The Orange County Department of Education Inside the Outdoors team is proud to partner with
OC Waste & Recycling to offer free EcoChallenge standards-aligned curricula to K-12 educators alongside related family engagement resources.
Sample images from the Kindergarten Curriculum
How to Get the Curriculum
The EcoChallenge curriculum was created to increase countywide consciousness and awareness of landfill processes, organic waste diversion, and resource recovery through academic standards-aligned classroom lessons, student activities, and family engagement materials. You are helping California achieve its goal of a 75% reduction in waste by 2025!
New Update!
We’re excited to share that our partnership with OC Waste & Recycling is expanding, and we’ll soon be rebranding this program as Project Zero Waste (PZW) with updated TK–12 lessons. While those resources are being developed, teachers can continue to access and use the EcoChallenge lessons below.
Each grade level has its own Google Form for registration. Please browse the descriptions below and click on the link for your grade level. Once you submit the requested information (such as name, school, district, grade, class size, and whether you can share student work or photos), you’ll receive the appropriate resources within 24–48 hours.
We greatly appreciate your feedback on the current EcoChallenge curriculum through the educator survey, as well as any student stories, photos, or classwork related to waste diversion. This input helps us improve both EcoChallenge and the upcoming Project Zero Waste lessons.
By registering, teachers also enter raffles for exclusive prizes from the Los Angeles Angels and Anaheim Ducks, including autographed memorabilia!
Materials Offered:
Kindergarten: Students will understand the importance of organics recycling programs and how they can participate through the Allison Apple: The Adventure of Organics Recycling story to help to reduce the negative impact of landfilling food waste on our environment.
Interested? Please complete GoogleForm - Eco Challenge Kindergarten.
1st Grade: Students will learn about the problem of food waste in landfills through a story with Omar Orange. After reading Part I, students will conduct a survey of what happens to food at their school during lunch. Then, students read Part II before discussing and defining the food waste problem at their school and beginning to think about desired features of a solution. Interested? Please complete GoogleForm - Eco Challenge 1st Grade.
2nd Grade: During these activities, students will learn about California's efforts to increase organic waste diversion and simple composting procedures. The Activities include an interactive Thinglink page to guide student learning, a lab where students investigate materials and their properties, and a composting experiment where students identify the materials from the lab which are best suited for use in composting. Interested? Please complete GoogleForm - Eco Challenge 2nd Grade.
3rd Grade: Students will learn about trash and the importance of organics recycling through a presentation before being presented with a design challenge: Compost bin for the school. While students engage in these activities, they will be supported in achieving grade-appropriate Science and ELA standards, as well as Transformative Social and Emotional Learning (T-SEL) competencies. Interested?
Please complete GoogleForm - Eco Challenge 3rd Grade.
4th Grade: Students will learn about trash and the importance of organics recycling through a presentation before being presented with a design challenge: a collection bin for organic waste to be placed in the lunch area at school. While students engage in these activities, they will be supported in achieving grade-appropriate Science and ELA standards, as well as Transformative Social and Emotional Learning (T-SEL) competencies. Interested? Please complete GoogleForm - Eco Challenge 4th Grade.
5th Grade: Students will engage in activities designed to help them understand what OCWR does to help protect the environment and surrounding communities from the landfill and how they can help OCWR with waste management in their homes, school, or community. Interested? Please complete GoogleForm - Eco Challenge 5th Grade.
Middle School: Students will engage in activities designed to support them in asking questions to clarify evidence of the factors that have caused the rise in global temperatures over the past century.
Interested? Please complete GoogleForm - Eco Challenge Middle School.
High School: Students learn about the connection between climate change and methane from organic waste in landfills, including food waste. Then, using the engineering design process, students will research the rules and regulations for edible food recovery to design a food recovery system for their school, present it to their class, and refine the design based on feedback.
Interested? Please complete
GoogleForm - Eco Challenge High School.
Do you need flyers to help spread the word about this amazing opportunity? Please click on the images below.
