We have a lot of plastic. Now what?

As students entered the room and settled in with a snack.
I asked them, "What do we know about plastic now?
They answered with the following responses:
"Plastic is not good for the world right now."
"It is killing our animals."
"Trash is all over our neighborhood."
"Plants can’t live in garbage and there will be less trees."
"Recycling is not helping the neighborhood."
"We have to stop using plastic. Recycling just makes more plastic and we used a lot!"

We watched the short film "Plastic Bag", by Ramin Bahrein (2010) which, is an episode through the series FUTRUESTATES.tv, and is great resource for teachers teaching lessons on social issues. The film  portrays the life and perspective from a plastic bag. The bag travels from the store and helps humans carry things and then is thrown away. The bag blows away finds himself on a journey while trying figure out his purpose. The bag contemplates why his maker did not design his end. The film is a bit long and we stopped it there to discuss what the possible endings for the bag. 

The students were very interested in how to end the life of plastic. The students suggested the bag end his life and find his purpose in a piece of art.  The students were very in making new uses for the plastic and creating arwork with the plastic we collected and giving this plastic purpose.

In order for the students to become more familiar with the material we broke out into four groups. The students were given the task of building with plastic without the use of glue or adhesives. The had about 20 minutes to design and create their sculptures. Two groups made cities. Another group made a plastic castle because the material would last forever the castle would never fall down. The last  group used all spoons and laid them out to create a SpongeBob Grandma as she lived under the sea she would tell stories of when the oceans did not have plastic in them.
After the gallery walk the students cleaned up and we discussed how the matrial could be used to create sculptures and what messages we could send with the sculptures.

In order for the students to become more familiar with the material we broke out into four groups. The students were given the task of building with plastic without the use of glue or adhesives. The had about 20 minutes to design and create their sculptures. 2 groups made cities. 1 made a plastic castle because the material would last forever the castle would never fall down. The last used all spoons and laid them out to create a" SpongeBob Grandma" as she lived under the sea she would tell stories of when the oceans did not have plastic in them.
After the gallery walk the students cleaned up and we discussed how the matrial could be used to create sculptures and what messages they could send with the sculptures.

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