Packaging pioneers
View Sequence overviewStudents will:
- critically discuss and retrieve what they already know about plastics.
- consider the components and properties of their corn flour bioplastics.
- explore the properties of bioplastics.
Students will represent their understanding as they:
- describe the properties of their bioplastics.
- engage in investigations safely and make observations using their senses.
- critically compare the properties of bioplastics and think about how bioplastics might be used.
In this lesson, assessment is formative.
Feedback might focus on:
- students’ examination of the properties of materials, considering how these properties influence their use.
In this lesson, assessment might also be summative.
Students working at the achievement standard (science inquiry) should have:
- compared findings with those of others, consider if investigations were fair, identify questions for further investigation and draw conclusions.
Refer to the Australian Curriculum content links on the Our design decisions tab for further information.
Whole class
Class science journal (digital or hard-copy)
Demonstration copy of the Types of plastic Resource sheet
How is plastic made? (5:16)
Demonstration copy of the Bioplastics recipes Resource sheet
Measuring cups/spoons
Saucepan
Stovetop
Cornflour
Water
Vinegar
Glycerine (available in the health/beauty aisles of many supermarkets)
Optional: Food colouring
Optional, if also making milk-based bioplastic:
- Milk
- Cookie cutters
Safety note: Making bioplastics requires access to a stove. Modify the activity to suit your context and the needs of your students. For example, you might make the recipe away from students, showing them a video recording of the process.
Note: Bioplastic will take 1-2+ days, (depending on the weather) to dry.
Each group
A variety of materials to test the properties of bioplastics, for example:
- water
- cups
- elastic bands
- pipettes/water droppers
- skewers
- rulers
Each student
Individual science journals (digital or hard-copy)
Lesson
Re-orient
Review the discussion from the previous two lessons about paper vs greaseproof paper, and the environmental reasons people choose to wrap fish and chips in regular paper rather than greaseproof paper.
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 FrameworkTalking about plastic
Using a demonstration copy of the Types of plastic Resource sheet, discuss the differences between the types of plastic represented. Ask students what they know about the use and the recyclability of each type of plastic.
Construct a definition/description of ‘plastic’ with students, using their own knowledge and experience. You might:
- list types of plastics.
- list items made of plastic.
- list the properties of plastics (for example rigid, malleable and flexible, transparent or opaque).
- If students use a non-scientific term, accept the response and introduce the correct term. For example, students might offer that plastic is bendy (flexible) or shaped easily (malleable).
- describe the recyclability of plastics.
Explain that, although it is cheap, most plastics that people use are made from oil or gas, so they can take a very long time to decompose, resulting in about 5 trillion pieces of plastic in the ocean. Give some examples of types of plastics and their uses:
- PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) us used to make drink bottles.
- PP (Polypropylene) is used to make heat resistant containers.
- PE (Polyethylene) is used to make lots of flexible products including plastic bags.
Watch the video How is plastic made? (5:16)
Explain that material scientists are constantly inventing new plastic alternatives that are better for the environment, such as bioplastics. A bioplastic is a plastic made from biological resources, such as plants, rather than fossil fuel oil. Plastics can be biodegradable (able to naturally break into small parts, including microplastics) or compostable (able to naturally break down into new materials that can be used by plants and animals). Bioplastics are usually compostable in the right conditions.
Pose the questions: What is the best bioplastic recipe? Are bioplastics waterproof?
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 FrameworkBioplastic fantastic
Investigation Part 1
As a class work together to make cornflour-based bioplastic, following the first recipe found on the Bioplastics recipes Resource sheet.
Safety note: This recipe requires access to a stove. Modify the activity to suit your context and the needs of your students. For example, you might make the recipe away from students, showing them a video recording of the process.
After the bioplastic has fully dried (1-2+ days, depending on the weather), examine the bioplastic and identify its potential properties.
Optional: In collaborative teams, students plan their own investigation to find out what happens to the bioplastic when they change an element of the recipe. For example: What will happen to the bioplastic if we change the amount of vinegar, heat (or milk)?
Optional: Follow the second, milk-based bioplastic recipe, also found on the Bioplastics recipes Resource sheet. Compare the two different types of bioplastics.
Investigation Part 2
Repeat the testing process used in Lesson 5 to observe if the bioplastic is waterproof: stretch a preprepared square of the bioplastic over a jar, securing with an elastic band and using a pipette or water dropper to drop 20 drops of water onto the bioplastic. Observe and measure the length of time the drops stayed on the material before being absorbed and any water that dropped through.
Optional: Discuss and devise testing you might undertake to test the bioplastics’ other properties, such as flexibility and tensile strength. Allow students to undertake these tests.
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 FrameworkIs bioplastic useful?
List, then discuss, the properties that students might/have tested of the bioplastics, for example, the ability to be moulded (malleable), hardness, stretchiness, flexibility, strength, water solubility, and water resistance.
- How were the bioplastics similar/different from the plastic items we buy?
- Why do you think this was?
- How might you invent your own bioplastic?
- Was your experiment testing fair? Why or why not?
- What questions might you ask now?
- Do you think bioplastic could be used for food packaging? Why do you think this is?
Challenge students to think about the difference between fossil fuel-based plastic and bioplastic. Explain that material scientists around the world are looking for solutions to our plastic problem by creating a ‘compostable’ plastic, which means that it can be broken down by living things so that it can safely go back into the soil.
Reflect on the lesson
You might:
- add to the class word wall vocabulary related to properties, e.g. compostable, biodegradable, plastic, polymer
- re-examine the intended learning goals for the lesson and consider how they were achieved.
- discuss how students were thinking and working like scientists during the lesson. Focus on the importance of systematic testing when inventing a new material.
- consider how what they have investigated will be helpful designing their food packaging solution.