K-6 Education

"Educating for the Environment-Waste In Place"

We have a curriculum guide for teachers of grades K-6 as well as Activity Books, Pencils and Brochures.

"Environmental Awareness" best begins to describe this project; however, these up-to-date, professional and exciting lesson plans address all of the critical categories of today’s environmental improvement world.

Keep Mississippi Beautiful/People Against Litter is associated with the national organization Keep America Beautiful Systems which publishes Waste In Place. This curriculum guide is designed to help teachers move their students from very basic anti-litter lessons to challenging projects and lessons involving up-to-date waste reduction methods and waste handling processes.

What objectives will be achieved?

Creating a lasting impression on students of the sources of municipal waste, the characteristics of this waste, and the various options for handling it.

Teaching students that litter prevention, waste reduction, recycling, composting, waste-to-energy, and landfill are all methods of handling waste. These points must be understood and intelligently utilized if we are to successfully manage the waste we produce.

Instilling in students the important relationship that must exist between personal attitudes and solid waste handling practices as they mature as individuals and as members of the community.

Why is this effort needed?

No single method of dealing with the solid waste offers a solution to all the challenges of waste handling. That is why this curriculum guide was designed and created to present an integrated approach to solid waste management teaching and the options of litter prevention, waste reduction, recycling, composting, waste-to-energy, sanitary landfills, etc. Waste In Place is new to many educators in Mississippi; however, those having an opportunity to receive and utilize this guide have been resounding in their praise of this material. Teachers appreciate that this curriculum is not designed to be presented as a separate unit or "something extra to have to teach." Rather that the lesson plans are interdisciplinary and may be used in their entirety or as excellent complements to existing curricula already being taught throughout grade K-6.

Who will benefit from this project?

Students will have exciting, challenging and comprehensive lessons available that are not only designed to teach them to protect the environment, but designed to improve their critical-thinking problem-solving and decision-making skills.

Teachers will receive not only the curriculum guide, but are given hands-on training in a free, six-hour workshop provided by KMB/PAL. These workshops are also accredited for .5 hour of continuing education credit and each participant is provided a certificate and the necessary forms to apply for this credit.

Schools will have trained teachers with deliverable and up-to-date environmental curriculum available for immediate application.

Families will have an enthusiastic environmental advocate schooled in reducing and managing solid waste. Hopefully, they will also have a young conscience actively encouraging the family to be responsible in all environmental matters.

Neighborhoods and Communities will benefit from the development of concerned and educated citizens who will take their place in the environmental society and work to make a difference.