Classroom Visits
Waste literacy education to grade 4-6 students in the Toronto area
What do we cover?
Our classroom program delivers waste literacy education to grade 4-6 students in the Toronto area. We have a series of four lessons, designed to improve scientific and waste literacy and to foster a sense of curiosity about the natural world and human impacts on the planet.
Our program includes four lessons: 1) The Plastic Cycle; 2) Watersheds and their Relationship to Litter; 3) Impacts of Plastic on Ecosystems; and 4) Solutions to Plastic Pollution. Each lesson is 75 minutes long, and includes inquiry-based learning activities, a reflection on the topics learned and a combination of local and global research connections. Each lesson is designed to stand alone or be taught sequentially over four separate visits.
Our lessons are based on the Global Competencies developed by the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada and aim to prepare the next generation for the future. Matter, energy and sustainability are some of the fundamental concepts connected with the Ontario Curriculum.
To reduce barriers to accessibility, our classroom visits are offered at no charge. We believe everyone should have the opportunity to access materials, participate in science-based learning and help inspire positive actions towards waste reduction.
Our approach
Our school program utilizes a student-to-student teaching model with our team of university students delivering lessons to grade 4-6 classrooms in the Toronto area. Our lessons include a series of STEM-based activities.
Book a classroom visit
We offer in-person classroom visits for Grades 4-6 students within the Toronto District School Board. To ensure our instructors can accommodate their university courses, we can only visit schools within a certain range of the TTC.
- Before booking a visit: Visit our map to confirm your school is within our travel range.
- If your school is outside our designated range or another grade level: Download our free lesson plans or complete our outreach request form to discuss possible arrangements for a single visit by our volunteer ambassadors (subject to available volunteers).
We are a TDSB approved educational partner.
2025/2026 Bookings are fully booked!
Email hayley.mcilwraith@utoronto.ca if you’d like more information or to be added to the waitlist.
Free Lesson Plans
In addition to classroom visits, we have free resources for educators. These include self-directed versions of our lessons and activities we helped curate in collaboration with Ocean School.
Our team of instructors
Thank you to all of our amazing instructors, past, present and future!
2024/2025: Mia Bantas, Alan Bui, Christine D’Souza, Dipta Danena, Irene Ma, Ajantha Nadesalingam, Ruaidhri Neville, Seoyeong Park, Nanor Pontigian
2023/2024: Luke Ax, Alan Bui, Christine D’Souza, Heidi Fukawa, Janelle Hodge, Theo Jacquin, Cindy Li, Katie Monat, Ruaidhri Neville, Meredith Omer, Margad Sukhbaatar
2022/2023: Alan Bui, Hana Fahim, Luana Fakhreddine, Penelope Giesen, Zoe Gin, Mahbano Ibrahim, Mahika Jain, Cindy Li, Katie Monat, Jill Sanderson, Brooke Sutherland, Stefan Teofilovic, Erica Turkiewicz, Gloria Wang
2021/2022: Nadia Gericke, Yulan (Annie) He, Sisley Irwin, Henry James, Megan Kelly, Reena Lepik, Darius Mahdavi, Ashlyn Nance, Sofia Pereira, Dominique Rumball, Jill Sanderson, Varchaya Thillaiambalam, Adeena Zahid
2020/2021: Alishba Afaq, Alana Attai, Emma Bloomfield, Gloria Hui-Yu Gao, Rachel Giles, Su’aad Juman-Yassin, Jill Sanderson, Anusha Srinivasan
Research
In parallel, we aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of our program, enabling us to develop evidence-based strategies for education about plastic pollution. As part of the classroom activity, students were given a short paper questionnaire to assess their understanding of the subject matter and their general environmental attitudes and behaviours prior to receiving the lesson plan. We administered the same survey in the classroom two months after students participated in the lesson plan. The results of this work will be shared in the future.
Dr. Rafaela F. Gutierrez leads this research in collaboration with Dr. Shelby Riskin.
Initial support provided by:
