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STEM Learning
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These resources have been reviewed and selected by STEM Learning’s team of education specialists for factual accuracy and relevance to teaching STEM subjects in UK schools.
Catalyst mini edition
In this mini edition of Catalyst magazine, marine biologists Magnus Johnson and Melanie Coull, from the University of Hull, explore just how little we know about plastic waste in the ocean.
The world generates 288m tonnes of plastic worldwide each year, but little is known about it's fate in the ocean once it has been thrown ‘away’. The article In the ocean the most harmful plastic is too small to see explores how "We don’t yet know precisely how plastic nanoparticles interact with marine fauna but we do know that they can be absorbed at the level of individual cells. And what’s worse is they’re very efficient carriers of organic molecules such as estradiol, the drug used for birth control and IVF that finds its way through our sewage system into the sea."
This article is accompanied by teachers’ notes and student handouts to help bring the article alive in the classroom. Plus two sets of related teaching activities:
Plastics in the ocean: resources for biologists
Plastics in the ocean: resources for chemists
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Downloads
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Catalyst (mini new edition) 2.89 MB
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Teachers' notes 17.17 KB
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Task menu 13.07 KB
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Concept map 11.99 KB
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True, false or not enough evidence 13.15 KB
Show downloads
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Catalyst (mini new edition) 2.89 MB -
Teachers' notes 17.17 KB -
Task menu 13.07 KB
-
Concept map 11.99 KB
-
True, false or not enough evidence 13.15 KB
Download all files as a .zip2.79 MB
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