Researcher ORCID Identifier

0009-0000-8227-2103

Graduation Year

2025

Document Type

Open Access Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Environmental Analysis

Second Department

Organizational Studies

Reader 1

Melinda Herrold-Menzies

Reader 2

Jeff Lewis

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Terms of Use for work posted in Scholarship@Claremont.

Rights Information

© 2025 Kaylee V Morris

Abstract

This thesis presents Beyond the Bin, a collaborative inquiry-based environmental education curriculum designed to transform how young learners understand and interact with waste. Motivated by the limitations of current downstream waste education—focused primarily on consumer behavior and individual disposal practices—this project argues for an upstream approach that identifies the underlying cause of these prevalent systems of disposability. Grounded in environmental education theory, affective learning, and ecological literacy, the curriculum encourages students to rethink waste as a material with creative potential rather than something to discard. Through creative engagement, experiential learning, and community-based initiatives, the curriculum fosters collaboration between students, teachers, families, and schools. Its components include a letter to the families, a K–5 learning grid, three sample lessons, eight schoolwide collaborative inquiry initiatives, supplementary lesson plan activities, and notes for implementation. Together, these tools provide flexible, value-driven strategies for teaching about waste in ways that are developmentally appropriate, culturally responsive, and deeply immersive. By centering waste education in curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking from an early age, Beyond the Bin offers an accessible, scalable, upstream intervention to reshape environmental behaviors and spark long-term cultural change.

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