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Sustainable stories and solutions for our planet: Sustainable Ingredients

Age range
9-11 years

The context of the development of ingredients used in manufacturing is used to explore the varied roles of scientists and engineers in promoting sustainability. It gives children the opportunity to develop key working scientifically skills including discussion, problem solving, and asking questions. Children are encouraged to develop their own ideas and questions, methods of recording, conclusions and recommendations throughout the activities. The activities also make strong links with the topic of materials and their properties.

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Sustainable Ingredients - full resource (PDF , 4,099kb)

Introduction

  • Keywords: sustainability, sustainable, working scientifically, materials, properties

A survey is carried out by each child to ascertain their thoughts about sustainability as well as their understanding of the impact of their own behaviour in actively bringing about change. Children are encouraged to question family members and compile an overview of current attitudes towards sustainability.

Mixing ingredients

Children explore how oil and water behave when they are mixed, predicting outcomes and testing different stirring devices. They go on to observe how adding an emulsifier to the mixture is a more sustainable way to help oil and water stay mixed for longer. 

Monitoring microbes

Children dab their fingers onto agar plates before and after cleaning their hands, then grow their samples to observe how many bacteria are revealed. 

Who has the cleanest classroom

Children use the skills learned in Activity 2 to test various classroom surfaces to model how scientists work in industry to ensure products are clean and safe for customer use. They discover that good hygiene prevents waste, helping products last longer instead of needing to be replaced. 

A bit of a stretch

Children design an investigation to discover which type of rubber or plastic is best for making stretchy protective gloves, learning that durable, flexible materials help reduce waste. They will use measuring equipment to record how each material stretches.