Plastics: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly!
Students will research plastic and post-consumer products to engineer a water filtration device.
Overview
Students examine plastic pollution and post-consumer plastics before engineering a water filtration device. After responding to a video on plastics, they study plastic types, life cycles, and recycling through videos, then learn the history of plastics and the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. In a wastewater treatment modeling lab, groups build a filter from allotted materials within a budget. After hearing from Army Research Laboratory scientist Dr. Zander about filtration membranes made from post-consumer plastics, students add a 3D printed component to improve their design and compare results across their two trials. Phases are timed from 10-15 minutes (engagement) to 160 minutes (explanation); elaboration and evaluation are 80 minutes each.
Lesson Objectives
- Research plastic and post-consumer products to engineer a water filtration device.
Standards
NGSS · 5
- HS-LS2-7Design, evaluate, and refine a solution for reducing the impacts of human activities on the environment and biodiversity.
- HS-ESS3-2Evaluate competing design solutions for developing, managing, and utilizing energy and mineral resources based on cost-benefit ratios.
- HS-ESS3-4Evaluate or refine a technological solution that reduces impacts of human activities on natural systems.
- HS-ETS1-2Design a solution to a complex real-world problem by breaking it down into smaller, more manageable problems that can be solved through engineering.
- HS-ETS1-3Evaluate a solution to a complex real-world problem based on prioritized criteria and trade-offs that account for a range of constraints, including cost, safety, reliability, and aesthetics as well as possible social, cultural, and environmental impacts.
CCSS ELA · 7
- RST.9-10.3 / RST.11-12.3Follow precisely a complex multistep procedure when carrying out experiments, taking measurements, or performing technical tasks, attending to special cases or exceptions defined in the text.
- RST.9-10.4 / RST.11-12.4Determine the meaning of symbols, key terms, and other domain-specific words and phrases as they are used in a specific scientific or technical context relevant to grades 9-10 texts and topics.
- RST.9-10.5Analyze the structure of the relationships among concepts in a text, including relationships among key terms (e.g., force, friction, reaction force, energy).
- RST.9-10.7Translate quantitative or technical information expressed in words in a text into visual form (e.g., a table or chart) and translate information expressed visually or mathematically (e.g., in an equation) into words.
- RST.9-10.9Compare and contrast findings presented in a text to those from other sources (including their own experiments), noting when the findings support or contradict previous explanations or accounts.
- RST.11-12.1Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of science and technical texts, attending to important distinctions the author makes and to any gaps or inconsistencies in the account.
- RST.11-12.10By the end of grade 12, read and comprehend science/technical texts in the grades 11-CCR text complexity band independently and proficiently.