Title

Plastic Soup

Subject(s)

Physics and Chemistry

Learning goal(s)

· Use knowledge about floating and sinking

· Explore and understand the method(s) used for cleaning the oceans

· explore the differences between the use of a floating barrier instead of a fixed barrier

· make your own bioplastic and find out what the differences are with other plastics

Time

One or two lessons

IBL

The activity asks for IBL. The teacher can decide to have the students find the required knowledge themselves (and support them in doing so). Students are asked to design an experiment they can perform at school to test the differences between a floating and a foxed barrier.

Achievement

Students of different achievement levels can work together in small groups

Context

The context is relevant to the day-to-day lives of the students. They all use and throw away plastic and they may know about the 'plastic soup' from the media.

Culture

Different students may have different values related to their responsibility for the use of plastic and the cleaning of (plastic) waste. This can be related to their 'personal culture'.

Fundamental Values

Taking responsibility for a 'clean' environment. Being a 'critical' consumer. Valuing each other’s reasoning in group discussion.

SSI/RRI

Issues/dilemma's: should plastic production be reduced/forbidden; is a plastics-tax (for producers and consumers) a good measure;

Part 1 - plastic soup

More and more plastic waste floats around in our seas and oceans. This trash accumulates in garbage patches, the largest one is called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. All this plastic together is sometimes called the 'plastic soup'.

Boyan Slat (27 July 1994) is a Dutch inventor and entrepreneur who creates technologies to solve societal problems.

At the age of 16 when Boyan Slat was in upper secondary school, he invented a way to clean up the oceans and remove all the plastic soup. He wrote a paper for his exam about this idea. At the age of 18 he founded The Ocean Cleanup a group that develops advanced systems to rid world’s oceans of plastic.

see: http://www.boyanslat.com/

How the ocean clean-up works

Instead of going after the plastic, Boyan devised a system though which, driven by the ocean currents, the plastic would concentrate itself, reducing the theoretical clean-up time from millennia to mere years. The first clean-up prototype was deployed in June 2016.

1. Watch this video ( 4 minutes) to see how the ocean cleanup started. While watching the video find out at least three things that have been researched in this project

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IjaZ2g-21E

· List the three topics being researched

· What do you think was the purpose of each research?

· what scientific topics or concepts were involved?

2. Study the webpage of the ocean cleanup project. Focus on the technology part:

https://www.theoceancleanup.com/technology/

· Which concepts from science (chemistry, physics, mathematics) have been used to design the technology for the Ocean Cleanup?

3. Compare the differences on capture efficiency and survivability between a fixed barrier and a floating barrier that are described on the website. For one of these two aspect design a small scale experiment you could set up at school to test these effects yourself.

No more plastic

4. What is your opinion about the following statements. Be sure to present sound arguments:

· There should be a high tax on the production of plastic.

· It should be forbidden to buy products wrapped in plastic.

Part 2 – Bio-plastics

5. Study the wikiHow page on making bioplastic: https://www.wikihow.com/Make-Bioplastic-Easily and make your own bioplastic using method 1.

6. Experiment some and find out what happens if you

· use more or less corn starch

· use more or less glycerol

· boil the mixture for a longer or shorter period

Also try to:

· make plastic in a mold

· make plastics in different colors

· make a plastic object

Write a brief report on your findings.

7. You are going to compare characteristics of your bio-plastic to those of 'normal' plastics.

· First make a list of characteristics you find important.

· Next think of ways to test for these characteristics.

· Divide the tests among your class-mates.

· Carry out the tests and share the findings.

Note: you may want to look for extra information about different types of plastics in your textbook or on the internet.

8. What happens to your plastic if it would end up in a sea or ocean?

9. Discuss the following statement: Bio-plastic should replace all 'normal' plastic.