Family History
No currently extant species of animals came into existence spontaneously, and their ancestral history plays a large part in explaining why they form as they do. The situation is similar with plastic water bottles. For many thousands of years, humans have needed to carry water, yet we have existed and thrived without plastics, specifically without plastic water bottles. Humans have a long history of using natural resources to fashion water carrying and storage devices. For examples, humans have used natural materials like gourds, bark, wood, bamboo, grasses, reeds, and various animal parts to fashion water carrying and storage devices. Humans also have a long history of manufacturing water carrying and storage devices from materials like clay, glass, metal, wood, and leather. For this section of the unit, the students are expected to be able to answer three fundamental questions about water carrying and storage options other than plastics: What has been used? What could be used? Is this a better option than the plastic currently used? This is a fairly small section of the unit, so I do not expect to spend more than a day or two on it, but it is important background for some of the later projects. I will probably have the students think about the sort of utility that water bottles currently serve, which is background for the conception section of the unit, and have them think about how the needs currently served by the water bottle were met before the advent of plastics. The students will probably do some sort of quick project, possibly a web collage, answering the questions outlined above, which will allow them to store information from this section for later in the unit.
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