The Door Buzzer

1 Plastics

Learn It

Plastics are a class of material that are usually synthesised from fossil fuels like oil or natural gas.
Plastics are made up of molecules called polymers.
Polymers are very long chains of atoms.

Plastics are so named, because they can deform (stretch, squash, bend) without breaking.

Learn It

There are two main classes of plastic:
- Thermoplastics
- Thermosetting polymers.
When we heat a thermoplastic, it softens and becomes malleable. This allows us to alter its shape, which will remain after we cool it down.
When we heat a thermosetting polymer after it has cooled for the first time, it does not soften and so cannot be reshaped.

Research It

Within the two classes - thermoset and thermoplastics - there are many different types of plastic.
Use online resources to list some of the uses of the following plastics:
- Polyester
- Polyvinyl chloride
- Polyethylene
- Bakelite
- Urea Formaldehyde
- Epoxy

Badge It

Have a look at this video from the 1940s

Explain, with diagrams, what are the differences between thermoplastics and thermosetting polymers.
Silver - A reasonable attempt at describing the difference between the two classes of plastics.
Gold - A good explanation, with 3 examples of each. Six in total!
Platinum - An excellent explanation of the different uses of several types of plastics.

Now we have learnt all the great things about plastics let's find out about the downsides.

Learn it

List everything you have used today that is made of plastic or comes in plastic packaging. Now highlight which items on your list are single-use plastics, i.e. that are thrown away after being used only once.

Badge It: Silver

Upload your list of single use plastics. What is a 'single use plastic'?

Learn it:

Watch these two videos:

Read this article from The Guardian

Identify the facts in the article and from the videos and produce a list of them

Summarise how you feel about the facts from the article. Can any of the items mentioned in the article be reduced or eliminated within school? Investigate more sustainable alternatives.

Why do we still use single use plastics?

Badge It: Gold

Upload your summary of the article.

Watch the video:

Search the internet to discover images of the impact of plastic pollution on marine wildlife. Using these and information from the silver and gold tasks pick one species and make a presentation, showing how marine plastic has impacted on that species and suggest solutions. e.g. turtles mistake plastic bags as their food source (jellyfish), this blocks the digestive system and the turtle slowly starves. Solutions include banning single-use plastic bags.

Badge It: Platinum

Upload your research.