During the school holiday programme, primary students at Chelsea & Westminster Hospital thought about what Environmental Superhero they would like to be! They had lots of ideas about global environmental issues that are particularly important to them and produced some great art. Here are some of the end products:

Thomas' superhero would stop all poaching of wild animals. His painting shows a peaceful scene in which his superhero has triumphed and poachers no longer exist!

Dennis' superhero, Mr Freeze, has the power to create ice and blast it on to polar ice caps, rebuilding polar bears' habitat and ensuring their survival. 

While looking at the problems with fossil fuels we found out why green house gasses are a problem and what makes them a green house gas.

We made some molecules of gases found in the atmosphere and, through looking at structure and bonding, explained how green house gasses absorbed and then emitted radiation from the sun.

The Green Group found that we are surrounded by plastic.  They also found that plastic does not degrade and is a massive problem for the environment.

We went on a discovery of what plastic is and even re-evaluated what we know about solids, liquids and gasses.

http://www.fantasticplastic.org.uk/Funky_Looking_Chain.html

Could we replace plastic with degradable substances.

http://www.sciencebob.com/experiments/plasticmilk.php

http://www.sciencebob.com/experiments/polymer.php

We used potatoes and milk to make beads of plastic and decided which plastic would work the best.  We even considered marketing our beads.  Costing up time and raw materials needed made us re-think how we would make our millions...

And then there are the problems with introducing biodegradable plastic into the cycle:

http://www.fantasticplastic.org.uk/biz_biodegradable.html

Jason, age 10 felt very strongly that the sand lizard was endangered in the UK. He has written some text and made a model of a sand lizard using papier-mâché to inform us that these creatures must be protected.

THE SAND LIZARD

The sand lizard is an endangered species found in the UK and other places. Its habitat is grass and beaches. The reason it is endangered is because people are stepping on grass and accidently stepping on the lizards. The ones on the beach are being kicked out of their habitat because us humans are building houses on the beach.

SAVE THE LIZARDS!!!

In the primary classroom at CW we have been learning about the importance of the ‘three Rs’ – Reduce, Re-use, and Recycle!

We encouraged staff and children to recycle or bring in packaging they may otherwise throw away so that we could use them in our DT lessons.  

Look at the ideas we had using excess packaging or mis-matched beads and buttons etc that may otherwise have been thrown away. We made a range of instruments from shakers and rain makers to drums and guitars!

It was wonderful to make something interesting and exciting that we will now be able to use in our music lessons!