Go Green - Making Biodegradable Plant Based "Styrofoam"

School:: Palmetto Ridge High
Subject:: Science
Teacher:: Allison Chapman
Students Impacted:: 750
Grade:: 9-12
Date:: August 31, 2016

Investor

Thank you to the following investor for funding this grant.

Suncoast Credit Union - $260.00

Impact to My Classroom

# of Students Impacted: 160

Students learned about green chemistry and making biodegradable packaging material. Students tried to make their own packaging material in the shape of a planter to bring home a plant for Mother's Day and plant on their own patio or in their own front or back yard.

This would make a great long term experiment. Classes could experiment with different amounts of flour and compare the final products. They could also observe and plot how long it takes to decompose in their backyard if we did the project the first month of school.

Great project but needs to be scheduled and made within 10 weeks of receiving the material as it has a very short shelf life.

Here are some links:

https://giy.ecovativedesign.com/

https://giy.ecovativedesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/instructions-2017.pdf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26iLV2fazH8&feature=youtu.be

Links for Example Lab Report Instructions and Vid

grant photo

Mixing 3 cups of water and 4 TBS of flour in with

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Need to let this grow for 5 days

Original Grant Overview

Goal

Students will study properties of matter while making a plant based biodegradable, environmentally friendly "styrofoam-like" packing material.

What will be done with my students

Students will be asked to read and annotate an article about Styrofoam pollution and the life-cycle of polystyrene and then they will learn about a new biodegradable packing material they can make and study in lab after watching a Ted Talk entitled, "Are mushrooms the new plastic?"

This lab fits in perfectly with our unit on studying the properties of matter. In the past, we have made play dough, oobleck, slime and gummy worms.

This year, I would like the students to make something that could help solve the ocean's plastic pollution problem. I would like the students to master the same state standards while learning about a possible solution to a real-life problem.

Once the material is successfully made, measured and studied, the students will be able to take their glass votive project home in an environmentally safe packing material that they made and that many environmentally-friendly companies are beginning to use in their stores.

Benefits to my students

Students will study the properties of matter in chemistry class while making and then comparing their biodegradable packing material to Styrofoam. They will use the environmentally friendly packing material to transport their etched glass candle votive holders home safely in their backpacks.

Budget Narrative

I would like to buy two starter-kits for each of my regular chemistry classes and our school's chemistry club (15 kits). In order to grow the environmentally friendly material, we will need flour and agar gel.

Items

#	Item	Cost
1	Mushroom/Corn Husk Class Starter Kits	$250.00
2	flour	$10.00
	Total:	$260.00

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