Waste In Place Education Training

The classroom curriculum supplement Waste in Place, for grades K-6, builds critical thinking, processing, and problem-solving skills through imaginative, hands-on lessons. Lessons can be taught individually or in sequence. The curriculum supplement contains 33 lesson plans on many diverse subjects, including litter prevention, waste reduction, recycling, landfills, and much more.

Developed and field-tested by professional educators and waste experts, the curriculum supplement is being used nationwide by thousands of teachers to influence positive behavior, to foster social responsibility and respect for the environment, and to enrich the learning experience.

Staff at New Mexico Clean & Beautiful along with affiliates from around the state can be contacted for trainings.  Contact us at 1.800.Toss.No.Mas or 1.800.867.7666 if you are interested.

Below is an example of a statewide training conducted in 2006:

In 2006, New Mexico Clean & Beautiful was afforded the opportunity to launch an Educational Training, through a grant from the New Mexico Department of Transportation.  The program involved 1) Waste In Place Training for teachers and students, 2) updating of the Dusty Roadrunner materials Keep New Mexico Beautiful, Inc. owns, 3) updating of the New Mexico Clean & Beautiful website with information on the municipal, county and tribal governments the program awards grant funds to, and 4) updating of the website to include information on Dusty Roadrunner.

In the first week of November from November 8-17, 2006, New Mexico Clean & Beautiful embarked on a two-week journey around the state to eight-communities affiliated with Keep America Beautiful.  The trainings targeted after school programs.

The schedule was: Las Cruces – Keep Las Cruces Beautiful on November 8, Carlsbad – Keep Carlsbad Beautiful on November 9, Roswell – Keep Roswell Beautiful on November 10 and Los Lunas – Tierra Bonita of Valencia County on November 11.  Then on November 14 – Keep Santa Fe Beautiful, November 15 – Keep Rio Rancho Beautiful, November 16 – Keep Albuquerque Beautiful and November 17 – Keep Alamogordo Beautiful.

Training was provided to teachers and/or instructors and children in the after school programs.  We also provided kits for either the program or schools.  The kits included materials to coordinate and conduct six activities from Keep America Beautiful’s Waste In Place curriculum (K-6).

Trainings included:

1) Garbage Pizza – which involves an actual pizza made from salt and flour and is cut into percentages of materials which make up a landfill, e.g., paper, glass, yard trimmings, metal, etc.

2) Paper making – actually make paper from recycled office paper

3) Litter Bag – has a paper bag filled with 11 items of common litter – groups discuss the objects and arrange them from least impacting the environment to most impacting the environment – there are no wrong or right answers.

4) Plastics by numbers – plastics ranging from 1-7 are discussed with the group; what does your community recycle?

5) Trashy story – activity involving four decks of cards – participants are broken up into groups and given a deck of cards and instructed to put together a complete deck of cards.  This activity demonstrates a community or group and the dynamics of working together for a common goal.

6) Wartville Wizard – a story about a wizard who has magical powers to clean up the town.  People who litter find that the litter they discard sticks to them.

Recap of 2006 Education Results:

Eight Keep America Beautiful affiliates:

• 94 teachers and instructors trained
• 308 students participated

Joe Lobato, Executive Director and Marilyn Tubbs, Assistant Director of the New Mexico Clean & Beautiful program coordinated all of the details with the communities.  Sue Smith, Keep America Beautiful’s Educational Director and her volunteer husband Jim Smith led our trainings.  Gilda Montano from Keep Santa Fe Beautiful assisted on several of the trainings; Louise Cavatta from NM Department of Transportation assisted in Santa Fe’s training, while Maria Barela from NM DOT assisted in Santa Fe, Rio Rancho and Albuquerque.