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TE Activity: Product Development and the Environment

In this activity, students investigate the life cycle of an engineered product and how the product impacts the environment. They analyze a product using a simple life cycle assessment that assigns fictional numerical values for different steps in the life cycle. They use their analysis to compare the impacts of their product to other products, as well as suggest ways to reduce the product's environmental impact based on their analysis.

Engineers use nature as the inspiration for many designs. In particular, engineers often strive to manage their waste stream by reusing and recycling materials just like nature does. Engineers often think about the fate of their product from the point of development and construction to the end of its useful life, called a life cycle assessment. Steps in a product life cycle assessment include materials acquisition, materials processing, manufacturing, packaging, transportation, use, and disposal of the product. There can be a variety of goals to completing a life cycle assessment. Engineers sometimes design products with durable parts that will have a long lifespan and other times they design products which are designed to last a relatively short amount of time, but have easy to reuse or recycle parts.

Learning Objectives
Materials
Introduction/Motivation
Vocabulary
Procedure
Attachments
Safety Issues
Troubleshooting Tips
Assessment
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References

Grade Level: 7 (6-8)	Group Size: 2
Time Required: 60 minutes	Activity Dependency : None
Expendable Cost Per Group : Not defined
Keywords: life cycles, product, assessment, cradle-to-grave, inventory, environmental impact, manufacture, materials, reengineering

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Colorado Math
- 4. formulate hypotheses, draw conclusions, and make convincing arguments based on data analysis; (Grades 5 - 8) [2005]
Colorado Science
- Standard 1: Students understand the processes of scientific investigation and design, conduct, communicate about, and evaluate such investigations. (Grades 0 - 12) [1995]
- Standard 5: Students know and understand interrelationships among science, technology, and human activity and how they can affect the world. (Grades 0 - 12) [1995]
- Standard 6: Students understand that science involves a particular way of knowing and understand common connections among scientific disciplines. (Grades 0 - 12) [1995]
- 3.2 Students know and understand interrelationships of matter and energy in living systems. (Grades 0 - 12) [1995]

Everywhere around us are products made from metals and plastics. Some of these products are as simple as a hairbrush or toothbrush; while some are as complex as an automobile or a computer. We have products to listen to music and products to help us complete our schoolwork. Do you ever stop to think about how these products are made? Everything that involves metal and plastic uses natural resources, requires energy to manufacture, and produces waste for our environment. Some products have a large impact on the environment, and some have less of an impact. Products that can be recycled have even less of an impact on the environment and are considered environmentally friendly.

Engineers consider the environmental impacts to our air, water and natural resources when creating a new product. To do this, engineers consider the entire life cycle of a product — from materials acquisition, materials processing, manufacturing, packaging, transportation, use and disposal of the product. These represent all the life phases of a product, similar to the life cycle of an animal found in nature. Looking at the life cycle of a product helps us understand the how we use the Earth's natural resources and energy and, specially, how we produce waste.

An engineer uses a life cycle assessment to measure how much energy and impact a product has on the environment, from its creation to its final disposal. There are several general steps to determining the overall environmental impact of a manufactured product. The first step is called an inventory analysis. In this step, the product's energy and materials that are used during the life cycle are calculated. A number value is assigned for energy and physical materials for all the phases of the life cycle (materials acquisition, materials processing, manufacturing, packaging, transportation, use, and disposal of the product). The next step is an impact analysis, where the number values from step one are added together. This final number represents the total impact on the environment. Lastly, an improvement analysis is performed to determine if there is any way to reduce the product's impact on the environment. For example, conserving energy or water during any of the phases of the life cycle or exchanging materials for less hazardous waste producing ones would help reduce the impact. Then, the changes are inserted back into the inventory analysis to determine if the total environmental impact can be reduced.

Today, we are going to think about the life cycle of a product. Since we are not developing new product, we are going to re-engineer an existing product, or break the product down into its individual parts and examine each part for our analysis. Using that information, we will assign a representative number for the environmental impact of our product and compare that impact number with the other products of our classmates. Then we will think about ways to reduce our number, or in essence, the environmental impact of our product.

Background

This activity gives students an idea of how a life cycle assessment can be useful. The numbers on the worksheet are fictional and are only used to compare the environmental impacts of different objects to each other. In a real engineering life cycle analysis, the numbers of each step are determined using actual measurable inputs and outputs of energy, electricity, raw materials, water, waste and emissions.

Picture of the life cycle of glass.

click for copyright

Before the Activity

Gather several metal and plastic products for the students to reengineer. Some example items might include a broken CD player (or old VCR player if you can find one!), a coffee pot, a stapler or a children's toy.
If you wish to have the students take apart the products, gather a selection of screwdrivers to help with this.

With the Students

Break students into teams of two.
Give each student pair a product in which to complete a sample life cycle assessment.
Have students follow along with the Life Cycle Assessment Worksheet in determining a hypothetical number value for the impact of their product on the environment. (Remind students that the number is fictional, and not more used for comparison than actually quantitative amounts.)
Give students time to complete the life cycle analysis of their product. (Note: more complex products will take longer to analysis than simple products, such as a hair brush. They are more interesting too!) 5. Ask students to share the total impact analysis score with the rest of the class. Create a class list of products and their scores on the board. Discuss the range of impacts the products have on the environment.
Have students think about modifications they could make to the life cycle of their product. Have them complete their improvement analysis on their worksheet and discuss any improvements with the class. Are there any recurring ideas for improvement in the class?

Pre-Activity Assessment

Class Discussion: Solicit, integrate and summarize student responses.

Have the students start thinking about the different parts and pieces that make up a product by holding up a common item, such as a stapler, and create a class list of all the parts of the stapler on the board.

Prediction: Have students predict the outcome of the activity before the activity is performed.

Show students several examples of products that they will be analyzing during this activity. Ask them to predict which products will prove to have the largest impact on the environment throughout their life cycle.

Activity Embedded Assessment

Worksheet: Have the students follow along with the activity on their worksheet. After students have finished their worksheet, have them compare answers with their peers.

Post-Activity Assessment

Considering Design Trade-Offs: Have students think about their suggested product improvements from their worksheet. Tell them that engineers must sometimes consider trade-offs in their designs. For example, will reducing the impact on the environment by reducing the amount of materials in the product actually reduce the durability and effectiveness of the product? Have the students decide if there are any similar or possible product trade-offs that should be considered in their suggested product improvements.

Diagramming: Have the students draw a graphical model of the life cycle of their product. On their drawing, have them detail the materials, processes, and energy involved in each phase of the life cycle. The phases they should include are: materials acquisition, materials processing, manufacturing, packaging, transportation, use and disposal of the product.

Have students look up the life cycles of some common products. A cell phone is a good example of a product that has changed significantly over time, from amount of materials, to packaging and accessories. Cell phone parts include the case, display, wiring, keypad, microphone, speaker, antennae, and battery. Have students create a life cycle assessment for the various parts of a cell phone. Cell phone usage averages about 18 months in the United States. Have students compare the life cycle assessment of cell phone to conventional landline phones.

Have students research more about the development, use and disposal of plastic in products from toy dolls to cars. In fact, plastics account for 25% of all waste in landfills when buried. There are several online website that report the amount of plastics in different products and discuss the options for recycling plastics. Have students create a brochure for their school community about the use of plastics and where to dispose of them properly.

For older students, have the students look up the raw materials (oil, natural gas) that go into making plastics and different metals (ore). Have the students create a scoring system to distinguish different ores and raw materials by their difficulty of extraction from the Earth and limited availability.
For younger students, use easier products, such as a mechanical pencil or a tape dispenser. Less complicated products will help younger students understand the concepts behind the life cycle assessment.

Integrated Teaching and Learning Program, College of Engineering, University of Colorado at Boulder Malinda Schaefer Zarske, Janet Yowell, Kaelin Cawley © 2008 by Regents of the University of Colorado. This digital library content was developed by the Integrated Teaching and Learning Program.

Last Modified: March 6, 2008