Abstract
It has become increasingly imperative to teach younger generations about their natural world, the problems the environment faces, and possible solutions. Younger generations will be among the first to feel the many effects of climate change and marine debris. Thus, it is imperative to teach them about these effects, how to live in this climate change-affected world, and how to combat these problems. This project was in collaboration with the Environmental Education Lessons group at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) whose goal is to create comprehensive lesson plans for pre-kindergarten to fifth grade students about different environmental topics and issues. This project aimed to create comprehensive marine debris lessons for kindergarten through fifth grade students and to go out to schools and after-school programs to teach environmental lessons around Miami-Dade County. Four marine debris lesson plans were created during this project, one for each grade level. The kindergarten lesson plan discussed how marine debris enters the ocean, the first grade lesson plan covered the 5 R's, the second grade lesson plans taught the different types of marine debris, and the third grade lesson plan covered how marine debris impacts the marine environment. The lesson plans were created to engage diverse learners and used a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation in addition to Microsoft Word documents that would allow any educator, regardless of their previous understanding of the topic, to be able to teach their students with ease. These lessons can be taught in person or virtually and contain background information, activities, discussion questions, homework, and additional resources. For this project, only one school and one fourth grade class were visited on three separate occasions and learned about climate, animals, and energy. For the future, this project requires finishing the final three lessons, pre-kindergarten, fourth grade, and fifth grade, and requires the marine debris lessons to be taught at a classroom to gather insight on the efficacy of these lessons.