Author: Gonca Koseoglu

School: Ihsane Tuna Dıravacıoglu Primary School,TURKEY

Participants: 1st grade students (7-8 years old)

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This STEM activity was held in the “My Bio-Based STEM Activities” project on the eTwinning platform. Portugal, Romania, Turkey are project partners. The project started in September 2020. In our study, we draw attention to environmental pollution, and we make bio-based learnings from these problems with STEM studies. We carried out our activities with hybrid education due to the pandemic.
To describe our activity in a few words; students were encouraged to make bio-based plastic after research plastics they use in daily life. So, what is plastic? What is the harm of plastic to the environment and animals? It was a STEM study where they found answers to the questions in their minds. As a result, they will be able to experience it for life. We did our work in April, of which you will find all the stages below.

Preparation of our STEM project (first step):

Firstly, the students gathered the plastic materials which they use in their homes. Then, they bring them into the class. They investigated the symbols on the plastic materials and drew them to learn them permanently. This enables them to be more curious, after that they learned the meanings of the symbols. Students understood that most plastics are too dangerous. Thus, they started the questioning. They watched various videos about the damages of plastic to the environment and animals. Therefore, their awareness increased. Students learned that plastics produced from petroleum-derived or chemical-derived synthetic polymers cause environmental problems.