Take, shape and create
View Sequence overviewStudents will:
- predict and examine the effects of physical changes on plastic.
- determine if all types of plastic can be changed in the same way.
- describe plastics as flexible and inflexible, and elastic and inelastic.
Students will represent their understanding as they:
- record predictions and findings on a data table.
- contribute to a class discussion about the properties of plastic and how physical changes can affect these properties.
In this lesson, assessment is formative.
Feedback might focus on:
- the claims students are making about the flexibility and elasticity of each type of plastic. Are they referring to the definitions and their evidence to make their claims?
- how they plan to/describe using plastics when designing and building their sculpture.
- Have they recognised that not all changes are permanent and that some plastics will be elastic, partially elastic, or inelastic?
Whole class
Class science journal (digital or hard-copy)
Demonstration copy of Playing with plastic Resource sheet
Each group
Plastic items to examine and test, including:
- thin flexible and elastic plastics (cling wrap, sandwich bags/wrappers)
- flexible and inelastic plastics (drink and takeaway containers)
- inelastic and inflexible plastics (carry tubs and baskets)
Each student
Individual science journal (digital or hard-copy)
Playing with plastic Resource sheet
Lesson
The Inquire phase allows students to cycle progressively and with increasing complexity through the key science ideas related to the core concepts. Each Inquire cycle is divided into three teaching and learning routines that allow students to systematically build their knowledge and skills in science and incorporate this into their current understanding of the world.
When designing a teaching sequence, it is important to consider the knowledge and skills that students will need in the final Act phase. Consider what the students already know and identify the steps that need to be taken to reach the level required. How could you facilitate students’ understanding at each step? What investigations could be designed to build the skills at each step?
Read more about using the LIA FrameworkRe-orient
Recall the previous lesson and discuss any objects students examined that were made of plastic. Discuss what students know about plastic and how it is used.
The Inquire phase allows students to cycle progressively and with increasing complexity through the key science ideas related to the core concepts. Each Inquire cycle is divided into three teaching and learning routines that allow students to systematically build their knowledge and skills in science and incorporate this into their current understanding of the world.
When designing a teaching sequence, it is important to consider the knowledge and skills that students will need in the final Act phase. Consider what the students already know and identify the steps that need to be taken to reach the level required. How could you facilitate students’ understanding at each step? What investigations could be designed to build the skills at each step?
Read more about using the LIA FrameworkIdentifying and constructing questions is the creative driver of the inquiry process. It allows students to explore what they know and how they know it. During the Inquire phase of the LIA Framework, the Question routine allows for past activities to be reviewed and to set the scene for the investigation that students will undertake. The use of effective questioning techniques can influence students’ view and interpretation of upcoming content, open them to exploration and link to their current interests and science capital.
When designing a teaching sequence, it is important to spend some time considering the mindset of students at the start of each Inquire phase. What do you want students to be thinking about, what do they already know and what is the best way for them to approach the task? What might tap into their curiosity?
Read more about using the LIA FrameworkSorting plastic
Refer to any questions students asked about plastic in the Launch phase. For example: What is made of plastic? Are there different types of plastic? How can plastic be changed?
Distribute a variety of items made of different types of plastic.
Students sort the plastic items into groups, describing what each group has in common. The items may be sorted multiple times in various ways, for example what they are used for, whether they can be recycled easily, and the type of plastic they are made from.
Review the terms flexible (able to bend without breaking/tearing) and inflexible (not able to be bent, or will tear/break when bent or twisted). Determine if students have already created categories for these, and if not, how they would sort the objects to fit into the categories ‘flexible’ and ‘inflexible’.
Introduce the terms elastic (returns easily to its original form after being bent, stretched or compressed) and inelastic (doesn’t return to original form after being bent, stretched or compressed).
Pose the question: If a plastic is flexible, does it mean it is elastic too?
Types of plastic
Plastic is often grouped into one of seven different categories.
Plastic is often grouped into one of seven different categories. Plastic can have very different properties depending on how it is used. For example, polyvinyl chloride is used to make rigid, inflexible items such as PVC pipes, but can also be made into soft, flexible items such as food packaging and plastic tablecloths.
For the purposes of this activity, plastic can be grouped according to the properties that are most obvious for students: namely its flexibility and elasticity.
Plastics can be flexible and elastic, flexible but inelastic, or inflexible and inelastic. The combination of properties ‘inflexible and elastic’ is not possible.
Plastic is often grouped into one of seven different categories. Plastic can have very different properties depending on how it is used. For example, polyvinyl chloride is used to make rigid, inflexible items such as PVC pipes, but can also be made into soft, flexible items such as food packaging and plastic tablecloths.
For the purposes of this activity, plastic can be grouped according to the properties that are most obvious for students: namely its flexibility and elasticity.
Plastics can be flexible and elastic, flexible but inelastic, or inflexible and inelastic. The combination of properties ‘inflexible and elastic’ is not possible.
The Inquire phase allows students to cycle progressively and with increasing complexity through the key science ideas related to the core concepts. Each Inquire cycle is divided into three teaching and learning routines that allow students to systematically build their knowledge and skills in science and incorporate this into their current understanding of the world.
When designing a teaching sequence, it is important to consider the knowledge and skills that students will need in the final Act phase. Consider what the students already know and identify the steps that need to be taken to reach the level required. How could you facilitate students’ understanding at each step? What investigations could be designed to build the skills at each step?
Read more about using the LIA FrameworkThe Investigate routine provides students with an opportunity to explore the key ideas of science, to plan and conduct an investigation, and to gather and record data. The investigations are designed to systematically develop content knowledge and skills through increasingly complex processes of structured inquiry, guided inquiry and open inquiry approaches. Students are encouraged to process data to identify trends and patterns and link them to the real-world context of the teaching sequence.
When designing a teaching sequence, consider the diagnostic assessment (Launch phase) that identified the alternative conceptions that students held. Are there activities that challenge these ideas and provide openings for discussion? What content knowledge and skills do students need to be able to complete the final (Act phase) task? How could you systematically build these through the investigation routines? Are there opportunities to build students’ understanding and skills in the science inquiry processes through the successive investigations?
Read more about using the LIA FrameworkInvestigating plastic
Students select items made from different types of plastic.
They determine the best action to test their elasticity. For example a sandwich bag might be scrunched, but a plastic lid might need to be bent.
Using the PROE chart on the Playing with plastic Resource sheet, they:
- predict if the material in the object is flexible: it can be bent, twisted, or scrunched.
- predict if the material in their object is elastic: it will return to its original shape.
- observe what happens when they bend, twist, or scrunch the material.
- explain why they think that happened.
Allow time for students to carry out their investigation.
The Inquire phase allows students to cycle progressively and with increasing complexity through the key science ideas related to the core concepts. Each Inquire cycle is divided into three teaching and learning routines that allow students to systematically build their knowledge and skills in science and incorporate this into their current understanding of the world.
When designing a teaching sequence, it is important to consider the knowledge and skills that students will need in the final Act phase. Consider what the students already know and identify the steps that need to be taken to reach the level required. How could you facilitate students’ understanding at each step? What investigations could be designed to build the skills at each step?
Read more about using the LIA FrameworkFollowing an investigation, the Integrate routine provides time and space for data to be evaluated and insights to be synthesized. It reveals new insights, consolidates and refines representations, generalises context and broadens students’ perspectives. It allows student thinking to become visible and opens formative feedback opportunities. It may also lead to further questions being asked, allowing the Inquire phase to start again.
When designing a teaching sequence, consider the diagnostic assessment that was undertaken during the Launch phase. Consider if alternative conceptions could be used as a jumping off point to discussions. How could students represent their learning in a way that would support formative feedback opportunities? Could small summative assessment occur at different stages in the teaching sequence?
Read more about using the LIA FrameworkDiscussing plastic
Share and discuss the results of students’ investigations:
- What happened to each item you tested?
- Which ones could be changed and which ones couldn’t?
- Why do you think that happened?
- What would you say about each object’s flexibility and elasticity?
- Were all flexible objects also elastic?
- Were any of the objects that were inflexible also elastic?
- Students should find that inflexible objects are also inelastic.
- If something can’t be bent out of shape, does it need to go back to its original shape?
- What was similar about the flexible and elastic items? The inflexible and inelastic items?
- Are there ‘levels’ of elasticity? Do things ‘kind of’ return to their original shape, but not fully? Do some things need ‘help’ to return to their original shape?
- For example, cling wrap.
- Can elasticity change over time?
- What other actions might physically change the plastic items?
- Will they still be made of plastic?
- Will all actions work on all kinds of plastic? i.e. Can you tear all kinds of plastic?
- How easy was it to physically change the soft plastic? How about the harder plastics?
- Why do you think that?
- What actions might physically change the hard, inflexible plastic that we can’t test in the classroom?
- Does physically changing the plastic change what the item can be used for? For example, if I stretch out the handle of a plastic bag, will it still carry as much shopping?
Discuss how flexible/inflexible and elastic/inelastic plastics might be used in student sculptures, and what they will have to consider when they use them.
- Which type of plastic will be easiest to change and use in your sculpture?
- If you want to use plastics that are elastic in your sculpture, what do you have to consider?
- They will need to be fastened in the preferred shape, otherwise they will return to their original shape.
- How might you stop them returning to their original shape?
- What about inflexible, inelastic plastic? Are they going to be as easy to change? How might you use that type of plastic?
Optional: Look at the recyclability of different types of plastic. Discuss ways in which elastic plastic can be reused many times, when it is difficult to recycle, and alternatives for using plastic packaging and why this is so important.
Reflect on the lesson
You might:
- add to the class word wall of vocabulary related to elastic and inelastic.
- review the questions students asked about materials and add any new questions students have.
- re-examine the intended learning goals for the lesson and consider how they were achieved.
- discuss the safety of undertaking investigations, and why some tests can be undertaken in the classroom but others cannot. For example, we might be able to use a plastic fork to poke a hole in soft plastics like cling wrap, but we would need something sharper to make a hole in hard plastic. However, testing this in the classroom wouldn’t be safe.