Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
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This resource is all about the circular economy – a system where nothing is wasted. All products and materials used to make them are maintained, reused, recycled or composted in order to support humanity and nature at the same time.
In this activity you and your students will:
learn about the circular economy
look into changes they can make in their own lives to promote a circular economy
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These activities are designed to engage students in practical, home-based projects with just a bit of parental oversight. By directing their focus toward constructive tasks, each activity not only serves as a creative outlet but also connects with various curriculum subjects.
Through these projects, students will:
Craft plant pots using recycled materials like toilet paper rolls, planting seeds that can sprout into a full-fledged science experiment by observing and documenting their growth over time.
Design and create valuable items for personal or home use from upcycled materials, promoting a culture of sustainability and creativity.
Inspire their classmates by sharing their innovative creations, fostering a community of sharing and learning.
Objectives: These hands-on tasks aim to offer a variety of simple yet impactful activities that are adaptable for home or homeschooling contexts, cater to different age groups, and can be integrated with different areas of the curriculum.
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Discarded empty plastic PET bottles like those used for bottled water are unsightly, cause problems for wildlife and can take hundreds of years to break down. Can they be put to good use? This activity looks at some of the great things that you can make from old PET bottles at home or at school and encourages you to raise money for charities such as ‘Liter of Light’, an organisation that converts old PET bottles into ceiling lights for disadvantaged people across the world.
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This activity is all about reusing unwanted clothing, textiles and other items. About 290 million tonnes of waste are produced in the UK each year, of which around 22.9 million is domestic. Around 50% of our domestic waste ends up in landfill.
Running a Trashion Show will help your students look at the things they normally throw away and see what can be reused or recycled to reduce this waste. It will also help your students stretch their creative talents as they create new, exciting clothing out of unwanted items.
But we do not just want talk, we want action! Show off your creations by running a school ‘Trashion Show’ to help raise awareness of reuse and recycling.
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How and where is energy used in your home? The more energy we use, the more greenhouse gases are created contributing to climate change. How can we save energy?
The first of our “bite-sized” activities, this exercise is part of the Iceworld Mission. Chrono-bot 5H00T5 travels to a future where the gulf stream has shifted due to climate change, leaving Scotland frozen. The smallest improvement in the rate of climate change today could help….
Pupils will create a poster listing items that use energy around the home. By raising awareness of how energy is used (and wasted) in each room, pupils should be encouraged to think about how their individual energy consumption might be reduced. The more energy we can save, the faster Scotland can be saved!
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Single-use plastic bags are really useful when you are packing your shopping, but where do they end up after you are finished with them?
Carrying out this activity will help students see how many plastic bags are used every day in the UK and the problems that these can cause for wildlife and the environment when they are discarded.
But we do not just want talk, we want action! What can you do to make that image on the right more exciting? Stretch your students’ creative talents as they design reusable bags to use whenever they and their families go shopping. Why not show off your creations by running a ‘best bag’ competition at school, then make bags using the best designs to sell to other students and the local community to help raise awareness of the problems of plastic bag use!
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How and where is energy used in your home? The more energy we use, the more greenhouse gases are created contributing to climate change. How can we save energy? The second of our “bite-sized” activities, this exercise is part of the Iceworld Mission.
Chrono-bot 5H00T5 travels to a future where the gulf stream has shifted due to climate change, leaving Scotland frozen. The smallest improvement in the rate of climate change today could help…. Pupils will create Home Energy Questionnaires to print/write out and take home, or which can be used in the classroom. Use the questionnaires to see where energy is used and wasted in the home.
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How and where is energy used in your home? The more energy we use, the more greenhouse gases are created contributing to climate change. How can we save energy?
Pupils will create an Energy Pledge Poster for the classroom, showing an energy reduction commitment from each student.
The third of our “bite-sized” activities (see also Iceworld activities 1 and 2), this exercise is part of the Iceworld Mission. Chrono-bot 5H00T5 travels to a future where the gulf stream has shifted due to climate change, leaving Scotland frozen. The smallest improvement in the rate of climate change today could help….
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The average person in the UK uses a massive 153 litres of water per day. A lot of this goes on washing and flushing toilets, and a lot is wasted through dripping taps, overfilled kettles and inefficient appliances. This activity helps students discover where water is used in the home and what they can do to reduce the amount that is used.
With proper management and regulated use of our reserves we can make sure that we will be able to cope with any shortages due to environmental changes. What water saving pledge will YOU make?
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This activity looks at the amount of waste we generate and where we can decrease this to save energy. The activity is in two parts and aims to increase awareness amongst students of how much less waste they can generate by making small efforts to restrict it. They should also be able to promote the principles they learn about to friends and family based on the work they carry out for the activity.
