3 DIY Sustainability Teaching Experiments

Everything You Need to Know About Teaching STEM & Sustainability

Activity 1: DIY Recycled Rocket

Resource: https://www.notimeforflashcards.com/2009/08/recycled-rocket-craft.html

​Materials:

• Clean juice bottle
• 2 toilet paper rolls
• Red, yellow and orange foam (paper would do)
• Crayons
• Recycled bottle caps
• Paper grocery bag
• Sparkles (optional)
• A washed out applesauce container (single use)
• Scissors
• White paint
• A hot glue gun and glue

Directions:

1. Pour sparkles and paint in bottle
2. Cap the bottle and shake so the inside is completely covered in paint
3. Let dry outside with the cap off
4. Color toilet paper rolls with crayon
5. Cut a square and two right triangles out of the paper grocery bag and color with crayon. These will be the wings of the rocket.
6. Cut the foam into flame shapes and glue them to the inside of the toilet paper rolls
7. Hot glue the toilet paper rolls, the square paper fin, and the 2 triangle paper fins to the rocket ship
8. Glue the extra bottle caps to the front of the rocket
9. Glue the apple sauce container at the bottom to act as a stand for the rocket​

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Activity 2: Recycle Old Crayons and Make Rainbow Crayons

Resource: https://www.onehundreddollarsamonth.com/how-to-recycle-old-crayons-into-new-rainbow-crayons/

Materials:

• Crayons
• Silicone Molds or muffin tins

​
Directions:

1. Remove paper from old crayons
2. Chop the crayons into small pieces
3. Fill the mold about to about 1” with the crayon pieces
4. Bake in the oven at 250 degrees for 15-20 minutes
5. Let crayons cool in the mold until room temperature & remove for use​

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Activity 3: Recycled Bird Feeder

Resource: https://ecobnb.com/blog/2018/12/upcycle-bird-feeder/

Materials:

• A used Plastic Bottle
• A Drill or something to pierce
• A Wooden Spoon or a Stick
• A Rope
• Bird Food/Seeds

​
Directions:

1. Pierce two holes at the bottom third of the bottle and a hole through the cap
2. Insert a wooden spoon/stick through the two holes you made at the bottom third of the bottle
3. Fill the bottle with bird feed
4. Insert a rope through the hole you made in the bottle cap and hang your bird feeder on a tree!​

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