How Can We Make Plastic Fantastic?

Virtual Sustainability Multi-School Events

Wicked Weather Watch and Create2Inspire are partnering to offer a half-day, virtual, interactive, multi-school experience that will take Key Stage 2 pupils on an exciting journey to the Arctic to explore the impact of plastic pollution in the polar region and also closer to home within the UK. Together, we will explore the enquiry question, “How can we make plastic fantastic?”.

Curriculum links and key skills gained:

Geography including place and locational knowledge
Physical and human geography
Geographical skills
Literacy/English
Critical thinking
Art
Problem solving / decision making

During the event, pupils will learn about:

The tundra biome and the importance of its sustainability
How we can reduce our carbon footprint in the UK to ensure the sustainability of our planet and the consequences of these actions both at the local and global scale
The impact of plastic pollution, including its usage and waste
Creating a piece of sustainable artwork as a class

The day will provide an opportunity to hear from a real-life explorer, Nanou Blair Gould, who travelled to the High Arctic Archipelago by tall ship. Among many extraordinary things, she witnessed the effects of global warming and the impact of plastic pollution first-hand. She will explain how plastic pollution is affecting the nearly untouched landscape of the Arctic.

There are plenty of interactivity throughout the event, including competing in a true and false challenge, asking our Arctic explorer unique questions, hearing from an artist who creates artwork from plastic waste and creating a masterpiece of your own.

Eduardo Jiménez will speak to schools about his experience making artwork with plastic waste gathered from the beaches of New Jersey in the United States of America. He will inspire pupils to think creatively about their artistic challenge and provide some considerations when producing their piece of artwork.

Each class participating in the event will have the opportunity to design and create a piece of artwork using plastic waste to encourage the rest of the school and wider community to take climate action to reduce their carbon footprint and ensure the sustainability of our planet. We ask teachers and pupils to collect an array of plastic waste prior to the event so that they have enough material for their final creation. The project will be launched at the beginning of the week, and we will check in with schools for a shorter, virtual session at the end of the week. We hope to see your wonderful creations then, with each class explaining the approach taken and the meaning behind their artwork.

Created by pupils and teachers at Churchdown Village Junior School in Gloucestershire

Beach litter pick during Nanou’s Arctic Circle Artist Expedition in 2017

Facilitators for the day

Rhianna Davies-Smith

Wicked Weather Watch Director, climate change educator.

Emma Espley

Experienced teacher, freelance consultant, author and private tutor.

Guest speakers

Nanou Blair Gould

Arctic explorer, illustrator, writer and actor.

Eduardo Jiménez

Plastic waste artist, Director of Technology at Colgate Palmolive.

Eduardo's artwork

Come on Board!

We offer sessions on a first-come, first served basis due to the limited availability at each event. The charge of £150 is a subsidised fee since multiple schools are able to participate at the same time.

If you are a school that is at or above the national average for free school meals (24%), we can offer the session to you for FREE. If this applies to you, get in touch with the WWW team and we can discuss further.

£ 150 Per School

Up to 8 schools per event
Available to all schools nationally
Suitable for Y3, Y4, Y5, Y6

What to Expect After Booking

If participating in this event, we will send out an email approximately one week before the session to enable teachers to ask any questions that they may have and to go through the content and schedule of the day in more detail. You will also need to allow sufficient time to facilitate a collection of plastic waste for the artwork activity.

Wicked Weather Watch will send out a resource to be printed in advance of the session and an invoice for your school to settle. Invoices can be paid by BACs.

The first time we came together encouraged me to reuse, reduce and recycle more often. It was a life changing experience. Thank you!

It was very exciting and fun, but also makes you understand how serious the problem is. The activity they set us made me work hard, persevere, and learn more about how plastic affects all animals, and people's, daily lives.

I felt nothing was left out, and all my questions about pollution, plastic, and even Nanou's story, were answered!

FAQs

Will I need to prepare any materials for the event?

Teachers and pupils will need to gather an array of plastic waste prior to the event. Each class will then create a piece of artwork using this during the session.

Every school will be sent a carbon footprint worksheet via email, which will need to be printed (one per pupil). Please consider using recycled paper to print and reusing these worksheets afterwards.

What are the timings for the session?

The event will span two sessions.

The first will be on a Monday or Tuesday, from 9:30 am - 12:00 pm.

The second session is a quick check-in with schools on a Friday, from 2:30 - 3:00 pm, to showcase their artwork to the rest of the community and share their messages with others.

Are there any technical specifications?

Yes, the session will take place on Zoom. Therefore, all classes must have a working microphone, speakers, and webcam to participate in the event as we try to keep these sessions as interactive as possible.

If there are children in your class that do not have parental consent to have their photos taken, please ensure they are out of the camera frame as we will take screenshots throughout the session.

Are there additional resources you can provide for further learning after the event?

Absolutely! If you want to continue your learning after this session, please access our free teaching resources here.

All you have to do is sign up with WWW (if you haven't already) and then you will be able to use 40+ free teaching resources all about climate change, the Arctic and sustainability.