The environmental impact of materials
Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can identify the environmental impact that materials have during a product's life cycle.
Key learning points
- A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) checks a product’s impact from start to finish.
- The carbon footprint rises with energy and resources used in manufacture, use and disposal.
- Recycling, reuse, or upcycling reduce the carbon footprint in an LCA.
- Designers use the LCA to find ways to cut emissions and improve efficiency.
Keywords
LCA - life cycle assessment; assesses the environmental impact at every stage of a product’s life
Carbon footprint - total amount of greenhouse gases a product or activity produces
Environment - the natural world
Common misconception
The environmental impact of a material only happens when the product is thrown away.
A material’s environmental impact occurs at every stage of its life cycle; during manufacture, use and disposal.
Teacher tip
Use real product examples and trace their life cycle to make each stage’s environmental impact evident for students.
Licence
Lesson video
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Prior knowledge starter quiz
6 Questions
Q1.Select the properties of metals.
Q2.Which products are made from aluminium?
Q3.Which products are made from brass?
Q4.Metals are categorised as ferrous, non-ferrous, or .
Q5.Solder is an alloy of __________.
Q6.The standard shape and size in which a material is supplied is know as what?
Assessment exit quiz
4 Questions
Q1.What does LCA stand for?
Q2.What does renewable resources mean?
Q3.What is needed in large quantities for cooling when extracting metals?
Q4.Which factors increase the carbon footprint of a product during use?
To help you plan your 8 design and technology lesson on: The environmental impact of materials, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your 8 design and technology lesson on: The environmental impact of materials, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom. Plus, you can set it as homework or revision for pupils and keep their learning on track by sharing an online pupil version of this lesson.
Explore more key stage 3 design and technology lessons from the Material testing unit, dive into the full secondary design and technology curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.