Students will launch the recycling project by sorting real materials, building shared background about reuse and recycling, and recording early evidence about what people in their school community need from a clear recycling system.

Students will gather evidence from real people, local recycling systems, and item-sorting experiences to understand what users notice, confuse, and need. They will organize findings into an empathy artifact, connect research to the essential question, and identify assumptions to test before designing recycling solutions.

Students will turn their research and observations into a focused design brief, then generate and improve multiple ideas for a school recycling bin station, sorting signs, recycled art, or reuse tools that match real user needs in their school community.

Students will build and test low-fidelity recycling station signs, reuse tools, and museum display ideas, gather peer feedback in two revision cycles, and use evidence from testing to improve how clearly their designs help people reduce waste.

Students will refine their recycling station and museum pieces using user feedback, rehearse clear explanations for visitors, and prepare stakeholder-facing displays that show how evidence, revisions, and claims about reducing waste shaped their final work.

Students will present their finished recycling station designs, recycled art, and reuse tools to authentic visitors at the Waste Warriors Museum, demonstrate growth through a live sorting challenge, and capture one final reflection about how their choices can reduce waste at school and home.