Activity Introduction
Quick summary: Students will investigate the production and recycling of aluminium using deodorant cans as a context. They will investigate the costs of manufacturing aluminium from raw materials and compare these to recycling figures. Students will identify relationships showing direct proportion and use relevant formulas to calculate values related to aluminium production and carbon emissions.
This lesson has been developed in partnership with Visy. For over 60 years Visy has been striving for sustainability, reducing the amount of waste going to landfill by collecting recyclable materials and recycling them into new paper and packaging products. Click here to find out more about Visy and their innovative work in recovering and transforming recyclable materials into new products to preserve our earth’s precious resources.
Learning intentions:
- Students will understand the impact of recycling aluminium.
- Students will be able to recognise directly proportional quantities.
- Students will able to apply direct proportion formulas to solve problems related to the production of aluminium from raw and recycled materials.
21st century skills:
Australian Curriculum Mapping
Content descriptions:
Year 9 Maths
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Solve problems involving direct proportion. Explore the relationship between graphs and equations corresponding to simple rate problems (ACMNA208).
General capabilities: Numeracy, Critical and creative thinking, Ethical understanding.
Cross-curriculum priority: Sustainability OI.8.
Relevant parts of Year 9 Mathematics achievement standards: Students interpret ratio and scale factors in similar figures.
Topic: Waste, Sustainability.
Unit of work: Bright Sparks – Secondary Mathematics.
Time required: 70 mins.
Level of teacher scaffolding: Medium – teachers will need to guide students through various parts of this lesson, particularly the introduction, to ensure students understand the background knowledge.
Resources required:
- Student Worksheets (one per student).
- Device capable of projecting images to the class.
- Aluminium factsheet.
- Aluminium Recycling Process Diagram.
- Raw Materials Chart.
- Empty or full deodorant can (or a few).
- Scales.
Keywords: Recycling, aluminium, aerosol cans, rate, ratio, direct proportion, deodorant cans.
The information and statistics included in this document are approximate and have been simplified for educational/illustrative purposes. They should not be relied upon for any other purpose.
Cool Australia’s curriculum team continually reviews and refines our resources to be in line with changes to the Australian Curriculum.