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Goal

Students will study properties of matter while making a plant based biodegradable, environmentally friendly "styrofoam-like" packing material that can be used as an outdoor planter. 

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 long-term on-going lab will be applicable to science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics while promoting green chemistry by giving students the opportunity to create biodegradable packing material. It fits in perfectly with our unit on studying the properties of matter.

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 their required 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 environmentally safe packing material home to plant at home. There, the experiment can continue while they measure how long it takes to decompose in their backyard. 

Benefits to my students

Students will study the properties of matter in chemistry class while making and comparing their biodegradable packing material to Styrofoam. They will use the environmentally friendly packing material to bring their biodegradable planter home. There, they can measure and plot how long it takes for their project to decompose. 

Budget Narrative

I would like to buy a classroom kit for our school's chemistry club to test out and write about this lab experiment to see if this is something that would fit into our district's elementary, middle and high school curriculum next year.

In order to grow, measure, and study the environmentally friendly material, we will need plastic bags, containers, flours, and agar gel. 

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