Outreach & Education

Talking Trash & Taking Action is a marine debris education partnership between Ocean Conservancy and the NOAA Marine Debris Program. It was developed as a means to educate the next generation about ocean trash and, most importantly, how we all can prevent it.

Start Here: Talking Trash & Taking Action Instructor’s Guide
Talking Trash & Taking Action: Supplementary Materials:

• Debris Deck – Use these cards in many of the activities included in the Instructor’s Guide
• What Doesn’t Belong? – Introduce common ocean trash items with this search and coloring page
• Trash Tale: The Journey of Junk – A fun mad lib activity page
• Tall Trash Tale Two – A shorter spin on an ocean trash mad lib
• Digging for Debris – Instructions for a hands-on activity, great as a table-top activity or in the school yard
• Youth Ocean Trash Data Form – A youth-friendly version of Ocean Conservancy’s traditional volunteer ocean trash data form. Check out Clean Swell® as an additional way to easily collect debris data.
• Rivers of the United States – Map for discussion of how trash travels, inland to ocean concept
• Current, Current Where Do You Go? – Map for discussion of how trash travels, introducing major ocean currents
• Current, Current Where Do You Go? Instructors Key
• Global Ocean Gyres: “Plastic Soup” – Map for discussion of how trash travels, introducing gyres
• How Long Until It’s Gone? – Chart from Instructor’s Guide
• Trashy Crossword Puzzle – Activity page
• Trash Talkin’ Word Find – Activity page
• Six Degrees of Separation – Infographic, how trash travels

Spanish – Talking Trash and Taking Action: Instructor Guide
Talking Trash & Taking Action: Supplementary Materials:

• What Doesn’t Belong? – Spanish
• Current, Current Where Do You Go? – Spanish

Additional Resources:

• Try the 6-week Trash Free Challenge
• Trash Trivia
• Talking Trash Q&A
• Ocean Trash Poster
• Can You Top Last Year’s Finds? Data Detective Poster

For additional information please contact cleanup@oceanconservancy.org.