Rise Above Plastics: 2006-2008
Like diamonds, plastics are forever. In this program, Plastics Are Forever (www.plasticsareforever.org), students uncover the problems of plastics in the environment and explore active ways to end the plastic plague. Marine ecosystems are harmed by plastic debris. In the Central North Pacific, broken, degraded pieces of plastic outweigh surface zooplankton by 6 to 1. Plastics don’t biodegrade. This program goes beyond beach clean ups and recycling to ban plastics from being used in schools, cities, and oceans.
Build-a-Boat
Students build a fleet of small boats made entirely of disregarded plastics. Navigating Ballona Creek, a protected wetlands environment in Los Angeles County, they teach the impact of plastics to invited community leaders.
Here’s the problem
Want to learn how to build a boat and help solve the problem?
Contact us: Green Ambassadors
The Fluke
A boat made from recycled trash, called FLUKE will travel 300 miles down the California coast to raise awareness about plastic debris on our streets, beaches, in our wetlands and our oceans.
FLUKE was constructed at the Watershed Expo 2006, presented by Algalita Marine Research Foundation. The expo offered information and education to the community on how to keep our rivers and oceans cleaner.
The Algalita Marine Research Foundation, in cooperation with the Environmental Charter High School, built FLUKE with:
- 800 plastic bottles
- 1000 plastic bags
- A junk car seat
- A sail made from 50 polyester shirts
Sand Sampling
To sample sand, students choose a square meter plot of the beach, scoop out 5 gallons of sand and sieve it with a 5mm strainer and a 1mm strainer. They return to school to count every piece of plastic and categorize them based on size and type.
This program will, eventually, sample all beaches of the world. Starting in the Galapagos, it is expanding to Brazil and Argentina this summer.
Midway Albatross Dissection
In 2001 Dr. Eriksen traveled to Midway Atoll, an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, to learn about the plight of Laysan Albatross due to plastic ingestion. He returned with 40 samples of regurgitated pellets, called boluses, which he shared with ECHS 10th grade students 5 years later. To create the classroom activity, he requested the help of Carol Keiper of Oikonos, who had created a DVD and curriculum about dissecting boluses from albatross on Guadalupe Island. Students were amazed to see the abundance and variety of plastic debris ingested by the albatross.
