1. View Bozeman science video Patterns

2. What patterns can you see in the materials in your home? For example:

   • What things are made of plastic?

   • What things are made of wood?

   • What things are made of glass?

   • What things are made of metal?

   • What things are all one material?

   • What things are several materials put together?

   • What things do you recycle?

   • What things do you consume?

   • What happens to things in your home when they are no longer useful?

   • Can you find a pattern in what materials are made of and how they are used?

   • If you look in your recycle - what kinds of things are in there and what material are they made of? How are they different from or the same as things that you find in your garbage can?

When deciding what material will be used to make a drink container, it can be helpful to think about what is needed to make the container, how it will be made, and what will happen to it when it is no longer being used. All of these stages together are called the life cycle of a product. One way of illustrating each stage in the cycle is a life-cycle diagram. Materials engineers use life-cycle diagrams when making decisions about a product. These diagrams show how the inputs and outputs from one stage relate to the inputs and outputs of other stages. Life-cycle diagrams can be used to make decisions that reduce the harm that manufacturing and disposing of a product might cause to the environment.

View at least two of these videos:

• Video: Life cycle of a plastic bottle

• Video: How Glass is made

• Video: Life Cycle of a glass bottle

• Video: Life Cycle of a plastic bag

Continue learning about product life cycles by viewing these videos:

• Video: Life Cycle of an Aluminum Can

• Video: Life Cycle of a T-shirt

Pick one of the items that you have viewed a video of the life cycle for or find a new one of your own (Example: Life cycle of a cell phone) choosing to create a life-cycle diagram for that product.

• Student worksheet for - Product Life Cycle Diagram

If you need help, you can find examples of product life-cycle of a glass bottle, aluminum can, and plastic on this linked page.

Additional resources:

• What's a smartphone made of?

• Life cycle of a cell phone

• The story of spoon

View Video: What is Green Chemistry?

Reflect on what you have learned and see if you can suggest how Green Chemistry principles can be used to improve the life cycle of your product.

Complete the Green Chemistry Guidelines student worksheet.

Reflection on what you learned

• What did you learn about Green Chemistry?

• Use this graphic organizer to share one pattern of product life cycles.

• Based on what you’ve learned about product life cycles, do you think that the life cycle of a product should be included on the label? Explain.