STANDARDS

CCSS: 3.OA.D.8

TEKS: 3.5A, 3.5B

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Ocean Trash Art

Renee Peck/NolaVie

More than 12 million tons of trash ends up in the ocean each year. Artists used ocean trash to create this sculpture of a sea dragon.

Old toothbrushes, water bottles, and plastic bags have no place in the ocean. But when they wash up on Oregon beaches, they could become art!

Angela Haseltine Pozzi is an artist. She volunteers with an organization called Washed Ashore. Members collect plastic on Oregon’s beaches. Then the group creates giant, colorful sculptures out of the trash.

Courtesy of washedashore.org

Most recently, Pozzi helped build a sea dragon, which she named Steve. It’s currently on display in New Orleans, Louisiana. The group hopes their art will bring attention to the problem of ocean pollution.

Solve It!

The group used 36 green plastic bottles to look like kelp leaves for the sculpture of Steve. The bottles are divided equally among 3 branches.

Write an equation with the variable b to calculate how many bottles are on each branch.

Algebraic Thinking
Variables and Unknowns
equation

A number sentence that includes an equal sign; the values on each side of the equal sign are the same.

Example: 5 + 4 = 9
variable

A letter or symbol that represents an unknown value

Example: 7 – x = 4. The variable in this equation is x. Solving the equation will give you the value of x.
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