Plankton to Plastic Pollution

To view the photo-rich magazine version, click here.

Originally appears in the Winter 2020 issue.

By Andrew Allsup, Zoë Tauxe, Ursula Quillmann, Mike Viney, Andrew Warnock, Courtney Butler, and Lynne Judish

We live in the age of plastic; however, we have noticed that many students are not at all aware of how plastic is produced or the problems it can cause as an ocean pollutant when it is discarded. Plankton to Plastic Pollution, is a self-guided inquiry-based kit designed to teach students about the “plastic cycle.” The kit was developed through a collaboration between oceanography professor Dr. Ursula Quillman, two of her undergraduate students (Allsup and Tauxe), and the Natural Sciences Education and Outreach Center (NSEOC) at Colorado State University (CSU).

The amount of plastic in the oceans has risen with the near exponential increase in plastic production and use in the last 15 years. Plastics can facilitate the introduction of non-invasive species, entangle organisms, concentrate toxic chemicals, and reduce an organism’s appetite.1,2 Plastics weather by breaking down into smaller pieces called microplastics. Microplastics are small non-biodegradable pieces (less than 5 mm) that persist and become a permanent part of the marine environment and create multiple hazards to ocean life.3,4 Microplastics represent a threat to life in our oceans — a threat that must be addressed through education and public policy. Unfortunately, even some of our most effective methods for educating the public about ocean environments, such as public aquariums, often present ocean environments as pristine with no pollution.5

Plankton to Plastic Pollution is a hands-on, minds-on kit that explores the origin and problems with plastic pollution through five student-led investigations that weave together to engage the students in a compelling story tracing plastic from plankton to plastic and back to plankton. In Activity 1, microscopic examination of plankton is used to illustrate, measure, and better understand the base of the ocean food chain and ultimately the reason for why we have abundant hydrocarbons. In Activity 2, students graph real data to analyze the world’s past production of plastics and to estimate future production through extrapolation. Activity 3 utilizes a 3D printed model of the ocean basins that allows students to create their own currents to explore how microplastics are moved within and between oceans. This model is then compared with a real-world ocean current map. In Activity 4, students use a food chain model to graph and analyze data simulating biomagnification: the amplification of toxic substances as they move through the food chain. The final activity helps students plan how they can help with the world’s plastic pollution problem using a 4R framework (refuse, reduce, re-use, and recycle).