One of the things I like about being a teacher...

Is trying things first.

Next term, the Y10 class is doing a unit based around investigations and different inquiry processes. It features self-direction, individual learning outcomes and all sorts of happytiems so-hot-right-now educational features.

But the bit I am happiest about is that there is an exemplar for the first round - for very low ability students, they can use the exemplar as a template and basically plod along in the exemplar's footsteps.

Naturally, I get to make the exemplar.

Even that wouldn't ordinarily be enough to excite me, but I am making my exemplar about using plastic bags as t-shirt transfers. Yeah, I know, exciting right?

Look at this example of what someone made with plastic bag transfers:



I was inspired by three posts on Filth Wizardry - post one, post two, and post three.

And there is lots of science behind this - like why the particle structure of plastics makes them prone to melting, not catching alight. Why some plastics are softer and more melty than others. Like where plastics come from in the first place. Even though the tutorial gives basic instructions, there is still plenty of scope for investigation and coming up with a solid hypothesis. My exemplar deals with the effects of plastic type, holding the temperature and time of fuse constant. At the moment, though, I am freeform experimenting, to get the basic range of my constants settled. I will have pictures later.

So, I'm hoping that a few other students will choose other plastic recycling topics to use for their first investigation. I have some awesome tutorials on fusing plastic bags - here, with patterns if you want to make a rain hat or bag and here, with some more crafty ideas, and even a video tutorial:



But I need more! I'm going to exercise my google-fu later and come up with as many awesome plastic recycling ideas as I can. If any readers have ideas, I'd be delighted to hear them too!

But getting back to this unit of learning. Not many students are going to grasp quite what I'm on about quickly and be able to run with it. Some will, and I am really looking forward to seeing what they and their awesome imaginations come up with. But many will need a lot of support to get through it. That's where the exemplar and some supported options come in - at least for the first round of investigations. And if I get to play round with making t-shirt transfers out of the fifty million plastic bags littering my house, that's even better.