We've endeavored to provide you everything you need to hold a cleanup, from preparatory lessons through cleanup materials, to data analysis. Participating schools are NOT required to do pre- and post-lessons, but these can help illuminate the impact of a cleanup and tie it into your education standards.

NGSS PRACTICES and PERFORMANCE EXPECTATIONS as They Relate to Planning, Data Collection, and Follow-up

Pre-Cleanup Lessons and Resources

Just like water, trash can move through a watershed, down streets, through storm drains, creeks and rivers, and eventually out to a lake or the ocean. Preventing and removing litter in school yards and neighborhoods is stopping marine debris before it happens! You may not have the sound of the surf in your ears, but you are taking very important action to protect our coast and ocean and the creatures that depend on a healthy ecosystem to survive.

What is a watershed?

• Branching Out from the California Coastal Commission's Waves, Wetlands, and Watersheds. Activity adapted from Project WET Curriculum and Activity Guide
       NGSS and CCSS connections
  
• Determining a watershed from a topographic map, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service
  
• How to Delineate Watershed Boundaries on a topographic map, West Virginia Conservation Agency
  

Marine debris and nonpoint source pollution:

• Read about the Problem with Marine Debris on our website.
  
• Personal Trash Choices group activity
• Plastic Properties Investigation
• Searching Out Nonpoint Sources of Pollution from the California Coastal Commission's Waves, Wetlands, and Watersheds
       NGSS and CCSS connections
  
• You Are What You Eat: Plastics and Marine Life from the California Coastal Commission's Waves, Wetlands, and Watersheds
       NGSS and CCSS connections
  
• Winged Amabassadors - Ocean Literacy Through the Eyes of Albatross, from Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary, Oikonos, and others. 6th-12th grade lessons, which include a virtual bolus analysis for natural and plastic items.
• Talking Trash & Taking Action, a marine debris education partnership between Ocean Conservancy and the NOAA Marine Debris Program.

Recommended books for classroom read-aloud or student reading:

• This is the Ocean, by Kersten Hamilton, Illustrated by Lorianne Siomades
  
• All the Way to the Ocean, by Joel Harper (Also pubished in Spanish.)
  
• Plastic, Ahoy! Investigating the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, by Patricia Newman
  

Videos:

Find a broad range of recommended streaming videos on marine debris and other topics here.

Slideshows

• A few slides about marine debris and where it comes from (PowerPoint)
• A PowerPoint from Gilroy High School teacher Jeff Manker, reflecting on his experience visiting Midway Island. Shows the impact of plastic pollution on the Laysan albatross that nest there, and how choices that students make on the mainland can have an impact. Why Plastic Bottle Caps Matter

Next... Doing Your Cleanup