTERNET
RESOURCE
• “A Brief Timeline of the History of Recycling”
• Subject: Social Studies/History
• This timeline provides a detailed history of
recycling and waste disposal, starting in 500
BCE and ending in modern times (specifically,
2015). A teacher might use this in a history or
Social Studies lesson to show students how
waste management has changed over time. This
timeline would help students understand how
much progress has been made in the realm of
environmental protection and waste reduction.

13. USES OF THE INTERNET #1
Category 1: Ask the Expert
“Ask the Expert” is a live chat platform that connects
verified experts in a variety of subjects with users who have
questions pertaining to those subjects. The experts and
users can be connected via mobile devices such as phones
and computers. The communication process allows curious
users to learn about unfamiliar topics through a personal
conversation.
According to the website, there are experts registered in
categories such as Government & Regulations and
Education & Learning, both of which are related to recycling
and the environment. My students and I would brainstorm
questions about recycling and environmental health, then
use “Ask the Expert” to communicate with someone who is
knowledgeable about the topic of recycling and its effects.

14. USES OF THE INTERNET #2
Category 2: Online Projects – Global SchoolNet
Global SchoolNet is a website that enables teachers around the world
to search for partners and projects on which their students can
collaborate. These projects encompass a variety of curriculum areas,
such as science, math, and literacy, and offer a variety of technology
activities from participants, including email, discussion forums, and
blogs. Teachers can search the Projects Registry for current projects and
email the project coordinator to participate in the project.
There are several archived projects on Global SchoolNet that have
focused on the topic of recycling. For example, 30 classrooms around
the world participated in a 2008 project titled “Plastic Bottle Recycling.”
The goal of this project was to see how many plastic bottles the
participants could collect and recycle in a month. Participants counted
and weighed the bottles, created charts and graphs to show their
progress, and filmed their efforts to make a short movie about why
recycling is important. This would be very useful in teaching my topic
because it would allow my students to collaborate with students around
the world and create visuals about the importance of recycling plastic
water bottles.

15. WEB 2.0:
TODAYSMEET
TodaysMeet is a website that allows teachers to
create a chat room that can remain open from one day
to one year. Once the teacher creates the chat room
and gives it a name and duration, they share the URL of
the chat room with their students. The chat room can
be accessed by students inside or outside of the
classroom, as long as they have the URL.
This website would foster collaborative uses of
technology because the teacher and students could
communicate with one another using the chat room.
Students could type questions in the chat room during a
lesson, during group work, or at home while completing
homework. The teacher could answer the questions and
use the chat room to assign homework or provoke
discussion about a certain topic. In addition, students
could communicate with each other if they have
questions or comments about the lesson material.

16. RUBRIC
The website TeAch-nology.com provides a “General
Rubric Generator” for teachers, which they can use to
create their own rubrics. The generator provides a
template for a rubric with a title, picture, up to five
stated objectives, and four student performance levels:
beginning, developing, accomplished, and mastery.
I think this website is useful because it enables
teachers to tailor rubrics based on a specific class,
assignment, skill, etc. rather than using a standard
rubric that might be vague or ill-fitting for what is being
assessed. I also like that the generator allows teachers
to create criteria for different levels of performance,
because that provides a detailed and specific outline of
their expectations for the class, assignment, or skill.

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