Litter That Never Leaves

Lab Brief #4

🎯 Your mission

Predict it first. Then prove yourself right (or wrong).

⚡ The twist

Living things break the rules of non-living things — find the rule they break.

What you'll learn

An apple core breaks down in weeks, a drinks can in decades, and a plastic bottle in centuries. Because the timescales differ so wildly, the same amount of litter causes very different amounts of long-term harm.

Key words

biodegradable
Able to be broken down by living things in a reasonable time.
persistent
Remaining in the environment for a very long time without breaking down.

Make a hypothesis first

Predict: what will happen to the plant if you change the water?

Say your guess out loud — then find out if you were right.

Get ready

🧰 What you need

six pots
soil
labels
sample materials
gloves

Get ready

⚠️ Safety first

Wear gloves when burying and digging, and wash hands thoroughly afterwards.
Do not bury anything sharp or anything belonging to someone else.

Step 1 of 4 · Read

Think about what you just learned: say what "biodegradable" and "persistent" mean in your own words before you start.

Step 2 of 4 · Do

Bury six labelled samples — apple, paper, foil, plastic, cotton, polystyrene — in marked pots of damp soil. Dig them up after four weeks, photograph each and rank them by how much broke down.

Step 3 of 4 · Observe

Record what actually happened, including anything that did not match what you expected.

Step 4 of 4 · Record

Write a conclusion that answers the question this lesson opened with, and state your uncertainty.

Question 1 of 2

Which of these is biodegradable?

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Question 2 of 2

A persistent material is one that:

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Mind = blown

🌳 Trees can talk to each other through underground fungus networks.

Nice work!

You got 0 of 2 right.

Next: Choosing What to Measure All lessons

🎯

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✨ More to explore

🌍 Where you see this in real life: This is why plants grow toward windows and why scabs form.

🏆 Stretch challenge (try it this week): Watch a plant or pet for 5 minutes today and write down what you noticed.

👨‍👩‍👧 For the dinner table: “Tell me something you noticed about your own body today.”

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