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5
Research
Preparation time: 30 min
Teaching time: 2 × 50 min

Creating new ‘honest’ packaging

Students will design new ‘honest’ packaging for the food products that they investigated in LU2 and previous Learning Units. They will convert the original packaging to their honest packaging which will explain - truthfully - what the product does for your body, mind and wellness. They will then share what they have learnt with the community.

Format

  • Digital experiences
  • Discussion
  • Group work
  • Hands on activity

Age

  • 13-15

What

The possible connections with your curriculum

  • Citizenship
  • Design
  • Healthy Lifestyle

Who

The people who take up the teacher role

  • Other school personnel
  • Teacher

Where

The locations where learning takes place

  • Classroom
  • Digital space
  • Make lab

With

The community stakeholders to collaborate with

-

Ready for action?

Resources

Web links

Tangible Resources

scissors, thick paper, card, glue, rulers, box-cutter, tape, cutting mat, craft knife, printer, laser cutter, computer

Preparation

Gather materials and equipment; optional work with teacher or contact local makerspace to assist in the making process.

Goals, messages & concepts

Specific goals

  • To design and produce packaging.
  • To update existing templates to model more accurate messages.
  • To learn how to influence your community in a positive way through good design.

Specific messages

  • As a designer, you can influence the world around you in a positive way.

Main terms

  • packaging and advertising
  • net
  • tabs
  • data visualisation

Practices & skills

STEM practices

  • Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information
  • Using mathematics and computational thinking
  • Asking questions and defining problems
  • Planning and carrying out investigations

Soft skills

  • Empathy
  • Learning failure is a part of learning
  • Teamwork and collaboration

Management skills

  • Planning
  • Use of resources

Course of activity

step 1

Students will examine the packaging of a snack product. Whilst the back of the packaging with facts is mostly regulated by authorities, deceiving claims are usually made on the front by flexing the truth such as upscaling the facts. Working in groups, they will measure the original packaging and recreate the net (template) with the use of an online tool (template maker, see links).

step 2

They will then download the template and convert the file to .DXF so that it can be laser-cut in card (i.e. use open source design software such as Inkscape).

step 3

Next, they will fold the net along the scored lines to create the 3D shape and glue the tabs together.

step 4

Students will research the nutritional function of the ingredients in the snack product considering body, mind and wellness. They will select what information they think is important to share with others. Using design software, they will make this information look appealing by using logos, fonts, colours, graphics, etc.

step 5

They will then apply this design to a ‘sleeve’ to fit the 3D net. This will be printed to fold around the cardboard ‘body’ of the packaging.

step 6

Students can then compare the original packaging with their new honest packaging. By creating packaging that tells the truth, they can share what they have learnt about nutrition with consumers in the community.