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Resources
Tangible Resources
Waste for students to make their own paper (e.g. scrap paper or vegetable peelings such as celery, banana, mangos), food waste, single use bags, bags for life, standard plastic bags, biodegradable bags, data on heating and energy costs of the school building
Human Resources
school’s Business Manager
Preparation
Organise the involvement of the school’s Business Manager, prepare a variety of investigations.
Goals, messages & concepts
Specific goals
- To investigate and understand 3 waste strands that they can see in their school.
- To understand the ways students can contribute to reducing the waste produced in their school.
- To recognise how reused waste can be used to solve other problems within the school.
- To begin to understand the amount of energy it takes to recycle raw materials.
Specific messages
- The school itself produces all kinds of waste.
- The school manages different waste in different ways.
- Waste can be reused in different ways.
- Recycling raw materials can be good but it can take a lot of time and energy to too (and can still produce some waste).
- There are different impacts of using different types of plastic bags.
Main terms
- processing waste
- reuse
- recycle
Practices & skills
STEM practices
- Analysing and interpreting data
- Constructing explanations and designing solutions
- Engaging in argument from evidence
- Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information
- Using mathematics and computational thinking
- Asking questions and defining problems
- Planning and carrying out investigations
Soft skills
- Teamwork and collaboration
Management skills
- Planning
- Use of resources
Course of activity
step 1
Students engage in scientific investigation of each of the three waste strands. These will be delivered on a carousel of lessons in science, design & technology and art (in no particular order).
step 2
Food Waste (science lesson)
- Students will investigate how food waste can be used as biofuel, analysing different foods’ energy content.
- Next, they will interview the school’s Business Manager about the heating/energy costs of the building, and then compare energy from wasted food against energy used in the school.
- They will then explore the question ‘how long could the school be heated using food waste?’ by calculating the energy needed to heat water vs. the energy produced by food.
step 3
Paper waste (art lesson)
- Students will first look at the rate of deforestation and learn about the impacts of the logging industry in order to make paper.
- They will then interview the school Business Manager about the amount of waste paper produced.
- They will make their own paper from waste, by pulping recycled paper and combining it to create new paper. Paper can also be made from food waste such as apple peels.
- Students will consider the energy needed to make paper and turnover of raw materials.
step 4
Plastic waste (design & technology lesson)
- Students will conduct two investigations - single use vs bags for life, and standard plastic bags vs biodegradable bags.
- They will investigate mechanical properties, functionality, production and cost effectiveness in order to assess which is the ‘better’ choice.
- Students will also learn about the Hooke’s Law test.