Lethbridge College Environmental Science students share litter stories with school children
Students in Lethbridge College’s School of Environmental Sciences didn’t just research the problem of litter this fall; they shared their knowledge with elementary and junior high students.
College students in Dr. Tali Neta’s Geomorphology class worked in pairs to collect data such as photos, location and types of litter using a free mobile app called OpenLitterMap. Their data is now part of the app’s world map, and one of the students is one of the most prolific app contributors in Canada.
The students created Story Maps, web-based, interactive presentations of photos, text, videos and maps about litter, which they shared over Microsoft Teams sessions to participating classes of younger students.
About a dozen teachers from Lethbridge School Division and Holy Spirit signed up for the online litter presentations which were given over three days in December.
“We need to bring awareness,” Neta says. “People don’t think about the impact of litter to people and wildlife, to our air, soil and water. It’s such an important message. The more people are aware of it, the better for the environment.”
“It’s surprising to me that littering is still a problem. How is it still a thing? We’ve all been educated on littering and it still happens,” says Kevin Brooks, student in the Geomorphology class.
In addition to sharing their knowledge, the students put Lethbridge on the litter map – literally. Where once Lethbridge had no data on the OpenLitterMap app, there are now more than 500 entries in the city. That helped push Canada into the Top 10 of the app’s #LitterWorldCup, and one Lethbridge College student, Emma Tom Tom, is ranked as one of the top app users in Canada.
Tom Tom is now second in Alberta for the most app entries, third in Canada. OpenLitterMap gamifies litter data collection by giving users points for their contributions.
“I thought the game of how much data you’re sharing on the app was brilliant because everybody’s a little bit competitive, right?” Tom Tom says.
“Using the app is an easy process. You take a picture on your phone. The location is already entered using your phone location. You can tag what you see in the photo and if you start typing, let’s say, ‘plastic,’ it will show suggested items, like food plastic, industrial plastic, or a plastic bottle cap.”
Aside from documenting the litter she saw, Tom Tom carried a plastic bag in her backpack to collect what wasn’t a biohazard or too sloppy to carry.
Disposable face masks are now the dominant item littering the landscape, students found. Cigarette butts and fast-food wrappers are also common.
Neta plans to continue using the app, Story Maps and presentations to school children as part of a longer-term research project, with financial support from the Centre for Applied Research Internal Fund (CARIF) and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) institutional grant (SIG). She and instructor Joshua Hill will be researching human behaviours toward litter and wildlife, and they will be collaborating with industry partners to raise awareness and identify solutions.
“You’ve got to take care of Mother Earth. People have to stop that mindset of ‘Oh, I’m just one person in seven billion; how is one person going to change something?’ If we all work together and do our part, we can,” added Emma Tom Tom, student in the Geomorphology class.