Good practice for a sustainable development

Title of the activity Good practice for a sustainable development
Teachers/Schools/Country Italy: / I.T.S.T. “Vittorio Emanuele III” – Palermo

Giovanni Cacioppo
Age of the students 15-17
Class Technology and design; ICT.
Topic of the activity
Description of the activity The topic of the course is the transition to sustainable development. Starting from the concept of sustainable development, the projected aimed to create an artefact through the use of recycled materials, following a manufacturing process that at every step gives the opportunity to convey a series of specific knowledge and skills.

A first wide research phase concerns the issues about sustainable development and the possible transition from not-sustainable development to sustainable. The first step is to give a definition of “sustainable” through a brainstorming activity. On this way, various solutions have to be analyzed that involve low energy consumption, water saving, recycling, renewable energies, environmental cleaning, sustainable mobility.

After explaining to students what are the daily practices that can help to keep the environment clean, they were asked to design some prototypes that can be useful for this purpose because built with recycled materials (paper, cardboard, plastic, cans, etc.). We divided the students into smaller work groups. Each group, after careful research and design of various models, proposed its prototype. Last lessons will take place within the “staging area” of the DBL mode which includes “Argumentation” and “reflection” on the construction of the prototype.

Among various prototypes proposed by students, one has been chosen to be built based on the ease of execution or availability of materials. The students decided to build a prototype that would allow them to have their favourite drinks. They therefore designed a drink dispenser made of cardboard and plastic bottles.