Middle School Students Put Paper Recycling To The Test
Ever wonder what happens to the paper in the blue recycling bins on campus?
Ever wonder what happens to the paper in the blue recycling bins on campus? Rivers seventh-graders now know the answer thanks to a recent class field trip to a recycling plant in Worcester.
As part of the seventh grades' Ecology and Environment Science curriculum, the class learned why it is important to recycle and studied the twenty-five ways they could be more environmentally friendly.
The students spent three weeks preparing for their trip to the Rand Whitney Recycling Plant by learning the paper recycling process from start to finish. The students held a school-wide paper collection, sorted the paper they gathered by hand, and then made their own recycled paper. In addition, the students were asked to come up with and perform three separate experiments that tested the recycled paper for qualities such as absorbency and strength.
"During the tour of the plant, the students were excited to see the connections between their recycling and testing process and the procedures the plant used," said seventh-grade science teacher Emily Stevens.
While at the plant, the class was asked to share the individual ways they tested their recycled paper. They then had a chance to watch a truck filled with paper get weighed on a massive scale, then emptied and weighed again to calculate the load.
"The students really felt like scientists when they realized that the experiments they had come up with to test the paper, were the actual tests done at the plant, just on a larger scale," Stevens said.
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As part of the seventh grades' Ecology and Environment Science curriculum, the class learned why it is important to recycle and studied the twenty-five ways they could be more environmentally friendly.
The students spent three weeks preparing for their trip to the Rand Whitney Recycling Plant by learning the paper recycling process from start to finish. The students held a school-wide paper collection, sorted the paper they gathered by hand, and then made their own recycled paper. In addition, the students were asked to come up with and perform three separate experiments that tested the recycled paper for qualities such as absorbency and strength.
"During the tour of the plant, the students were excited to see the connections between their recycling and testing process and the procedures the plant used," said seventh-grade science teacher Emily Stevens.
While at the plant, the class was asked to share the individual ways they tested their recycled paper. They then had a chance to watch a truck filled with paper get weighed on a massive scale, then emptied and weighed again to calculate the load.
"The students really felt like scientists when they realized that the experiments they had come up with to test the paper, were the actual tests done at the plant, just on a larger scale," Stevens said.
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