JASON Learning and VIMS have partnered to give students compelling information about our diverse waterways and the environmental impact of common but destructive practices with plastics and waste. Your students will learn how we can all work together to better protect our health and aquatic environments with the VIMS – Marine Science: Microplastics Curriculum and the Beyond the Water Bottle: Minimizing Microplastic Pollution Design Thinking Challenge. These resources will educate, motivate, and challenge your students with a focus on personal responsibility as well as an emphasis on Marine Science and the environment.
VIMS
Science for the Bay, Impact for the World
The Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) has a three-part mission to conduct research in coastal ocean and estuarine science, educate students and citizens, and provide advisory service to policy makers, industry, and the public. VIMS provides these services to Virginia, the nation, and the world. Chartered in 1940, VIMS is currently among the largest marine research and education centers in the United States.
Our Partnership
STEM Role Model
Meredith Evans Seeley is a Ph.D. candidate and Freeman Family Fellow in Marine Plastic Pollution. Meredith came to VIMS with a passion for studying plastics after observing first-hand how pervasive plastic pollution can be traveling in the U.S. and to countries such as India, Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Indonesia. She traveled to these places after receiving her Master’s degree in Marine Science from The University of Texas Marine Science Institute, where she studied the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. She received her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Oklahoma in Biology, minor in Spanish language. Meredith is interested in research that helps improve our understanding of, and thus ability to reduce the effects of, pollutants in the marine environment.
You are the next Marine Scientist
Mission – Beyond the Water Bottle: Minimizing Microplastic Pollution
Plastics have dramatically improved the quality of almost every aspect of our lives. We simply cannot live without them, but how might we live smarter with them? The United States Environmental Protection Agency breaks the life cycle of a consumer product into the following stages: raw materials, manufacturing, distribution, usage, and end-of-life management (U.S. EPA). Citizens and their communities are beginning to question how we might better manage the end-of-life stage of plastic products to better protect our health and aquatic environments.
CHALLENGE – Beyond the Water Bottle: Minimizing Microplastic Pollution Design Thinking Challenge
Designed for ages 6-12 (may be modified for younger learners), Interdisciplinary, Design Thinking
Challenge your students to create a sustainable plan that reduces microplastic pollution in their community through the design thinking process. Plastics have dramatically improved the quality of almost every aspect of our lives but plastic pollution is a widespread problem across the world’s oceans, bays, estuaries and rivers. How might we better manage the end of life stage of plastics products to better protect our health and aquatic environments? Join The Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) and JASON Learning for Beyond the Water Bottle: Minimizing Microplastic Pollution Challenge. Students will develop research and data analysis skills while designing and communicating their solutions to a real-world problem. This session includes an exploration of the resources and implementation strategies.