1. Plastic Foam Under Fire

New York City may be declaring war on the plastic-foam container. Plastic foam food packaging, which is not biodegradable, can add up to $20 per ton in recycling costs for the city. Now Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has asked the New York City Council to ban plastic foam takeout boxes, trays and cups; require schools to remove plastic foam trays from their cafeterias, and force many restaurants to restock. The mayor’s office has estimated that the city’s annual waste stream includes about 20,000 tons of plastic foam each year. Similar measures are already in effect in some other cities, including Los Angeles and San Francisco in California. Besides the recycling benefits, a New York official said, “getting rid of it means our parks, our streets and our waterways will all be cleaner.” With the newspaper or Internet, find a proposal designed to aid the environment. Draw an editorial cartoon for the newspaper giving your opinion about the idea.

Common Core/National Standard: Using drawings or visual displays when appropriate to enhance the development of main ideas or points.

2. Nuts About Nuts?

The government of the Middle East nation of Iran has ordered a six-month moratorium on exports of pistachio nuts. The moratorium has been put in place to increase supply inside Iran and reduce prices, which have doubled in the last month. It’s unclear whether it may be too late to reduce domestic prices in time for Iran’s Nowruz celebration, a New Year holiday when pistachios are in especially high demand. The nuts are one of Iran’s most profitable products, and the moratorium is not popular with growers. The Iran government discourages dissent, but the chairman of the nation’s chamber of exports denounced the moratorium as a mistake that could cost Iran more than $500 million in lost export revenue. The export of goods, services and food products is a big part of most nations’ economies. Find a story about a product one nation exports in the newspaper or online. Write a summary of why this product is important to the nation.

Common Core/National Standards: Using technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and present the relationships between information and ideas efficiently, as well as to interact and collaborate with others; integrating information presented in different media or formats to develop a coherent understanding of a topic or issue.

3. Less Sugar in Soda

The Center for Science in the Public Interest group has filed a petition with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, urging it to require that beverage makers reduce the amount of fructose and other sweeteners in drinks. “The science is now very strong” that current levels of high-fructose corn syrup are unsafe for human consumption, a spokesman for the Center said. Several experiments and studies have linked sugary soft drinks to obesity and other health problems. The petition follows recent official actions to curb consumption of sugary drinks. New York City’s mayor is pushing a measure to ban sale of large soft drinks, and other municipalities have voted on ballot measures to tax the sale of sugary drinks. The petition to the FDA was signed by dozens of agencies, advocacy groups, scientists and the Philadelphia Department of Health in Pennsylvania. Use your newspaper and the Internet to learn more about the health effects of sugary soft drinks. Write a short presentation for the class and discuss.

Common Core/National Standards: Engaging effectively in a range of collaborative discussions; producing clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization and style are appropriate to the task, purpose and audience.

4. Beauties ‘Coming Home’

The Miss America pageant is coming “back home” to Atlantic City, New Jersey, where it originated in 1921 and was an annual September tradition until 2006. Back, too, will be the Boardwalk parade along Atlantic City’s beach and other fanfare in the weeks leading up to the pageant. The final night of competition will be broadcast live on ABC-TV. “The pageant belongs here,” declared the Miss America Pageant’s president at a press conference in the New Jersey resort city, and a rejoicing Atlantic County official proclaimed, “Miss America IS Atlantic City … and she’s coming home.” As a class, discuss how an event like the Miss America pageant can benefit a city economically and in other ways. Then use the newspaper and Internet to find an event that benefits your city or state. Write a paragraph describing the benefits of this event to its host community.

Common Core/National Standards: Producing clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization and style are appropriate to the task, purpose and audience.

5. The Price of Movie Tickets

In case you hadn’t noticed, it’s been costing a little more to go to the movies. Not much more — an average of 3 cents more per ticket, according to the National Association of Theater Owners. Tickets now average $7.96 nationwide. One reason may be that theater owners, faced with declining interest in pricier 3-D offerings, are charging more for regular tickets. The increase actually is much smaller than in other years; from 2008 to 2010, ticket prices rose more than 4 percent annually. Use your newspaper to find a movie you would like to see. If tickets cost an average of $7.96, estimate what it would cost in total for you and three friends to go the movie; for you and 10 friends to go the movie; for your entire class to go to the movie. Then calculate the exact costs and compare them to your estimates.

Common Core/National Standard: Representing and solving problems involving addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.