Introduction

As hazardous materials and hazardous wastes become more and more commonplace, accumulating in our earth, air, and water, it is vitally important that we are well-informed about the challenges posed by these substances. Although hazardous materials offer many conveniences to our society, what we may not be aware of is the potential harm they have on the environment and our bodies.

The challenges posed by hazardous materials glares at us in headlines and stories from all over the United States:

• In a small Kentucky community, tank cars containing toxic substances derailed and burned. The fire caused a column of toxic smoke 3,000 feet high that forced 7,500 area residents to evacuate.
• Two New Jersey workers were killed and five injured by vapors inhaled as they cleaned a chemical mixing vat at a local company.
• In Pennsylvania, a garbage truck operator found his load on fire and dumped it in a residential driveway; mixed chemicals, discarded by a high school science department, released cyanide vapors that sent 100 persons to the hospital.

But the hazardous materials challenge facing our country is not posed simply by chemicals released into the environment by industries. Each individual household creates hazardous waste which, when combined with that from other homes in the same community, presents local government with a potentially serious threat to the local environment and public health. Furthermore, automobiles emit nitrous oxide and several air toxins.

By becoming informed about hazardous materials, laws, issues, and protective actions, we can contribute to reducing their community’s hazardous materials threat.

Thus, the following unit plan was developed to educate elementary school children on important issues surrounding hazardous materials.

This unit includes:

• complete lesson plans and hands-on investigations
• clearly stated learner objectives
• vocabulary lists to correspond with each lesson
• extension activity ideas
• curriculum connections –in language arts, math, science, social studies & art
• group projects –to foster cooperative learning
• a culminating activity –which requires students to synthesize their learning to produce a product or engage in an activity that can be shared with others
• a glossary which defines all vocabulary to be used throughout the unit

Environmental education is an important part of childhood curriculum. This unit plan provides children the opportunity to explore hazardous materials and their place in the environment. By providing time for your students to learn about and investigate hazardous materials, you can help them develop an appreciation for and understanding of their place in society.