Djurgården is home to over 800 different species of flowering plants, 1200 beetle species and 100 bird species. The plastic that ends up in nature has a great impact on all living beings as well as the climate and the environment. Together with the Keep Sweden Tidy Foundation and Hand in Hand, the National Museum of Science and Technology has started the Plastic Handicraft initiative to interest secondary school pupils in one of the most important environmental issues of our time.
Plastic handicraft on the school schedule
The Plastic Crafts initiative was launched at the beginning of the autumn of 2021 and has involved many schools in the Stockholm area, as well as in Linköping, Lund, Norrköping and Uppsala.
In five steps, students get to work with everything from collecting rubbish and learning about plastic to creating something completely new with the material. The students start by collecting plastic rubbish in their immediate area, with the help of various lesson materials the classes then work with plastic maths, plastic chemistry and plastic social studies. Through the newly acquired knowledge of plastic, students can then sort the material and during three Plastic Handicraft lessons make new creations that are then displayed in their schools.
The schools can send in contributions to the National Museum of Science and Technology and among the submitted contributions, one will be selected and displayed at the museum.
The whale that was affected by humanity’s littering
Three eighth graders from the Bilingual Montessori School of Lund have sculpted a whale out of plastic rubbish found in nature. The whale is one of the animals affected by the enormous amounts of plastic that end up in nature.
The whale opens its mouth and unknowingly swallows all the debris in the water. The students have also programmed motors, sensors and speakers to make the whale come alive. The whale will be exhibited in MegaMind at the museum.
Waves of Change
By using plastic waste as a resource, the organizations Keep Sweden Tidy and Hand in Hand work with the Waves of Change project to fight poverty and reduce marine litter.
The National Museum of Science and Technology has, in collaboration with the organizations, produced lessons and workshops where children and young people have the opportunity to learn about the problem from a societal perspective and also become involved in their own future.
The Waves of Change project fights poverty by involving children and young people in their own future (1.1)
The project highlights the problem of marine litter (14.1)
The project is a collaboration between the National Museum of Science and Technology, Keep Sweden Tidy and Hand in Hand (17.17)