School tours of the award-winning state-of-the-art Shoreway Environmental Center in San Carlos offer students an opportunity to learn first-hand what happens to their recyclables, yard trimmings, food scraps, and garbage at a working Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) and Transfer Station. Now you can do it from the comfort of your classroom or home!
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Virtual Tour Information
All school virtual tours are an hour and fifteen minutes long via Zoom and open to 3rd grade and up. Teachers can schedule a tour here. Tours are scheduled on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Tours are typically held at 10am or 1pm, Monday through Friday.
To inquire about alternative tour dates and times, please email tours@rethinkwaste.org with requests.
Standard Tour includes:
- Required: Pre-tour lesson for students to get them thinking about waste! Teachers can choose from a variety of Common Core aligned lessons provided by RethinkWaste.
- A virtual “visit” to the Transfer Station and Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) accompanied by live narration from RethinkWaste Staff.
- Interactive discussion and activity about resource conservation and the 4Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Rot/Compost).
We are limiting the virtual tour to one classroom (approximately 40 students and adult chaperones) per timeslot.
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Virtual Tour Activity Options
Please let us know what activity you would like your class to participate in when you schedule your tour.
- Sorting Game: Students will have the opportunity to practice sorting a bag of waste as a group. The waste examples will include common, everyday items as well as a few tricky ones that will require students to use their critical thinking skills to choose the proper bin (compost, recycling, or garbage) for where the item belongs.
- Waste Scavenger Hunt: Students search around their living space for example waste items and work together to decide which bin the items belong in.
- Waste Pictionary: Students draw example waste items, identify the items, and choose which bin the items belong in.
The tour program seeks to engage students and increase their knowledge through active learning experiences. The curriculum goal is to educate kids in resource conservation and 4Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Rot/Compost) behaviors so that they will be empowered to conserve resources in their lives and practice recycling at their schools and residences.
Tour activities and lessons are based on best practices in environmental education and align with California State Common Core Standards.