Plastic Challenge

What happens to your plastic waste? How long does a plastic drink bottle/mobile phone take to decompose? What is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch? Why are there 29 000 plastic ducks in the world’s ocean? What is bioaccumulation? Could plastic-eating bacteria save the planet? Why are there microplastics in our toothpaste?

These are some of the questions that confronted pupils in Year 7 who had a collapsed timetable for three days this week as they undertook a Plastics Challenge as part of their innovative King’s Diploma. During their Enquiry Days pupils examined the chemistry of plastics, before considering problems caused by plastic pollution, both on land and in the world’s oceans.

The sessions provided pupils with opportunities to apply their STEM skills and develop the Competencies which underpin the King’s Diploma. Working in small groups, pupils worked collaboratively, thinking creatively and critically to explore real-world problems. Linked to the UN Sustainability Goals, pupils looked at a case-study centred on the recycling of plastic from a Nepalese rubbish dump, crafting their own design-solutions which they presented to their peers, before undertaking  a series of tasks to extend their understanding of the challenges which face the planet, along with solutions built around “turning off the tap” and “bailing out the bath”.

Working against the clock, on the eve of the UN Global Plastics Treaty: INC-5, pupils investigated aspects of plastic pollution, before crafting a series of digital presentations of which any investigative journalist would have been proud.

PS Your plastic bottle will last 400 years and your mobile phone 1,000 years before decomposing!