Today the students of Mr. Blick’s grade 4/5 class at Adam Robertson Elementary School started their lifecycle project. The idea here is to see what goes into making everyday items. Lifecycle is a term used in biology- but does it apply to products we use all the time?
The students have been learning about the lifecycle of kokanee. In the fall, the students went on a field trip to Summit Creek to learn more about kokanee. Eggs were being implanted to restore kokanee population levels in Kootenay Lake. The students were quick to name the different lifecycle stages. : eggs, alevin, fry, adults, spawners and how the lifecycle continues round an round in a circle. This is similar for almost any biological organism. Yet, when we drew out an example of a lifecycle of a tshirt, it looked more like a straight line. The students had great suggestions for the disposal phase of a tshirt like: giving them to a thrift store, hand-me downs, making rags, or blankets for pets. But even that didn’t make the lifecycle of a tshirt ‘loopy’. An interesting observation, and one they will explore more in their lifecycle projects.
The lifecycle project explores six everyday items: jeans, aluminum can, glass bottle, soccer ball, battery and pencil. In this lesson, the students got some hands-on experience with the raw materials of six products. From the fluffly cotton boles, to the vials of rubber (liquid latex), to the bauxite and copper there were many interesting ingredients that go into making these products! Now it’s on to the research portion of the project where they see how these materials are extracted, are produced, distributed, consumed and disposed. We will see whether these product lifecycles are ‘loopy’ or not.