Week 8: 7th Grade Upcycling Project

For the past two weeks, all 7th graders in STEM were learning about Upcycling. Upcycling is when you take something that you would normally throw away and repurpose it. Our students were learning about the environmental impact of our existence, and how we can lessen the negative effects. 7th graders took recyclable materials they had at home and turned them into pencil cases.

Our students did not just create pencil cases, they also worked through each step of the Engineering Design Process. First, students contemplated the reason we would upcycle and what upcycling means. They then researched different upcycled products and measured the materials that needed to be included in the pencil case.

Students then completed two sketches and one plan technical drawing before building their pencil cases out of the materials they brought. After testing and coming up with improvements, students shared their designs to the whole class. Through the two weeks, students documented each step of their process and turned in everything they worked on to be assessed.

We were so happy with the outcome with these projects and we hope that our students learned the importance of caring about the environment. Below are some exceptional examples of 7th grade upcycled pencil cases.