1.5 Eco-packaging

By Erin Denniston

Provided by Kenan Fellows Program.

Environmental issues are often at odds with commerce. In the case of packaging, while environmentally friendly packaging is socially responsible, it is often hard to do in a cost effective manner. In this lesson, students have to balance the need for secure packaging with environmental and economic concerns. They will work together in groups of 3–4 students to create a mailing package for a fragile substance. In this case, students will be using a cookie as their substance. After the packages are finished, take them to the post office and mail them back to the students. When the packages arrive, schedule a second session to evaluate the results. Students will score their packages using a rubric.

The design challenge is to create a package for a fragile object that fits the following criteria:

• It must be as light as possible.
• It must be as cheap as possible.
• It must be as small as possible, no bigger than 10 cm by 10 cm.
• It must have a clear space for a label.

Learning outcomes

Students will:

• Identify a need for new packaging solution
• Consider cost and environmental issues while designing a solution
• Account for their expenditures
• Implement and evaluate the solution
• Accurately record and communicate observations

Teacher planning

Time required

3 sessions of 45–60 minutes

Materials needed

Each group should have:

• triple beam balance
• ruler
• 6 cookies
• pencils
• cost sheet
• data sheet
• pre-addressed mailing labels

For the Materials Store:

• newspaper
• cotton balls
• paper lunch bags
• paper towels
• plastic bags
• aluminum foil
• egg crate
• cork
• string
• tape

You will also need poker chips for money. Give each
group about $2.00 in chips. White chips equal 1¢,
blue chips equal 5¢, and red chips equal 10¢.

Student handouts

Activities

Day 1

1. On each table, place all the needed supplies. Students must keep track of how much money they spend on their packaging. Allow 45 minutes to work.

Give students the following directions.

1. Weigh one of the cookies and record the number of grams on the data sheet. If they change cookies, they need to weigh and record the weight of the new cookie.
2. Working in a group, design a package. Each team gets six cookies. Only one cookie will be mailed. The others are back ups in case the cookie crumbles.
3. Groups may send one team member at a time to the Materials Store to buy one item at a time with the poker chips.
4. All items bought must be recorded on the data sheet.
2. Tell students that they may want to weigh each item they purchase. The eco-package has to be as light as possible.
3. Reiterate the design constraints. The package must be wrapped in brown paper. It cannot be bigger that 10 cm by 10 cm. It must have a space for the mailing label.
4. Have students clean up and put their package and other materials in a safe place.

Day 2

1. Have students get all of their materials. Allow 20 minutes or so for them to complete the package.
2. When finished with the package, have students weigh it to calculate the postage. Use the 2006 first class mail rates in the table (which are converted from ounces into grams) or use the current prices listed for packages on the United States Postal Service website after you convert the ounces to grams.

Weight	Price
Less than 28g	37¢
29g–57g	60¢
58g–86g	83¢
58g–86g	83¢
87g–114g	$1.06
115g–142g	$1.29
143g–170g	$1.52
171g–199g	$1.75
200g–228g	$1.98

3. Have students add labels to the front of each package. Make sure the writing is legible and includes a return address.
4. Put a large, visible number on the back of each package so students can get their own packages back. Have students record their packages’ numbers on the data sheet.
5. Use the data entered on data sheet to find out how much each package costs. Review data sheets with students.
6. Have students make a prediction on their data sheets about what they think will happen to their package in the mail. Include a drawing of what the package looks like before mailing.
7. Take all of the packages to a post office and explain what the task was. The postal workers are usually very helpful. Allow several days for the delivery of the packages. When they arrive, plan for the last 45 minutes of the activity.

Day 3

1. When the packages arrive, schedule the last 45-minute session for this activity.
2. Have students draw a picture of the package before they open it. Discuss the condition of the packages and whether students think the cookie survived the trip.
3. Have students carefully open the packages and examine their cookie. Record the condition of the cookie on the data sheet.
4. Ask students to record what they would do differently next time.

Assessment

Use student data sheets and class discussion to assess understanding. What is the relationship between the cost of a problem’s solution and its effectiveness? How do companies make decisions about cost versus benefit?

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Contents: Children's engineering

Lesson 1: Aesthetics and practicality

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