Ways You Can Use This Website
No matter what you choose to do with your kids, the action piece - actually going out and cleaning up your neighborhood - is key. Facing the problem head on, taking responsibility, then experience how it feels to make a difference, is the goal of Refuse Refuse.
• As a long unit, using all three lesson themes outlined below
• As a short unit using just one of the lesson themes
• As an activity - using the activities below
• As a series of activities - using more than one of the activities below
• Picking and choosing and making your own plan
On our homepage, learn about upcoming cleanups that you can join anytime; you can even sort these by neighborhood or view a map of cleanups. Or you can acquire your own supplies and organize your own students (faculty, staff, and parents) according to their schedule is an amazing way to build community!
Essential Questions
• What is “trash,” and why does it litter the streets of San Francisco?
• What are the different kinds of trash?
• What’s the connection between production, consumption, and trash?
• How do the systems and attitudes contribute to the generation of trash?
The power of community: How can we solve a citywide problem together?
• Experience what tangible action does
• Discover the connection between community action and relationship building
• Identify systems and where we can have influence in those systems
What is the role and responsibility that you have in the world?
• Changing mindsets to affect the world
• Developing a sense of responsibility to act
• Developing habits that foster change
This cleanup curriculum was developed in partnership with SF Friends School.
Topic 1 | Understanding our trash: Why is it a problem?
A. Trash collection in our community
• "San Francisco Trash Talk" presentation. 20-minute presentation that covers why SF is so dirty, possible solutions, and how students, teachers, and parents can help
• Pre teaching before going out
- Safety: Do not pick up needles, feces, or other hazardous materials. Do not go into the street to pick up trash; "The street is lava".
- Organization of the materials. Hand out safety vests, trash pickers, rings & trash bags
- Meet with everyone before breaking up into groups (have them sit by group). Give instructions verbally and also have them written up where everyone can see them.
• How many bags of trash were collected and what was in them?
- Tally contents by category - Email info@refuserefusesf.org to request a spreadsheet of categories.
- Mini lessons (you can pick one, or do all of them): a story fictional inspired by a piece of the trash, crunching the numbers (data about what was collected and where), exploring the scientific make-up of the trash (compostable, non-compostable, what happens to the different materials as they break down), maps and infographics (see below).
• Discussion and reflection
- Why is trash a problem in our community? What do we know, what do we want to know? (create a chart to document questions and knowledge)
B. Mapping trash collected in the neighborhood
• While collecting the trash, mark off on a printed Google map of the neighborhood where you find the trash
- Photocopy a map of the area you will be cleaning up. Give a brief lesson on how to read a map to students. Have the “tally person” in the group also mark the map or add a fourth person to the trash group. / Reading Maps - BrainPOP Jr. (VIDEO)
• Create a “trash map” of your neighborhood and discuss findings
- With the collected trash, use appropriate materials (things that can be cleaned or are not dangerous to handle) to create a “trash map” of your neighborhood and discuss findings.
- Materials needed - large piece of corragated cardboard (size dependent on the trash you picked up and what you want to include), elmers glue or hot glue gun), pencils
- Show students the Trash Map of Brooklyn (Jennifer Maravillas) video and/or read the article. You can also share the Vik Muniz article.
- To sketch out the map on the cardboard, either project the map onto the cardboard and sketch OR just “eyeball it” (kids sketch to the best of their ability). Then glue the objects on.
- Discuss using the “see think wonder'' routine.
- Artist Finishes Trash Map of Brooklyn After Walking Every Single Block) (VIDEO)
- Vik Muniz. “www (World Map)”: an atlas of trash (ARTICLE)
• Take multiple readings over a period of time to visualize trends
C. Personal trash infographic
• Collect personal trash data at home using a trash tally handout.
• Create an infographic
- Data Stories: Charts About Trash and Materials | TrSansforming Data with Intelligence (IMAGES)
- Beautiful Trash (IMAGE AND VIDEO)
• Each student can create a bar graph or pie chart. Depending on how much time you have and what resources are available, you can have them create a visual data story. Visual data can be done by hand, or by using a computer (Canva, Piktochart)
• Looking at the collection of infographics, what are some stories that are coming to the surface? What can we learn from this data about our trash? Are there outliers that we can learn from? Are there trends we can learn from?
D. Learn about Recology
• Watch Virtual Tours and Artist in Residence video / Visit Recology / Virtual Activities and Class Assignments
- While watching the video or reading the article guide students by giving them a handout to organize note taking around the following questions: What surprised you about the history of Recology? What is something new that you learned? What is one question that you still have? (Afterwards they can research their question, or ask a question through email or if you have a presenter)
• The Sordid Saga of San Francisco’s Trash Cans | KQED (ARTICLE AND AUDIO)
- Debate: Was this a good use of time and money? Why or why not? What would you have done to remedy the problem?
• Waste Management Tour of Recology Recycling in San Francisco (VIDEO)
• Our History - Recology (ARTICLE)
Topic 2 | Trash & Consumption: How did it get here?
A. Finding the Story
• Watch the Story of Stuff (VIDEOS)
- You can also pull from these videos that are much longer: BBC The Secret Life of Rubbish 1 of 2 (VIDEO) / BBC The Secret Life of Rubbish 2 of 2 (VIDEO)
- After watching the movie define the word consumer to students. When you buy something you need, and use it or consume it (like food) and don’t resell it, you are a consumer.
- Have students make a list of things that their parents buy for them. Have them go down the list and check off what are “necessities” and discuss.
B. Create an animated or graphic story
• Create an animated or graphic story of the life of an item from your pile of stuff
- Research where it came from, document how you use it, find out where it will go.
- Watch The life cycle of a t-shirt - Angel Chang | TED-Ed (VIDEO) and use their discussion questions
- Introduce the concept of whiteboard animation (VIDEO)
- Watch How to Do Stop Motion on a White Board : Drawing Techniques (VIDEO)
- In groups of two to three have students research an item from their “stuff”, research where it came from with as much detail as possible (at least what it’s made of, where it was made, how it got to where they purchased it, where they purchased it, what they use it for, and where it will go when they are done with it - as trash). Once they have the arc of the story, have them make a simple animation.
Topic 3 | Changing the future of trash: What can we do?
A. Analysis of our existing systems
• Start small at your school or neighborhood. Make a list of the different parts of the systems - people, attitudes, structures in place, actions, results.
- Create a list of the most important actors, processes, or conflicts related to the issue of trash in your community.
- Start sketching the most important items from your list on the page. Sketches can be small drawings, symbols or just words.
- Draw lines of connection between items. Lines can be accompanied by verbs that indicate the nature of the connection.
- Add perspectives of different items (e.g. an actor’s POV on the issue) to the picture.
- Share with others for feedback or discuss in your small group.
- Identify where there is agreement/disagreement, new insights, or further research questions.
• Lay the different components out in a concept map structure.
- You can do this in a big group using chart paper, or in small groups using large paper so you can compare and contrast students’ viewpoints, using arrows to connect the different parts to the system to see how things are flowing, stuck in a loop, or breaking down altogether.
• Analyzing your system map(s), chose a part of the existing system to revise.
• Using design thinking
- Read "A Guide To Design Thinking For Kids" (ARTICLE)
- Students could: design better trash cans, put trash cans in different places, design less problematic packaging for food, etc.
• Empathize: research your users' needs.
- Define: state your users' needs and problems.
- Ideate: challenge assumptions and create ideas.
- Prototype: start to create solutions.
- Test: try your solutions out.
B. Educate People
• Using what they have learned in previous lessons, challenge students to educate an audience.
- Create a game design to help educate a specific audience
- Create an action campaign - i.e. organize a monthly trash pick up day, create clean up teams in your school, etc.
- Write to politicians or go to government representatives to talk to them about the problem and offer some ideas for solution.
A. Trash Collection Games
(Topics 1 and/or 3)
• Who can collect the most trash? Cigarette butts? Recyclables?
- Organize students into teams and set a defined amount of time for them to collect trash.
- Students can keep a running total of trash collected over an extended period of time (month, semester, school year, summer)
• Organize a “trash mob” or a meet with other schools
- Get students together from different classes or schools to clean up together
- Organize a friendly competition among schools with prizes for winners
• Trash “disco party”
- Bring some fun to the cleanups by playing music and dressing in costumes
• Trash Bingo
- Copy image file to the left or email info@refuserefusesf.org for PDF file.
- Students collect trash and mark off items they find on their card. First one to spell T-R-A-S-H wins!
B. Take-home Projects
• Mending/fixing items (Topic 3)
- Students can find items that could fixed or repurposed.
• Trash audit for your own home (Topic 1 and 2)
- Have students keep track of their household waste
- This can be done over a defined period of time (week or month).
• Lessen your trash output challenges (Topic 3)
- Have students create a baseline of what their household waste is.
- Students can set goals for what types of items they would like to reduce consumption of.
- Discuss methods and tactics for reducing their trash
• Cleanup around your neighborhood (Topic 2)
- Ask students to clean around their home and share what kinds of trash they found in their neighborhood
C. Trash Sculptures
• While collecting trash, set aside items that can be used to create art sculptures (topic 1, 2, or 3)
• Color sorted items/trash arranged into an image (topic 1, 2, or 3)
• Create and display a temporary public sculpture that calls attention to the problem of trash (topic 3)
• Upcycle ‘safe’ found items to make a toy (topic 3)
D. Butt-Cans
(Topic 3)
• Instruct students to save canned-good cans at home
• Bring clean and dry cans to school then prime them with white paint
• Decorate Butt-Cans using acrylic paint, paint pens, and stickers
• Place Butt-Cans
- Look for hot spots of cigarette butts. Typically a gathering of many cigarettes of the same brand.
- Pour sand into the Butt-Can to weigh it down (optional).
- Place Butt-Can nearby against the building, in the tree basin/planter box, or next to a utility pole.
- Putt cigarette butts into the Butt-Can.
- For more details instructions, visit our Butt-Can blog post.