Trawling Through the Five Gyres: A Microplastic Research Study

Plastic pollution is a major problem in the world’s oceans (Hale et al., 2020). It is estimated that 10–28 billion pounds of trash entered the oceans in 2010 alone (Jambeck et al., 2015). This plastic is mostly microplastics, or plastic bits smaller than 5 mm (Cozar et al., 2014), which form as plastic products fragment into smaller pieces as they are exposed to environmental conditions. Marine debris researchers are interested in documenting the different types of plastics that accumulate in different oceans, and it is estimated that there are over 170 trillion plastic particles afloat in the world’s oceans today (Eriksen et al., 2023). We have developed a lesson plan by teaming marine science graduate students with K-12 teachers and informal educators, and have incorporated current research into an effective teaching product. In this activity designed for middle school, students will count, graph, compare and contrast, and share results with classmates regarding the plastic in one particular gyre of the ocean. Finally, students will create an action plan to reduce their use of single-use plastics.