This short animated video includes a song about the negative effects of straws on the environment and the need to stop using them.
This video is a fun way to teach younger students about reducing plastic consumption and plastic pollution, and it includes discussion questions and additional links.
Teaching Tips
Positives
The video uses a catchy song and engaging animations to communicate an important message.
The video links reducing our use of straws to protecting wildlife.
Additional Prerequisites
Students should be familiar with terms like sustainability and pollution before watching the video.
The song is fast-paced at times and may need to be paused between verses or replayed.
Differentiation
This resource can also be used in economics classes during lessons about the effects of reducing consumption on the supply and demand of a product.
For more advanced classes, challenge students to consider how using straws is tied to greenhouse gas emissions and climate change.
Science classes can use this video when discussing pollution, aquatic animals, or decomposition.
Similar resources include this video on fast composting and this video about walking to save energy.
Scientist Notes
This video centers around a group of friends, along with the green ninja, investigating the use of plastic straws. This video would make a great addition to a classroom discussing the dangers of plastic straws and how their use can have a negative impact on the planet.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
MS-ESS3-3 Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment.
College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Standards
Dimension 4: Taking Informed Action
D4.7.6-8 Assess their individual and collective capacities to take action to address local, regional, and global problems, taking into account a range of possible levers of power, strategies, and potential outcomes.
Common Core English Language Arts Standards (CCSS.ELA)
Language (K-12)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.3.5 Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships and nuances in word meanings.
Speaking & Listening (K-12)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.6.2 Interpret information presented in diverse media and formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) and explain how it contributes to a topic, text, or issue under study.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.6.5 Include multimedia components (e.g., graphics, images, music, sound) and visual displays in presentations to clarify information.