Ready for action?
Resources
Tangible Resources
plastic drink bottles, food waste, waste cardboard boxes, scissors, tape, split pins, tools to cut/melt/join plastic bottles, basic craft materials and equipment
Preparation
Collect waste materials, prepare tools and materials for practical activities.
Goals, messages & concepts
Specific goals
- To develop an understanding of how to deal with waste found in their school environment through hands-on, experiential learning.
- To explore how waste can be made into something useful.
Specific messages
- The 6Rs can be used to help reduce the waste identified in school.
- Waste can be converted into useful products so that it is no longer considered ‘waste’.
Main terms
- 6Rs
- upcycling
- hacking
- repurposing
Practices & skills
STEM practices
- Constructing explanations and designing solutions
- Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information
- Asking questions and defining problems
- Planning and carrying out investigations
Soft skills
- Empathy
- Dealing with uncertainty
- Learning failure is a part of learning
- Teamwork and collaboration
Management skills
- Planning
- Use of resources
Course of activity
step 1
Students will experiment with 3 types of school waste. They can explore all 3, then choose 1 to work with in detail:
- Plastic Waste (recycle & repurpose):
- Students will generate, develop and prototype ideas for recycling/repurposing discarded plastic drink bottles.
- They will discuss how discarded plastic drink bottles can be hacked (i.e. cut, melted, joined), whether they can create a new bottle design, and where components are sourced from discarded products/materials
- Food Waste (reduce & reuse):
- Students will investigate the design of a product or system to facilitate redistribution of unused food within school, for those in need.
- Questions they can consider: How can unused food be stored to prevent spoilage (e.g. cool box)? Can the audience expand to include food businesses/shops? How can spoiled food be processed (e.g. compost/wormery)?
- Students designing a product will consider the design, flat-pack delivery, assembly, material choice, structure and form to enable efficient operation.
- Cardboard Waste (rethink & recycle):
- Students will be challenged to design a use for waste cardboard boxes. For example, they could think about how waste cardboard boxes can be transformed into simple games/toys for children (an example target market could be children who are sick and in hospital or who are visiting patients in hospital, with limited access to toys).
- They should consider if their design be created using tools and materials readily available (e.g. scissors, tape, split pins). Is it possible to produce a set of instructions for DIY users? These instructions can be shared on Instructables.com