Primary 6 – IPC: Get to Know Types of Plastic
In IPC topic entitled What Price Progress?, students have learnt about Great Pasific Garbage Patch. They learnt that The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a vast accumulation of marine debris in the North Pacific Ocean. Through discussion, students were able to identify the impact of their action towards marine, ecosystem and lifecycle. Using the data from the discussion, students read an article then followed up to identify several types of plastic such as Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET or PETE), High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE), Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC or Vinyl), Low-Density Polyethylene (LDPE), Polypropylene (PP), Polystyrene (PS or Styrofoam), Bisphenol and others.
In groups, the students identified the definition of the plastic and mentioned the example such as plastic bottle, straw, garbage bag, toothbrush, etc. Through the definition and example students built their knowledge by answering five driving questions provided. They identified how the plastic produced, what resource needed to produce the plastic, the benefit of the plastic, how to recycle the plastic product, how long for each type of plastic to biodegrade and what the positive benefit of the invention of the types of plastic.
This continuing activity, students got the awareness that some plastics are recyclable while others are not. They recognized how different plastics affect the environment. In a deep reflections, some students commit to using reusable water bottles or lunch containers and though of creative ways to repurpose plastic waste, such as art projects in a form of poster.
