2021 OVERVIEW

I started to create this learning scenario the last academic year and during this current period I have continued working on it, including new resources and activities to enrich the unit. Also the fact to work with a different group of students make it more interesting.

The topic is plastics, focused to real life. Students discover the types of plastic, the real information that appear printed, the Pacific Garbege Patch, the lifecycle of a plastic bottle, the textiles, the bioplastics and how to make bioplastic at home...

Different resources were used. All material created (we work with worksheets, I prepare them for the students to work) are upload to a onenote 

We also did a workshop but due to current COVID19 situation they did at home. They look for different plastics, classified them and experiment about the density. They record a video using flipgrid.

Finally they made bioplastic at home and the experiment was share with classmates at home.

Materials and resources

The learning scenario is based on worksheets created by the teacher. All the material used can be found here.

To create the material I was inspired by several resources, such as this one included in the Scientix Repository http://www.scientix.eu/resources/details?resourceId=6810

I encourage other teachers to visit this site and have a look to the resources there to use them in their lessons. It is a present-day topic and, from my experience, students learn and have fun at the same time.

 LAST GRADE PROJECT

A student in last grade develop a project based on bioplastics. And she made bioplastic at home but using other materials (agar agar) All research can be found here 

Magazine about bioplasti

SOME PICS

 

Here some pics that show some of the activities done:

The last grade student seting out the bioplastic research.

A student explaining the bioplastic experiment he did.

Bioplastic at home. One of the samples students did. 

pH measurement as a part of the bioplastic experiment. 

Building monomers

Puzzle. How PET is obtained. 

Students created original waste timelines. 

Lifecycle of a plastic bottle. Organizing cards to create a story. 

A student telling the story. 

ONE NOTE

 In one note all resources are available

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OVERVIEW

INTRODUCTION

Plastics are part of our daily consumption habits. We are completely surrounded by plastics. Have a look at your fridge, the objects in your bathroom, in the school.... Plastics are every where.

Plastic is a non-biodegradable material made from petrochemicals and not found in nature. As it is known, the pollution due to this material is growing and growing.

By this scenario, students will be aware of the amount of plastics they used, where they come from, the characteristics. Furthermore, keeping in mind the consequences that plastics have in our future life, they will raise their responsability to the enviroment, not only by recycling plastics but also reducing them (the 3R' s rule).

Finally, they will reseach on bioplastics and they will make bioplastic in lab from milk!

AUDIENCE TARGET and AREAS involved:

Grade: 3º ESO students (15 years old).
Number of students involved: 91

Areas: Technology and general sciences


LEARNING OBJECTIVES


By developing this scenario students will:

Be aware of the real situation about plastic pollution
Identify plastics in daily life
Understand the differneces between the types of plastics and their main characteristics.
Familiarize students with bioplastic
Work in the lab to make bioplastic
Understand what a bioplastic is and the future of that kind of material.
Have to collaborate in group
Share ideas and discuss about the topics

BLOOM SCHOOL BOX RESOURCES

Growing plastic and new life for plastic

ACTIVITY 1: WHAT ARE PLASTICS

By reading the worksheet and using it together with the digital scenario (quizlet), students will fill in the gaps and learn what a plastic is and where it comes from.

Later, they will built a polymer using play dough

Worksheet: what are plastics

Workhseet: where does plastic come from

QUIZLET: plastics are made of...

handmade PVC monomer

handmade plastic

ACTIVITY 2: TYPES OF PLASTICS

By this activity, students will firstly classify the types of plastics and their characteristics.

After, they will research to know the main characteristic of the industrial plastics and their uses. This worksheet is the warm-up activity to move later to the workshop to identify plastics in real life.

Worksheet: types of plastic

Worksheet: industrial plastics

ACTIVITY 3: FROM OIL TO PLASTIC

We watch the video from oil to plastic and take notes using the method Cornell Notes.

After handed to students in  the Cornell notes template, I explained to them what Cornell notes methosd consists of. The template included the ideas in the first column. Click here to learn more about Cornell notes. 

By this video students learned that oil is the main raw material to make plastics. Above all, they also review the types of plastics (from 1 to 7), where the number is normally printed and the importance not only to recycle but also to reduce.

ACTIVITY 4: POLIMERISATION

In order to know how plastics are transformed and realize what polymerisation is, studens will fill the workhseets in by discovering what is hidden in the interactive image created using genially.

Worskheet polimesation

Genially

ACTIVITY 5: TYPES OF PLASTICS WORKSHOP

This workshop was inspired by the Bloom School Box scenario Growing plastic & new life for plastic

The aim of this activity is to realized that plastics has a number printed, normally at the bottom. Students already know that the number are from 1 to 7 by thanks to this workshop they will realized which are the most common types as well as the most common use for each.

Furthermore, they perfomed a simple experiment to take conclusions about density, taking the density of water as reference.

Worsksheet types of plastics identification and density measurement

07 types of plastics workshop de Laura Fdez Alonso

Looking for the number printed at the bottom

Taking notes according the worksheet

Testing density

ACTIVITY 6: PET POLYMERISATION

I handed in to students an envelope that contained 12 cards. The aim of the activity was organised cards with the aim to reproduce the PET polymerisation proccess.

Students discussing and organising cards

Cars, worksheet and rubric

The teacher's template. Cut and hand to students in

08 how pet is obtained de Laura Fdez Alonso

ACTIVITY 7: TOXICITY

By researching on the Internet, students learned about plastics toxicity. Now, they know why plastic bottles should not be left under the Sun!

Furthermore, the realized that not all types os plastics can be recycle.

Worksheet