Earth Day Math Activity for Grades 5-7: Plastic Water Bottle Math

Earth Day Math Activity for Grades 5-7: Plastic Water Bottle Math

Here’s a ready-to-go math inquiry activity and conversation starter for students in grades 5-7 for Earth Day.

Students use their knowledge of:

• Large numbers (to the billions): They calculate how many litres of water are used in 1.3 billion plastic water bottles each day.

• Rounding: They round the population on Earth the nearest billion.

• Multiplication and division with large numbers: They divide the number of litres of water from all the plastic water bottles on Earth each day by the number of litres one classroom can hold.

• Unit conversions (mL to litres and m3 to litres): They calculate how many litres of water their classroom can hold using metres cubed.

• Calculating the volume of a rectangular prism: They calculate the volume of their classroom using length x width x height.

They will determine how many classrooms could be filled with the plastic water bottles used on Earth each day. Spoiler Alert: It’s a shockingly large number!

Then they will think of why some people need to use plastic water bottles, if they actually do, and ways to help reduce the number of plastic water bottles used each day on Earth.

What's Included:

4 Page PDF: Ready to print and go!

Teacher instructions

2 page student worksheet

1 page complete answer key

Grades to Use With:

This activity is designed to be used in grades 5-7 math classrooms when students are learning about large numbers, rounding, volume of rectangular prisms, and unit conversions. It could also be used with older students who already know these math procedures as a way to talk about Earth Day and changes they can make in their lives.

If you enjoy this activity, check out other conservation and global warming lessons in my store:

Personal Carbon Emissions Calculations

Climate Change Solutions STEM Project