Cradle To Grave Product Assessment

Entrepreneur program adaption for grade 6/7

http://georgiamagazine.org/archives_view.asp?mon=4&yr=2009&ID=2134

My daughter had the opportunity last year to participate in a wonderful entrepreneurial training program at her school. Students in grade 6 were tasked with designing a product, writing a business plan (which entailed doing market research, pricing the product, etc),  making the product, and then selling the product at the school fair. They managed money and reflected on their learning afterwards. It was a wonderful learning experience for her.
I observed the process with keen interest, being an entrepreneur myself. One thing I noticed is that many products the children made were assembled from materials sourced at the dollar store, and were for all intents and purposes 'disposable' objects. There was no question on the business plan about environmental impact- in fact, there was no consideration of the environment at all.
With the new BC Curriculum, all grade 6 and 7 students will be participating in a minimum of three modules under the Applied Design, Skills and Technology curriculum. Entrepreneurship and Marketing is one of those modules. The curricular competencies state that students will:

• Evaluate tools and technologies that are present in their everyday lives
• Identify the impact, including unintended negative consequences, of the choices they make about technology use
• Identify how the land and natural resources influence First Peoples’ design and technologies
• Identify how technology use can differ depending on culture, economics, access to resources, and social expectations
• Identify personal, social, and environmental impacts of technology use

The lack of any Environmental Impact Studies or Cradle-to-Grave analysis within the current Entrepreneurial programs offered in schools is a problem. I did some research and created the following lesson plan to be included as a supplemental to these programs. It takes children through a basic cradle-to-grave analysis of a common product, and then asks them to apply their knowledge to their own products. Can they reduce the environmental impact of their product? Can they think of a product that will not be harmful to the environment, such as plant starts or using recycled materials? Can they answer the question "How does my product make the world a better place?"
Even if the student does not choose to lessen the environmental impact of their product, the fact that they have become meta-cognitively aware of the life cycle of their product is important. We as teachers can but ask the questions, and it is up to the students to decide on what is important to them.

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Cradle to Grave Lesson Plan

Life Cycle Assessment Worksheet

Sample Entrepreneurial Unit