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The food waste resource guide is designed to give you all the information you need to teach your students about food waste. The guide provides food waste facts, a classroom certificate, food waste posters, guidelines for working with cafeteria managers and school administrators, and a resource for tackling food waste at home. It also includes a letter writing activity to raise awareness around food waste and implement food policy changes in schools.

Students utilize design tools (e.g. online drafting tools) to assess their campus’s capacity and need for solar energy. Students will design a solar master plan to present to their district’s energy management team. For schools that already have solar photovoltaic energy, students can create a master plan for another building or campus in their community.

Community/Career Connections: Students will utilize localized climate data and news from their communities to learn more about what’s going on in their own backyard. Students will have access to various resources to understand the environmental justice history of their area and start to plan their Student Action Project.

Students will plan and carry out an investigation of energy vampires using an Energy Monitor to measure the energy consumption of different electrical devices. Students will collect and chart the data from their investigation and calculate how much money could be saved by unplugging energy vampires.

Students will discuss the value of electrical energy in their everyday lives. Using a power plant diagram and web-based sources, students will analyze steps to the electrical generation process and research information on renewable (alternative) energy sources.

Students will learn the difference between climate change in the past versus the change we see today using science-based evidence. They will explore examples of how human activities have majorly impacted the Earth and contributed to this change, understand the consequences of this change, and learn actions they can take in their everyday lives to help decrease the negative impact humans have on the environment.

“Be a Food Waste Warrior” is a three-part science and math lesson that can be adjusted in complexity depending on grade level. It includes food waste audit log sheets, discussion questions, a companion PowerPoint, and additional teacher resources and materials.

Students will learn about the ways in which food impacts the environment by recording data from a student food waste audit during their lunch period.The audit will engage basic science and math skills to (1) convert food waste weights to water used and GHGs emitted, and (2) calculate the difference in GHG emissions depending on whether food waste is landfilled or composted. Participating students will ultimately understand how to reduce food waste and why reducing food waste is important to conserving natural resources and wildlife habitat.

This lesson is a literacy-based lesson which further explores the five areas that are measured by Arc in order to learn about some of the best practices that schools and school districts are doing nationally to become sustainable schools.