My Garbology, produced by Nature Bridge, is an interactive game that teaches students about sorting garbage for recycling, reusing, and composting. Students sort garbage into four bins according to where they think each piece of garbage should go. When a piece of garbage is sorted correctly a series of short animations explains why it should be there. For example, a banana peel should be sorted into the compost bin. When the banana peel is placed into the compost bin students watch and hear a series of animations explaining how composting works.
Sort the used tee shirt into the reuse bin and you can learn how much water is used to produce one cotton tee shirt, how far that tee shirt could travel to get to market, and how long the average American keeps clothing before disposing of it.
Applications for Education
In addition to the interactive game and animations, My Garbology offers a series of lesson plans for all grade levels. These lesson plans encourage students to explore their own impact on the environment and to take action to reduce the amount of garbage that they produce. My Garbology also offers some activities that parents and their children can do at home to learn about recycling and reducing waste.