Upcycling ideas for students offer a fun and meaningful project-based approach for students to learn about their community and the environment. Opportunities to upcycle can easily be found at school or home and are an excellent fit for student creativity. The products that students can create by upcycling are essentially limitless.
What is Upcycling?
Upcycling is a process of transforming traditional waste materials or useless products into new products of improved quality or for better environmental value. Collecting items from local communities and turning them into something new can be very rewarding for students. As humans produce more products in a shorter amount of time, more trash is also being produced, making reusable materials easy to acquire. Upcycling can even be a great way to save money on purchases because people who upcycle add value to something that would have otherwise been thrown away.
People often throw away items that are still usable, such as old clothes, used toys, and even unwanted furniture. Students can upcycle trash into treasures by giving materials a new purpose or a fresh look—many DIY ideas online showcase unique art pieces and helpful products made from used materials.
Upcycling Lessons in the Classroom
Upcycling lessons in the classroom are an easy way for students to learn about the big picture of society. By adding value with readily available materials, students understand and help the environment. Studying manufacturing production and waste stream processes can help students learn to make connections and discover cause-and-effect relationships. Upcycling can even become a routine classroom practice and an enjoyable family hobby at home.
Upcycling Projects for Students
Upcycling projects for elementary students and upcycling projects for middle schoolers share similarities and differences. The older the student, the greater the autonomy they may want to have in choosing the creative aspects of their project. For example, you may have older students complete a green audit independently as part of their research toward developing an upcycled product.
For a more focused and possibly a bit more contrived approach to starting an upcycled classroom project, create a scenario for students. Younger students especially will benefit from the specific focus a clear scenario offers. The GRASPS Model by Understanding by Design (UbD) authors Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe, clearly outlines the critical components of the problem.
Upcycling Materials
It’s probably easier to scan your school for upcyclable materials than for students to bring them from home. It depends on your school and community. The materials should be clean and non-toxic. Storage before and after creating the gift is a factor, so be mindful of the required space.
Here’s a non-exhaustive list of possible materials:
- magazines
- cereal boxes
- toilet paper rolls (icky, maybe, but the symmetry is nice)
- paper towel rolls
- plastic water bottle caps
- plastic water bottles
- plastic pill bottles (watch out for labels with prescriptions)
- plastic lids
- plastic bags (for weaving)
- packing boxes (Apple products come in slick packaging)
Goal, Role, Audience, Situation, Product, and Standards for Success
The GRASPS acronym stands for Goal, Role, Audience, Situation, Product, and Standards for Success. Here is an example GRASPS scenario written for younger students:
Goal
Your goal is to create a thoughtful handmade gift from used materials.
Role
You are a designer. Your specialty is making treasure from trash.
Audience
The target audience is a person at school.
Situation
Creating a lovely gift from used materials for someone special will brighten their day and help the environment.
Product
You will create a thoughtful, handmade gift from used materials (e.g., trash, recyclables) for a person at school.
Standards for Success
The upcycled gift shall be:
- mainly made from harmless school trash or recyclables
- interesting for the person who receives it
- sturdy and safe to use
- smaller than a shoebox
Upcycling Ideas for Students – GRASPS (PDF)
Detailed Problem-based Learning Scenario Example
A more elaborate GRASPS scenario can be used for older students and for a long-term, problem-based STEM or STEAM project. Consider adding each element to its own presentation slide (example) with an illustration for greater visual impact. Here’s another, more detailed GRASPS than can help you get started with upcycling ideas for students:
Goal
Your goal is to design and create a high-value and appealing gift (such as a game, musical instrument, or sculpture) for a [name of school] community member. The gift shall be created with school-generated, used materials (preferably locally-available plastic) that would be otherwise harmful if discarded in a landfill or ocean.
Role
You are a student designer with a sustainability mindset who develops socially responsible solutions. Your specialty is upcycling used resources (e.g., trash, recyclables) into appealing products that are highly valued by the school community over a long period of time.
Audience
Your upcycled product shall be presented as a gift to a specific member of the [name of school] community (e.g., teacher, administration, support staff, or parent).
Situation
By creating a high-value and appealing gift from discarded local materials that have traditionally little value (and may even be harmful in specific environments), you develop the skills to create socially responsible solutions consistently and in the future.
Product
You will create an appealing product from used resources (e.g., trash, recyclables) as a gift for the target audience.
Standards for Success
The upcycled product shall be:
- made mostly from school-generated trash or recyclables (preferably difficult-to-recycle plastics)
- appealing to the target [name of school] community member for at least one school year
- obvious how it is to be used and appreciated
- well-crafted and sturdy–must not fall apart with regular use for at least one year
- completely safe to use and handle from PreK to adult
- easily storable on a typical bookshelf or closet shelf when not in use
Notes About the Learning Scenario
Consider adding some language from your school’s mission into the scenario to deepen connections to learning. Some of the vocabulary may need to be taught as well (e.g., “sustainability,” “mindset”). Promoting empathy through the GRASPS for the audience is always a good idea.
The Standards for Success reference key design specifications that should be as specific and measurable as possible, but it’s not always easy. For example, the intent of “appealing to the target [name of school] community member for at least one school year” is to make sure the student designer engages in a sincere study of the school community member’s preferences. But how do you measure this easily? Students could survey the gift recipients after a year (or designated time period); however, this task requires long-term planning and commitment that may not be possible.
Upcycling Research
Once the scenario is established, students can explore the big picture of upcycling. That is, the nature of the lesson will center around and grapple with this essential question:
How should systems be sustainable to minimize harmful human impact on the environment?
To provide access to the question and provoke inquiry, students can explore these inquiry questions in order of complexity:
- Factual – How does plastic help people? How does plastic harm our environment?
- Conceptual – Why do people create trash? Why do people use plastic? Why do some communities reduce, reuse, and/or recycle plastic while others don’t?
- Debatable – How does the action of an individual (or a group of individuals) make a positive impact on our environment?
During this inquiry, students are encouraged to become more aware of the interrelatedness of people, products, and society.
To build background knowledge, students need to conduct research. A curated set of manageable and intuitive materials will help students navigate the knowledge necessary to develop an effective solution to meet the goal outlined in the GRASPS.
I have really enjoyed starting the research to promote upcycling Ideas for students with this short and awe-inspiring video about the Recycled Orchestra from Asuncion, Paraguay:
Personal Anecdote
This video always touches me. I taught at American School of Asunción when I lived in Paraguay, about 20 years ago. Once a week on Sundays, I used to bike to Cerro Lambaré, which overlooked the Cateura landfill. I’m grateful for my view of the home of the Recycled Orchestra!
Beyond Reading and Writing
My experience with this research phase is that students do not care for it compared to the building-the-product phase. They tend to want to get through it to build their gift!
Therefore, try activities that can balance reading with other forms of engagement in this part of the lesson. For example, to conclude the research, have the students choose one of the three areas to explore and then report back to the class their findings:
- Do a waste-stream investigation around the school through observations and interviews with adults involved with trash management (e.g., custodial staff)
- Interview possible upcycled gift recipients around school about their general likes and dislikes
- Experiment with different types of glue and materials to determine which combination provides the most significant strength option (bonding materials securely is a real need)
Have students develop another relevant, teacher-approved investigation category. Optimally, if time allows, try to have every student complete multiple activities at their preferred level. For example, a shy student may not want to interview an adult but could be the note-taker for the group.
Developing Ideas for Upcycling
At this point in the lesson, students should be informed about the problem, committed to their purpose, and eager to generate ideas. Have students brainstorm as many ideas as possible and develop quick annotated sketches. Hang up the sketches around the room, do a gallery walk to inspire more ideas, and take notes from the best ideas. A revisit to the upcycled gift ideas provided in Upcycling Research Web Resources can also help generate upcycling ideas for students.
Develop Design Specifications
After brainstorming ideas, students should define the design specifications to make the best upcycled gift possible. These short statements are requirements that students will try to follow when creating their upcycled gifts. It is essential to assure students that not meeting some or all of the design specifications does not mean a failing grade. Regardless, efforts should be made to write well-intentioned and precise specifications to address the goal in the GRASPS.
The Standards for Success from the GRASPS are essentially the core design specifications for the upcycled product design. Ideally, the upcycled product is testable in terms of the design specifications, which would be done during the evaluation phase of the lesson.
This list of upcycling design specifications is an example activity sheet for students to complete to develop the requirements for their upcycled gift. One specification is already completed as an example.
Other Upcycling Design Specifications to Consider
Regarding environmental impact, the materials that biodegrade the most slowly (plastics) are a better choice than those that don’t (cardboard). Massing the materials that go into the gift (plastics vs. paper-based products) provides specific detail to measure the success of the first design specification (“What shall the gift be made of? Try to use 100% non-new plastics.”). The design specification about sturdiness assumes that more than one material will be used to build the gift. The size specifications exist to avoid large (e.g., furniture-sized) products that are too cumbersome to give and keep as gifts.
Sketch the Upcycled Gift Idea
The final part of the developing ideas phase is for students to sketch and annotate their best idea at this point. Sketching product ideas are a great way to bring authenticity into the process and facilitate learning STEM content. Sketches can be pencil or digital (e.g., Google Draw, Tinkercad). They can also be isometric (3D), orthographic projection (2D, top, front, side), or a combination of multiple sketches.
Building the Upcycled Gift
My experience in the upcycling design process has been that students prefer to work alone because they do not want to compromise their creative choices. However, to accommodate personalities and preferences, allow students to work in groups of two or three to build their upcycled gift.
A complete unit on upcycling may require a more procedural approach to this building phase. For example, in MYP Design, before students build their best idea of their upcycled gift, they write precise steps on how to do so. These steps should be clear for a peer to follow. It’s helpful to document each building step by taking photos with their laptop as they build.
Cutting and assembling are required. So be aware of safety. Some tips I learned with sixth graders during this upcycling building phase are:
- this hands-on phase of the lesson is very popular
- storage for upcyclable materials in the classroom should be planned ahead
- glue is better than tape
- blue painters tape and electrical tape can provide visual accents
- a little paint is okay, and a little tape is okay
- a lot of paint is not okay, and paint on plastic generally doesn’t stick well
- students love to use tools like a hacksaw
- students will use work gloves (even though they can be cumbersome)
- almost no one burns themself with the hot glue gun; regardless, emphasize safety
- cutting thick materials with sharp objects should be done by a trusted adult
- the original idea can change during this building phase
- some simple origami folding can act as a warm-up to help practice precision and craftsmanship
Students would conclude this phase by reviewing their original building plan against the assembly photos, determining any differences, and noting what changes to the plan may have occurred along the way. Design ideas can change mid-build, and it is essential to honor the creative process (and document it too).
Evaluation of the Upcycled Gift
To start this final phase of the design process, the teacher and students will review the GRASPS and the essential question. Basically, as the lesson wraps up, revisit what you are doing and why you are doing it.
In order to monitor and reflect on their own learning, students benefit from exploring how successful their design was in meeting the goal outlined in the GRASPS. Specifically, if time allows, and to the greatest extent possible, an evaluation against each design specification offers a more thorough evaluation.
Students review their design specifications and determine how well their product met each one. Students can use a ranking scale (e.g., 5 = met perfectly, 1 = did not meet at all) or a short written comment to evaluate their product against each specification.
If you want to go even deeper into the design specifications, evaluate the specifications themselves. Two questions for class and peer discussion are:
- Which specifications were most helpful in designing a successful product?
- Which specifications were least helpful in designing a successful product?
The final part of the evaluation phase would be for each student to answer one of the following questions (or a teacher-approved question):
- Based on what you know now, how can your product be improved to best meet the goal in the GRASPS?
- How should systems be sustainable to minimize harmful human impact on the environment?
- How does the action of an individual (or a group of individuals) make a positive impact on our environment?
These reflective summary questions can be answered in any of the following ways (or via another teacher-approved method). Here are some ideas:
- Write a reflective paragraph (60-120 words)
- Present an oral report (0:45 to 2:00 minutes)
- Present a visual report with slides (3-5 slides)
- Create a video reflection (0:45 to 2:00 minutes)
Upcycling Ideas for Students Summary
What will you do to engage deeply with upcycling? How will you try to promote awareness about seeing value where others do not?
This post intended to show how students benefit from a scenario that supports a problem-based approach to authentic learning with a focus on the environment and others. Reasonably sized, well-planned, upcycled products reduce the waste stream and can serve as thoughtful gifts that promote empathy in the student designer.
In terms of affective learning, students’ feelings and attitudes can be honored by providing them choices as far as who would receive their upcycled product as a gift. Critical thinking can be fostered by observing, analyzing, inferring, and communicating through the four phases of the problem-solving design process (research, ideation, creating, and evaluation).
Design Phases and Collaboration
Each design phase can support students in their purpose of solving the problem of the upcycled gift. The scenario outline via the GRASPS model and the research phase of the problem-solving process are especially effective in helping students understand the facts, concepts, and vocabulary related to the lesson.
Collaboration becomes part of the process by allowing students to take on active roles (e.g., interview people) and have options to work together for some parts of the process. For example, students collaborate when they share their ideas during the brainstorming session in the developing ideas phase.
Through upcycling and gift giving, students learn that they have the power to improve and design their world by serving others!