(Washington, DC)- The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI), in partnership with JASON Learning, has relaunched its K-12 recycling curricula that couples updated lesson plans with a comprehensive integration within JASON Learning’s full online STEM curricula. The curricula relaunch is part of the ISRI’s youth outreach initiative that aims to spread the recycling message and inspire career interest in the industry, while providing the scientific and technical background that such jobs require.
“Educating youth on recycling starting at a very early age yields tremendous benefits for our industry,” said Robin Wiener, president of ISRI. “These are the next generations of policy makers, scientists, engineers, and others that will lead our industry down the road. We are proud to be working with an organization such as JASON Learning to ensure students have access the highest quality lesson plans and learning aids that meet the strictest of standards.”
Through the recycling curricula, ISRI and JASON Learning have developed unique lessons that teach the “science of scrap,” and introduce students to a growing industry that needs trained chemists, engineers, metallurgists, and other degreed professionals. The recycling curricula includes standards-based, K-12 activities; interactive web-based experiences to enhance student engagement; classroom posters featuring key educational messages; a leveraged national distribution network; strategies for school visits to ISRI facilities; and age-appropriate lesson plans based on the life cycle for each commodity.
Updates to the curricula include:
1. The development of activity sheets for student distribution;
2. A reevaluation and grade band reassessment for all activities according to the new science standards; and
3. An updated design to fully integrate lessons into the JASON STEM curricula portal.
Moving forward, these changes will allow JASON Learning to maintain a uniform experience throughout its online STEM curricula, as well as ensure activities and lesson plans are current with new standards.
“JASON is delighted to be partnered with ISRI,” said Amy O’Neal, the Regional Director of Educational Partnerships at JASON Learning. “We both have a common mission to improve student and public literacy regarding the earth and its environment. Our goal, as partners, is to ensure that our coming generation is well-positioned to make decisions that will benefit and are compatible with our planet.”
The entire series of lesson plans, online activities, and other teaching tools are free and available at www.isri.org/jason.
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The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, Inc. (ISRI) is the Voice of the Recycling Industry™. ISRI represents more than 1,600 companies in 21 chapters nationwide that process, broker and industrially consume scrap commodities, including metals, paper, plastics, glass, rubber, electronics and textiles. With headquarters in Washington, DC, the Institute provides safety, education, advocacy, and compliance training, and promotes public awareness of the vital role recycling plays in the U.S. economy, global trade, the environment and sustainable development.