8STEM Upcycling Assignment

This is a group project, students should collaborate (work together and learn from each
other) to discuss aspects of this assignment. However, each student MUST submit their own
individual copy.
Please record your names in the table below:

Student name (your name) Toby Ung

Group members names Vivaan, Jai, Satvik

3a. How many ways can you UPCYCLE your item?

a.​ Want to learn more about brainstorming effectively as a group? Watch this video:
A Better Way to Brainstorm: How to Get Students to Generate Original Ideas

b.​ As a group, brainstorm about how your item could be upcycled. (i.e. Which parts
could you reuse?) Try and find lots of ways to use as much of the item(s) as possible.
Use brainstorming techniques such as a MIND MAP, KEY-WORD, ‘REVERSE’, STAR-BURST
(who, what, where, when, why, how) to help if required.

Questions Your response

14.​ List some of the Old clothes can be upcycled by turning them into pillows, soft
ideas discussed toys, bags, etc.
here:
 15.​ Considering the item(s) you are going to upcycle (from Question 9 in SECTION 2), pick
three options from your brainstorming. Make sure you include a label (what it is/does)
and highlight any features.

Option Sketch/ Picture / Image / or Photoshop

Milk Bottle turned into plant pot

1.​
 Plastic bottle into bird feeder
2.​

Plastic Bottle into Automatic plant waterer

3.​
Questions Your response

16.​ Thinking about your We chose these three because they all use plastic bottles
design options above, which are accessible for all of us and we all have spare
why did you choose bottles.

these three and not

some of the other
ideas your group
had?

17.​ You will need to VIV- We taught the milk carton was the best one to pursue
choose the best ONE. as it was easy to access and was easier to do.It also had
How do you good labeling and descriptions saying what each part was
for.
determine which one
is best? Write your
Toby - We chose the carton idea in which you can turn it
thoughts here. into a plant pot because it utilises the plastic bottle well
and you can repeat it and make it again and again with
different bottles and plants. The pot can hold lots of plants
and has holes in the bottom so that the water doesn't
drown the plants. The drawing also has detailed
annotations and good proportions as the plant is a normal
size compared to the bottle.

Jai - We decided to do the milk carton idea because it

includes easy to find materials, easy things to upcycle, and
you will be able to repeat the experiment more than once
with whatever cartons you have and whatever plants you
would like to grow. You can use any bottles and cartons.
 Satvik- The milk carton idea is best because it is the easiest
to do and requires less materials and you can grow
whatever you want in a milk carton. This makes it the most
accessible to do. With using bottles and cartons, you can
upcycle it into many things and this is one of them.

3b. How to decide which option is best?

: Is there a better way to determine which one is best? A decision matrix is a tool
to evaluate and select the best option between different choices. This tool can be useful to
help you decide between more than one option when there are several factors you want to
consider to make your final decision.

Watch this video about a decision matrix:

Decision Matrix

Questions Your response (write these as questions)

18.​ Create three criteria to E.g. Is this an original design?

help you decide which
option is best. Criteria 1: Labeling and annotations

(You might want to

consider things like;
originality of new design,
appeal/desirability, how Criteria 2: Chance to work
easy it is to remake,
percentage of original
item reused etc.)
Criteria 3: Difficulty, is it easy to make?

19.​ Fill in these tables using your criteria from question 18 above and give each option a
score. Then pick a weighting for each criteria (1 = least important 3 = most important).
USE these same criteria and weighting for ALL options.
Option 1.
Criteria Score Weighting Score x weighting
(out of 10) (1 = least important
3 = most important)

e.g Is this an original design? 5 3 5x3 = 15

Annotations 7 1 7x1 = 7

Chance for it to work 9 3 9x3 = 27

Difficulty, is it easy to 8 2 8x2 = 16

make?

Total 50

Option 2.
Criteria Score Weighting Score x weighting
(out of 10) (1 = least important 3
= most important)

e.g Is this an original design? 5 3 5x3 = 15

Annotations 7 1 7x1 = 7

Chance for it to work 5 3 5x3 = 15

Difficulty, is it easy to 4 2 4x2 = 8

make?

Total 30

Option 3.
Criteria Score Weighting Score x weighting
(out of 10) (1 = least important 3
= most important)

e.g Is this an original design? 5 3 5x3 = 15

Annotations 6 1 6x1 = 6

Chance for it to work 7 3 7x3 = 21

Difficulty, is it easy to make? 6 2 6x2 = 12

Total 39

Questions Your response

20.​Which option has the Option 1

highest score?
 21.​ Do you agree the best I agree with option one because it is a very simple design
option is the one with and I think it would work well for most people.
the highest score?
Why or why not?

: If you don’t feel the highest score is best - or more than one option gives an
equal score - review your chosen criteria and your score. Check the total to see which option
gives you the highest score.
4. What is your best upcycling design idea?

22.​Create a sketch/picture/photoshop image of the best option. Annotate your

sketches/pictures. Provide as much detail as you think is necessary. Make sure you
highlight any new or additional parts you require (this could be new
components/parts, screws, glue, paint).

Not sure about how to annotate your sketch? Watch this video:
How to annotate my design ideas?

Annotated Sketch/ Picture / Image / or Photoshop

Possible checklist of features:

1.​ Purpose
2.​ Interesting parts
3.​ Materials
4.​ Colours
5.​ How it is safe
6.​ Size
7.​ ? (you choose)
Questions Your response

23.​List any new, or There aren’t any new or additional parts because the design is
additional, parts very simple and easy to make only needing a milk bottle.
required.

Extend yourself. Consider where parts come from. How are they made and what materials
are they made from. (e.g. a nail is made from steel using machines in a factory. The steel
comes from another factory that turned iron ore into steel using coal. Both factories required
electricity to run some of their machines).

Use this link, or one of your choice, to find out how much energy is required to make some
common materials. How much energy does it take (on average) to produce 1 kilogram of
the following materials? - LOW-TECH MAGAZINE

24.​What resources are required to remake your new upcycling design? (consider what
materials you are using and where they come from. How did you make your item?
(e.g., did you use power-tools that require electricity?)
Remember: look back at Q10 (Part 2) where you deconstructed your original item.

Item Material Resources required

plastic plastic Energy to make plastics (from crude oil): 62-108MJ (17,200 to
bottle with 31,950 watt-hours)
https://www.lowtechmagazine.com/what-is-the-embodied-energy-of-materials.html#:~:text=W
holes ood%20(from%20standing%20timber)%3A,to%201%2C950%20watt%2Dhours

Energy to cut holes in bottle by using a hand powered drill

(almost zero)

Potting mix soil Dirt, soil, bark and sand