Educational Programme
Upstream Battle is all about stopping litter on it's journey from the source in towns, cities, drains and waterways, to ending up in the sea - that's why we call it "source to sea litter".
There are lots of ways that you can get involved in tackling the problem of source to sea litter, by raising awareness, gathering information and taking action in your school and community to help us stop marine litter pollution!
There are a range of activities, resources and ideas linked below for young and very young people to get involved with, as well as material to support school students and their teachers.
Upstream Battle activities for young people
Did you know you can volunteer for Keep Scotland Beautiful and complete regular litter surveys to help tackle marine litter as part of the volunteering requirements for your Duke of Edinburgh award.
You can volunteer by yourself or you can join a local litter picking group to do your volunteering! It’s a great and easy way to volunteer but you will also contribute to cleaning up your community and contribute to a national data set for Scotland.
Please read our Duke of Edinburgh Guidance on how the volunteering works, and looks at the Collect Data page for tips to do a litter survey and create an account to enter your data. You can access all your litter surveys via your account which will be great for reporting on your volunteering.
We know Scouts and the volunteers who support them are passionate about the environment. Our Upstream Battle campaign, where you can do litter surveys as well as a clean-up activity, is a great way to work towards Beaver, Cub and Scout badges and give back to your community.
Not only that, you will be contributing as a citizen scientist to the first ever national river litter data set for Scotland.
Activities for very young people
Next time you go for a walk near a waterway, why not complete our spotter sheet to investigate what you see and consider how it impacts on the environment.
What things do you find ... and what things shouldn't be there?
Upstream Battle school activities
In early 2025 we invited primary schools, early years and ASN schools in the West Partnership, Argyll & Bute, North Ayrshire and South Ayrshire to learn how we can all play our part in tackling the issues around the Arrochar Litter Sink. The activities included:
- A Live Lesson all about the Arrochar litter sink and marine litter
- A workshop on campaigning through the arts
- Resources for teachers to support the lesson and activities
These lessons are designed for upper primary but can suit any age. They can be viewed at any time as part of projects on marine litter and the arts.
We know that 80% of marine litter is estimated to come from land and we need your help to build a detailed picture of source to sea litter.
Your school can help contribute by completing a litter survey at your local waterway. We have put together a large format surveying guide and teaching resource for you to download.
You can find lots of detailed information on planning, completing and submitting litter surveys on our Collect Data page.
STEM the Flow was a pupil-led engineering project for young people that challenged pupils to investigate and identify a solution to help to tackle marine litter upstream at source, by either capturing litter already in our waterways, or finding ways to stop it getting there in the first place!
See the entries from 2022/23 and 2023/24 to be inspired by the ideas of the young people taking part to help tackle the Upstream Battle of source to sea litter.
Have a look at the range of live lesson covering issues around litter and waste.
The Plastic Pollution lessons include a short, inspiring lesson for Early Years-P3 with children’s author Sarah Roberts courtesy of the Scottish Book Trust, a full morning for P4-P7 classes with science writer Isabel Thomas, our own KSB experts and Marine Conservation Society, and a pre-recorded workshop for High Schools.
The Ocean Plastics lessons are hosted by natural history cameraman Doug Allan, and the page includes access to classroom resources to support the live lesson.
Browse the range of Climate Action Schools Resources that can be filtered by learning stage, curricular subject, Eco-Schools topics and Young Reporters theme to support learning about a range of topics including marine litter and waste as well as plastic pollution.
Contact UpstreamBattle@KeepScotlandBeautiful.org for any help with accessing these links or getting started with your volunteering activities.
