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Sustainability Lesson Clearinghouse

Buying in Bulk

Lesson Description:
Students will be able to...
  • Identify ways people produce waste materials and explain the need for waste reduction.
  • Identify ways of reducing the amount of waste that goes into landfills (e.g., buying bulk, recycling, reusing materials).
  • Represent, order and compare numbers.
  • Solve real world problems (e.g., money problems) involving division. 

Lesson Type:
  • Other

Sustainability Topic:
  • Waste Reduction

Time Needed:
Two 30 minute sessions, grocery store trip and homework assignment
Standards Addressed:
  • Geography Standard 14: Understand how human actions modify the physical environment.
    • Benchmark # 2: Know the ways in which the physical environment is stressed by human activity (e.g., humans produce excess waste products, in the us we produce on average 4.6 pounds of waste per person per day).

  • Geography Standard 16: Understand the changes that occur in the meaning, use, distribution and importance of resources.
    • Benchmark # 5: Know advantages and disadvantages of recycling and reusing different types of materials.

  • Geography Standard 18: Understand global development and environmental issues.
    • Benchmark # 2: Know ways in which resources can be managed and why it is important to do so (e.g., conservation practices, recycling non-renewable resources).

  • Mathematics Standard 2: Understand and apply basic and advanced properties of the concepts of numbers.
    • Benchmark # 6: use models to identify, order, and compare numbers.

  • Mathematics Standard 3: Use basic and advanced procedures while performing the processes of computation.
    • Benchmark # 8: solve real-world problems involving number operations (e.g., computations with dollars and cents.

  • Mathematics Standard 6: Understand and apply the basic and advanced concepts of statistics and data analysis.
    • Benchmark # 1: Understand that data represent specific pieces of information about real-world
    • objects or activities.
    • Benchmark # 4: Organize and display data in simple graphic organizers (e.g., tables, charts, graphs).
    • Benchmark # 5: Read and interpret simple graphic organizers (e.g., tables, charts, graphs).

Materials Needed:
  • Pencils
  • Question form (included)
  • Calculator (optional)
  • Various size boxes of same product

School or Group:
Green Education Foundation (GEF)
Contact Email:
service@greeneducationfoundation.org
Lesson Documents:
application/pdf BuyinginBulk.pdf
Located in: Math

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