PPCP Lesson Plans

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Lessons

These lessons give a thorough understanding of PPCP disposal issues, and extension activities are here to inspire action. All of the videos and online resources can be found on the Resources and Glossary page.

Lesson 1: What are PPCPs and how do they affect me?

Every day you use a variety of products to improve your health or your quality of life. For example, perhaps you have to take a daily medication. That’s a pharmaceutical (P). When you take a shower, you use shampoo, conditioner, soap, and maybe other products. Before you leave, you use toothpaste to brush your teeth. All of those items are considered personal care products (PCPs). The question is where do all of these substances, considered by most to be necessary to every-day life, go when they leave your body or go down the drain? What can you do to be an agent of change when it comes to how pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) enter our environment?

Lesson 2: Wastewater treatment 101: What happens to PPCPs?

When pharmaceuticals and personal care products are flushed down the toilet they are basically “out-of-sight, out-of-mind,” but where do they go from there? Eventually, many of those chemicals end up back in the waterways that we use for our drinking water and recreation. From municipal wastewater treatment systems to private septic fields, knowing what happens after you flush may create a new perspective on what you flush in the future.

Lesson 3: Measuring Toxicity: Lettuce Seed Assay

Pharmaceuticals and personal care products that we ingest or use on our bodies every day are excreted or washed off and ultimately enter the water waste stream. In this lesson, students will conduct dose/response experiments to assess the effect of common household substances on the germination of lettuce seeds.

Lesson 4: Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products in the Environment

Pharmaceuticals not only affect the human body but aquatic wildlife as well. Pharmaceuticals and personal care products find their way into the environment in a variety of ways. As the chemicals amass, wildlife inadvertently consumes them and the effects increase as they travel up the food chain. Depending on how they are released, humans can act on reducing pharmaceutical emissions by adopting healthier habits that, in turn are better for the environment and educating others.

Lesson 5: The Best of Intentions: Product Development

A well-designed product requires planning from “cradle to grave.” Many products have unintended consequences, some good, some bad. The challenge for any designer is how to develop a product that benefits the target audience without adversely affecting unintended populations.Designers must consider the trade-offs, and the answers are not always easy to determine.

Lesson 6: A Look Back: Historical Pharmaceuticals

What did people do for medicinal needs and personal care at the turn of the twentieth century? Thanks to archaeologists at the Illinois State Archaeology Survey and other sources, many of those questions have been answered. There are some interesting and sometimes scary treatments for common ailments that are easily treated today.

Lesson 7: More in Common: Veterinary Medications

Did you know that many animals use the same medications as humans? The disposal methods of all these medications are equally important in keeping contaminants out of our waterways. In this lesson, you will investigate commonly used medications to determine if they are given to both humans and animals.