Edmunds 5th Graders Design, Plan and Execute Project with Recycling

After a week of gathering information on the effects of plastic waste on earth and it’s fragile  environment, fifth graders at Edmunds were tasked with a special project. The teachers helped define the problem by sharing a challenge from the classroom: pencils that are found on the classroom floor at the end of the day. It seemed that some students were not putting them back after using them, and some weren’t sure were the pencils should be placed, some were being careless. So, teams of 5th graders were tasked to provide a design and to build a prototype of a class pencil-holding container, to fix this problem. AND they were challenged to make this pencil holder from plastic waste.

The designing and building the pencil holder were made clear with outlining expectations and project requirements, and the students got to work.  After the 5th graders built their pencil holders, they presented their designs to the class,  explaining the materials used, and why their groups’ prototype was the best design. Problem identified: plans made and followed through on, and the project was complete!