Where it came from
Pick one object on your desk. Work backwards: the shop, the truck, the factory, the ground. Most classes stall at the factory, which is the point.
34 schools · K–8
Where a thing goes when you're done with it.
Six weeks, built for a Detroit classroom, taught by us or by you. We bring the materials and we take the marking away with us.
For teachers
- Length
- 6 × 50 min
- Cost
- Free
- Who teaches
- Us, or you
- Prep needed
- None
The unit
Six weeks, and the last one leaves the building.
What it's made of
Sorting by material rather than by object. A tray of mixed things, four bins, and an argument about the ones that are two materials glued together.
Where it goes
The landfill, the incinerator, the ocean, and us. Real Detroit tonnage figures, and a map of where the city's waste physically ends up.
Taking it apart
A dead toaster per table and a screwdriver each. Nothing is put back together. The aim is to see that a thing is a set of parts, not one lump.
Fixing something
A volunteer comes in with the repair bench. Everyone mends one real broken object and takes it home working.
Auditing the school
The class audits its own building's waste for a week and presents the findings to whoever will listen. Several have changed their school's contract.
Scroll sideways, or tab through — six weeks.
What arrives
Everything, in a crate, the week before.
Lesson plansSix, written to Michigan science and social studies standards, with the standard codes in the margin so you can drop them straight into your scheme.Printed + PDF
Materials crateSorting trays, a class set of screwdrivers, safety glasses, and the dead appliances for week four. Collected at the end of week six.We deliver
A volunteerFor week five, and for any other week you would rather not teach yourself. Background-checked, and the same person each visit.On request
Audit packClipboards, scales and a tally sheet for week six, plus a template letter to the district if the class wants to send one.Included
What we needA room with tables, fifty minutes a week, and one adult in it. That is the whole ask.From you
Does it land
Ask the teachers, not us.
“The kids sorted our whole staff room without being asked. Then they audited it, wrote it up, and asked the principal why we had four bins that all went to the same place. He didn't have an answer, and now we have two.”
Ms. Okafor — Burton Elementary, 5th grade
“Week four is chaos and it is the week they remember in June.”
Mr. Reyes — Maybury, 4th grade
34 schools
Running the unit this year, up from nine in 2023. Sixteen are on their third year.
11 audits acted on
Schools that changed a contract, a bin, or a supplier because a class asked them to.
Book a term
We have room for eleven more classes.
Tell us the school and the grade. We will come and sit in on a lesson first, because a unit written for someone else's classroom is no use to yours.