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Syllabus Session 2, Winter 2009
Solid Waste and Consumption

Week 1 – Solid Waste Introduction

Kansas City residents produce one million pounds of trash each day. In three years this is enough trash to fill Arrowhead Stadium.

Kansas City spends $18 million a year to collect and manage trash and recyclables, including trash dumped illegally. ($130/home)
  • Try playing the garbage game.
  • Read about the world's first ecological landfill island. Click here.
  • Read about a guy who saved all his trash in 2008. Click here.
  • See photos that depict the amount of trash generated in the United States. Click here.
  • Read about the greenest dump in America, in San Francisco. Click here.
Week 2 – Hazardous Waste
Week 3 – Recycling and E-Waste
  • Read about our KC Recycles Program. Click here.
  • Learn where to recycle just about anything in the metro area (including electronics). Click here.
  • Read about Kansas City's Habitat Restore. Click here
  • Read about the problems caused by E-Waste (electronic waste) and Surplus Exchange's E-waste recycling program. Click here.
  • Watch videos and learn to fix your broken electronics. Click here.
Week 4 – Composting
Week 5 – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Zero Waste
Week 6 – Food Production and Plastics
  • Watch the award-winning Meatrix series and learn about the waste and pollution created by large factory farms. Click here.
  • Learn all about the problems with our food production in the United States. Click here.
  • When corporations rule our food. Click here.
  • Watch your foodometer. Click here.
  • Eat more local food. Click here.
  • Plastics, like diamonds are forever. Click here.
  • Learn all about plastics. Click here.
  • The battle of the bag - plastic bag information and video. Click here.
  • A lot of our plastic waste ends up in the ocean. Click here.
  • India's plastic roads. Click here.
  • International Plastics Task Force. Click here.
Week 7 –Life Cycle and Consumption
Week 8 – Exploring Employment
  • Explore careers, watch videos on specific careers and find information including knowledge, skills and education required, wages and growth projections specific to the state of Missouri. Click here.
  • Learn about the Missouri employment outlook. Click here.
  • American Public Works Association  Click here.

Syllabus Session 1, Fall 2008
Sustainability and Urban Water

 
Week 1 – Sustainability and Ecosystems
  • Find out how many planet Earths we’d need if everyone lived like you.  Then learn ways to decrease your impact. Click here.
  • September 23 was Earth Overshoot day, the day we used all the resources nature will generate this year. Click here.
  • If the world's population was reduced to 100, it would look something like this. Click here.
  • Explore unit 4, Ecosystems, including a 30 minute video on rainforests and Yellowstone National Park. Click here.
  • Listen to a wombat explain how everything is connected. Click here.
  • Scientists estimate that cats kill hundreds of millions of birds and over 1 billion small mammals each year in the U.S.  Cats are not a natural part of ecosystems. Click here.
Week 2 – Population and the World’s Water Supply
  • Watch the world population increase. Click here.
  • Learn about the problems with overpopulation. Click here.
  • Explore unit 5, Human Population Dynamics, including a 30 minute video. Click here.
  • Watch a segment of the National Geographic Special, The Human Footprint, depicting the impact of the 3,796 diapers used by an average American baby. Click here.
  • See a visual depiction of the world’s water supply. Click here.
  • Learn about Water Partners, a non-profit based in Kansas City working to provide safe drinking water and sanitation to people in developing countries. Click here.
Week 3 and 4 – Urban Watershed
  • Learn how urbanization affects our water system.click here.
  • Explore a model watershed. click here.
  • Explore unit 8, Water Resources, including a 30 minute video. Click here.
  • Calculate your personal water footprint and ways to reduce your usage. Click here.
  • Learn how to stop water pollution. Click here.
  • Watch an animated video on ground water. Click here.
Week 5 – Green Solutions
  • Learn all about rain gardens and rain barrels at Kansas City’s 10,000 rain gardens website.  Click here.
  • Investigate the Ford River Rouge Plant green initiatives including a living roof, wetlands, and plants being used to remove or neutralize contaminants. Click here.
  • Watch a short video and learn about green roofs, rain gardens and rain barrels. Click here.
Week 6 and 7 – Gray Solutions
  • Research the history of Kansas City’s water treatment process.Click here.
  • Take a virtual sewage treatment tour. Click here.
  • Read about the Bear River Solar Aquatics Treatment Plant, a treatment plant that uses bacteria and small organisms (a living machine) to treat the wastewater for a town. Click here and here.
  • Learn all about water recyling which involves sending treated wastewater back into the groundwater supply to serve as drinking water . Click here and here.
Week 8 – Combined Sewer Overflows
  • Read about combined sewer overflows and Kansas City’s Wet Weather Solutions Program. Click here.
Week 9 and 10 – Water Quality Testing
  • Find out about the prescription drugs, household and commercial cleaning compounds, pesticides and other chemicals in the Blue River Basin. Click here.
  • Read the latest KCMO Water Quality Report. Click here.
Week 11 – Exploring Employment
  • Explore careers, watch videos on specific careers and find information including knowledge, skills and education required, wages and growth projections specific to the state of Missouri. Click here.
  • Learn about the Missouri employment outlook. Click here.
  • American Public Works Association  Click here.

 

 

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