Miami Waterkeeper and Benjamin Franklin K-8 Center enjoyed a fun-filled day at Morningside Park learning about Marine Debris and then cleaning up some debris nearby. Miami Waterkeeper works with local schools, like Benjamin Franklin K-8 to provide educational field trips and activities focusing on clean water. Students first played a game of “Guess how long to break down” where they looked at everyday materials like plastic bottles, plastic bags, and diapers and had to guess how long these items take to decompose. Some of these objects can take up to 4,000 years to decompose entirely and some never decompose at all!
Then students went around the park and collected marine debris with the goal of finding the weirdest item! Students collected everything from straws, styrofoam toys, police tape, and even an unopened can of Redbull! Students collected a total of 38.8 lbs of trash at Morningside park, great job!
Students then finished off their day with a story on “Who Polluted The Ocean?”, where students were given a small container with a “pollutant” and then had to pour their “pollutant” into the “ocean” once their keyword was heard. Students learned about different sources of pollution like pets, cars, ships, and fertilizer. All these simple things contribute to polluting our ocean and there are all small changes we can make in our daily lives to make less of an impact.
Originally published at https://www.miamiwaterkeeper.org/bejamin_franklin_k8_coastal_cleanup