Educators can schedule a classroom lesson with BRING (available in Lane County only) or download a lesson plan for self-guided instruction to help students examine the origins of materials found in everyday products and the stages of a product’s lifecycle. They learn how these items come into existence, sustainable options for these products when they’re done using them, and how their choices can make a difference in reducing waste and saving natural resources.

Ready to schedule? Email educator@bringrecycling.org to get started.

Educators can schedule a classroom lesson with BRING (available in Lane County only) or download a lesson plan for self-guided instruction to help students examine the origins of materials found in everyday products and the stages of a product’s lifecycle. They learn how these items come into existence, sustainable options for these products when they’re done using them, and how their choices can make a difference in reducing waste and saving natural resources.

Ready to schedule? Email educator@bringrecycling.org to get started.

Educators can schedule a field trip with BRING (available in Lane County only) to tour BRING’s Planet Improvement Center, Oregon’s first combination reuse store and conservation learning center. Students learn about the lifecycle of stuff, see a wide selection of salvaged building materials on sale or made into upcycled artwork, and are inspired to think about materials differently. Virtual tours are available if needed. Note: Educators outside of Lane County or Lane County educators with scheduling challenges can download the accompanying field trip lesson plan, which includes a link to a “virtual field trip.”

Ready to schedule? Email educator@bringrecycling.org to get started.

Students are presented with examples of the types of problems that environmental engineers solve, specifically focusing on water quality issues. Topics include the importance of clean water, freshwater scarcity, tap water contamination sources, and ways environmental engineers treat contaminated water.

Students measure the effectiveness of water filters in purifying contaminated water, preparing test water by creating different concentrations of bleach (chlorine-contaminated) water. After passing the contaminated water through commercially available Brita® water filters designed to purify drinking water, students determine the chlorine concentration of the purified water using chlorine test strips and measure the adsorption of chlorine onto activated carbon over time.

This lesson conveys core information about why air quality is essential and how engineers tackle complex environmental problems, providing a foundation for the subsequent five related activities.

Students discuss where energy comes from, including fossil fuel, nuclear energy, and renewable technologies such as solar power. After this initial exploration, students investigate the three main types of heat transfer: convection, conduction, and radiation.

Students evaluate everyday energy conversion devices and draw block flow diagrams to show the forms and states of energy into and out of devices. They also identify useful forms of energy, desired device outputs, and energy forms that are not useful for an item’s intended purpose.

The “Asteroid Impact” unit challenges students to locate, design, and engineer underground caverns to shelter people from an uninhabitable Earth for one year after an asteroid is detected on course for the planet.

Through discussion and hands-on experimentation, students learn about the ancient geological carbon cycle, including the role of dinosaurs in the cycle, the storage of carbon as chalk, and the importance of the cycle to life on Earth.