This fall, Catawba Riverkeeper partnered with AvidXchange to provide a program on Single-Use Plastics at Walter G. Byers School.
Once a week for five weeks volunteers from AvidXchange joined an educator from Catawba Riverkeeper in the classroom to teach 7th grade students the importance of reducing our plastic use. Each week a new lesson with an interactive activity was taught to develop the connection between personal plastic usage and the role we each play in affecting our environment.
Topics included:
- a litter clean-up at the school;
- a personal tally of what plastic items each student used over a week’s time;
- microplastic viewing with microscopes;
- how to properly recycle;
- and information about plastics and our environment.
Here is an example of one of the five lessons:
The program concluded with a final review activity based on what the students had learned the previous weeks.
Thanks to AvidXchange providing metal re-usable water bottles we were able to supply students with not only the ideas and concepts to become stewards of their local communities, but a physical reminder that we have choices to make every day that affect the world. By choosing to trade in single-use items for re-usable ones, we are choosing to make the world a better place.
