Pre and Post Materials
Grades 3-5
Students will gain more from their field trip experience if it is connected to activities done
in the classroom. Use this guide as a springboard for classroom activities that can be done
before or after your trip.
Before your field trip
Vocabulary:
Landfill: An area where the community places large amounts of trash and covers it with soil
Landfill Gas: The gas that is released by the landfill, half methane (CH 4) and half carbon
dioxide (CO2)
Leachate: The liquid byproduct of the landfill produced when water runs through the
garbage
Decomposition: Decay; the state or process of rotting
Wetland: marshes or swamps; land saturated with water
Forest: a large area covered with trees and undergrowth
Grassland: a large open area covered with grass
Park Planner: Someone who takes into account the needs of the community and wildlife to
create designs for future parks
Activities:
Trash Accounting: Provide students with a context for discussions about trash. Have your
students talk briefly with their neighbor about the trash that they threw away that day. Ask
your students to consider: How much do you think it weighed (compare to common objects
such as a nickel, orange, basket ball, and desk)? How much space does it take up? What
about the trash you threw away yesterday? Did you put anything in the trash that you
could have put somewhere else?
Build a landfill: Teach students about a landfill and decomposition by having them build
their own landfill in a bottle and observe decay over the course of a month:
http://www.aza.org/uploadedfiles/education/resources_for_educators/thematic_educatio
nal_activities/oef_landfillbottle.pdf
Weigh The Waste: Have your class investigate what makes up their trash with this hands-on
activity. There is potential for you to incorporate math and graphing lessons.
http://www.teachengineering.org/view_activity.php?url=collection/cub_/activities/cub_e
nviron/cub_environ_lesson04_activity1.xml#scaling
Critical Reading: Have your students read the attached excerpt from Picking Up by Robin
Nagle and answer questions using the worksheet. For younger students read the passages
aloud and ask the questions in a discussion format. For older students, challenge them to
write about an experience they’ve had with garbage in their lives.
After your Field Trip
Reflection: Have students reflect on their experience at the park by writing a paragraph
describing their vision for the future Freshkills Park, or continuing to work on the drawings
that they created on their field trip.
Recycled Towers: Give your students the opportunity to engage their creative side and
demonstrate principles of reuse in this activity where students use recycled materials to
build a tower (50 minutes).
http://www.teachengineering.org/view_activity.php?url=collection/cub_/activities/cub_e
nviron/cub_environ_lesson05_activity3.xml
Picking Up by Robin Nagle (p. 28-29)
“It started when I was ten years old. The forest where my father took me
camping seemed so pristine that I could almost pretend we were its first
human visitors—until we discovered, just behind our campsite, an open-air
garbage dump about forty feet square. Fat flies buzzed moldy orange peels,
empty soup cans rusted near a single sneaker, and balls of crumpled
aluminum foil glinted next to spent Tang packets. There was even that
signature stink.
I was astounded. How could my fellow campers be so thoughtless?
Obviously, they had no problem letting their garbage become someone else’s
problem, but whose exactly? Were they assuming the services of a special
Forest Ranger Trash Brigade? Was a garbage truck scheduled to appear via
some road I hadn’t noticed? […]
The behavior of a few careless campers was merely a small example of
what most of us do all the time, on a much grander scale, with objects we no
longer need and no longer want. We toss trash in a litter basket or put it on
the curb in bags or in garbage cans behind our homes or drop it down an
apartment building chute or drive it to the local dump or even, yes, let it fall on
the street or toss it from our car windows, and never think about it again”
Vocabulary
Pristine: in its original condition, unspoiled
Astounded: shocked or greatly surprised
Q: How was the open-air garbage dump in the woods created?
Q: What could the campers have done differently?