NEW AQA 9-1 Chemistry Topic 10 Using resources - Sustainability and LCA's (life cycle assessments)

A double lesson/ series of lessons looking at the extraction, processing, use and disposal of Earth’s resources. The lesson contains three main objectives:

• A recap of the difference between renewable and finite resources
• Explaining why reducing the use of Earth’s resources is important
• Describe the components of a life cycle assessment and compare the suitability of materials for products using life cycle assessments.

Lesson features include:

• A series of basic recall questions from previous learning (water treatment, the purification of water required practical, rusting, methods to prevent corrosion, alloys, alternative methods of copper extraction, thermosetting and thermosoftening polymers)
• A cartoon image to introduce current issues with the rate at which earth’s resources are being plundered
• Slides introducing the difference between renewable and finite resources with a sorting task for pupils to complete (animated answers on the slide to review progress)
• Discussion questions around the impact of extracting resources using quarrying/ mining with a review summary
• An envoy/ circus task recapping the extraction and processing of different materials and their disadvantages that has been covered in previous topics - plastics (topic 7), petrol (topic 7), iron (topic 4/10), aluminium (topic 4) and copper (phytomining and bioleaching covered in topic 10)
• Review questions on the first learning objective
• Two video clips, slide containing relevant news headlines and discussion questions around the importance of ‘reducing, reusing, recycling’ materials (video clips from a recent documentary on landfill looking at the dangers of landfill and alternatives to plastic bags - the latter clip I have produced a slide of questions to go with it)
• Slides summarising the importance of recycling metals and plastics, linking metal recycling to the importance of gold for smartphones
• Several slides of exam-style review questions for the second objective with animated answers for easy assessment
• An introduction to what a life cycle assessment is using the life cycle of a human. A table explaining considerations for each of the stages of a life cycle assessment is included (could be printed off for students to use)
• A group/ individual task considering the LCA’s for paper and plastic straws to determine what sort of straws McDonald’s should use (relevant to current news)
• Review questions comparing life cycle assessments for materials with animated answers
• A series of exam-style questions on a Word document with animated answers on the powerpoint

Lots to choose from here!