Tracking Trash: Flotsam, Jetsam, and the Science of Ocean Motion

Teach children about all the reasons to keep the ocean clean!

Burns, Loree Griffin.
Tracking Trash: Flotsam, Jetsam and the Science of Ocean Motion.
April 2010.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Guided Reading Level: NR
Review copy provided courtesy of publisher.

Tracking Trash: Flotsam, Jetsam and the Science of Ocean Motion describes the May 27, 1990 in which a cargo ship carrying Nike sneakers and bath toys dumped a load of the cargo into the ocean and began showing up along Seattle beaches. The book goes on to explain how Ebbesmeyer, an oceanographer who studies the trash that shows up in the ocean (flotsam), used the information and objects collected along the Seattle beaches to track ocean currents using a computer program known as OSCURS. Ultimately, the book is trying to make readers aware of the dangers of ocean pollution and the need to protect the environment.

The book is very detailed, and because of this would likely be most appropriate for more advanced readers (grades 4+). However, if you used the book in as a companion to David Wiesner’s Flotsam, a book that I think it would be a wonderful resource, especially if children have specific questions they are looking for answers to!

Learning/Reading Activity:

• Spend a day at the ocean (or beach) and create a flotsam and jetsam monster, as described in Seashore Treasure Hunt and Making a Flotsam and Jetsam Sea Monster.
  

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