Novelis and Discovery Education, a provider of digital content and professional development for K-12 classrooms, launched a new aluminum recycling education program, “Life of a Can – A Never Ending Story.”
Designed to reinforce the importance of aluminum recycling and empower students to be environmental stewards, this new program offers standards-aligned digital learning tools for classrooms and families nationwide that explore the never-ending lifecycle of a recycled aluminum can and encourage classrooms to implement recycling programs of their own. The online tool also features national hockey league defenseman, Stanley Cup Champion, and “eco-athlete,” Andrew Ference, to drive home the importance of recycling and underscore our individual impact on the environment.
Beyond STEM skills, Life of a Can educates the future generation on key recycling facts. This multi-year engagement program offers digital resources designed to stimulate insightful conversations and illustrate STEM at work throughout the aluminum recycling process.
Available at no cost, the new online platform offers the following:
•Interactive classroom activities – The program’s digital learning tools include a complete suite of standards-aligned free educator resources for upper elementary classrooms, which emphasize key STEM, critical-thinking and problem-solving skills for students focused on environmental subjects like sustainability, manufacturing and product lifecycles. Downloadable classroom activities are designed to complement teachers’ existing lesson plans and explore the unique properties of aluminum and its role in our everyday lives. Life of Can lessons ask students to reflect on their own contribution to trash, strategize how they can improve their current practices and understand the environmental benefits of aluminum recycling. A downloadable Recycling Toolkit allows classrooms to create their own classroom recycling programs.
•At-home family resources – Life of a Can’s family extensions encourage students to share their classroom learnings with family members at home through STEM-based activities and family discussion starters that inspire insightful conversations about aluminum and the recycling process. Students will take home a scavenger hunt that illustrates how students’ homes can be powered by the energy saved from aluminum recycling.
•Video vignette – Featuring National Hockey League defenseman and Stanley Cup Champion Andrew Ference, a self-proclaimed “eco-athlete,” the What’s One Can video highlights how recycling saves energy, investigates everyone’s impact on the environment, and details how all students’ can be champions for the environment.
Life of a Can is the first-of-its-kind recycling education program offered by Discovery Education.
Published in the November 2016 Edition of American Recycler News