About

Vast quantities of objects that we buy and use are thrown away when they are broken or no longer needed, resulting in mountains of scrap that pollute the environment. Many things that we throw away are still usable, such bottles, children’s toys, or appliances that still work or might only need minor repairs. Getting rid of scrap is complicated and involves collecting, transporting, sorting, and disposing of the scrap. But scrap can be recycled or upcycled. Recycling means breaking the scrapped objects into their parts and extracting the raw materials. For example, a car can be recycled into new steel, glass, plastics, and other valuable materials. Upcycling means turning scrapped objects into useful and valuable objects by modifying or combining different scrap objects. For example, an old car tyre can be tied with a rope to a branch of a tree to make a nice swing to amuse generations of children. Note that simply repairing an appliance is not upcycling.
 

Your task

Design a toy by upcycling scrap objects or appliances that you have found. Your upcycled toy should allow children of an age group of your choosing to play healthily and safely. Note that children must not come into contact with unsafe or toxic things. Build a working model to test your toy. Work on this project in a small team with a group of your classmates.

​​​​​​​CAUTION
Working with scrap can be dangerous. Exposed metal and glass edges can be sharp and dangerous, wires can poke your eyes. Rummaging through heaps of scrap is dangerous for the same reason. Work only with adult supervision.
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The design thinking stages

Follow the five design thinking stages to ensure that you think of everything and do everything necessary in order to succeed in your design project. First, you must UNDERSTAND the design topic and the needs of the users. With that understanding, you can DECIDE what is important to your design solution and what is not so important. Then you CREATE to come up with ideas and improve them. Then you BUILD your chosen design idea in a physical form and improve it through trial-and-error. Finally, you TEST your built design idea to get the opinions of users. Use the methods from the Design Thinking for Schools website as you follow the design thinking stages.
 

Note for teachers

​​​​​​​Read the guide for teachers on Safety for the BUILD Stage for Level III to safely supervise this design project.​​​​​