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5th Grade  Project 6 weeks

Toy Fixers: Designing for a Second Life

Sarah F
Updated
3-5-ETS1-1
3-5-ETS1-2
3-5-ETS1-3
5-PS1-3
5-PS1-1
+ 7 more
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The Challenge

When you cannot remove or replace a toy’s broken parts because they are permanently joined, difficult to access, or made from hard-to-identify materials, the entire toy may be discarded. Cheap, breakable toys can increase replacement costs for families and community organizations while consuming raw materials and adding plastic, metal, and electronic waste to landfills.

Challenge Question

How might we design low-cost, repairable, modular toys so that families served by the New Orleans Family Justice Center can use donated toys longer while reducing toy waste and its environmental impact?

Standards

  • [Next Generation Science Standards] 3-5-ETS1-1 - Define a simple design problem reflecting a need or a want that includes specified criteria for success and constraints on materials, time, or cost.
  • [Next Generation Science Standards] 3-5-ETS1-2 - Generate and compare multiple possible solutions to a problem based on how well each is likely to meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.
  • [Next Generation Science Standards] 3-5-ETS1-3 - Plan and carry out fair tests in which variables are controlled and failure points are considered to identify aspects of a model or prototype that can be improved.
  • [Next Generation Science Standards] 5-PS1-3 - Make observations and measurements to identify materials based on their properties.
  • [Next Generation Science Standards] 5-PS1-1 - Develop a model to describe that matter is made of particles too small to be seen.
  • [Next Generation Science Standards] 5-PS1-2 - Measure and graph quantities to provide evidence that regardless of the type of change that occurs when heating, cooling, or mixing substances, the total weight of matter is conserved.

Competencies

  • Critical Thinking & Problem Solving - Students consider a variety of innovative approaches to address and understand complex questions that are authentic and important to their communities.
  • Collaboration - Students co-design projects with peers, exercise shared-decision making, strengthen relational agency, resolve conflict, and assume leadership roles.
  • Content Expertise - Students develop key competencies, skills, and dispositions with ample opportunities to apply knowledge and engage in work that matters to them.
  • Effective Communication - Students practice listening to understand, communicating with empathy, and share their learning through exhibiting, presenting and reflecting on their work.
  • Self Directed Learning - Students use teacher and peer feedback and self-reflection to monitor and direct their own learning while building self knowledge both in and out of the classroom.
  • Academic Mindset - Students establish a sense of place, identity, and belonging to increase self-efficacy while engaging in critical reflection and action.

Learning Partners and Clients

Propeller, a New Orleans innovation and social impact hub, can provide design feedback, maker-space connections, and entrepreneurial insight for creating low-cost, replaceable toy parts that reduce waste from frequently discarded toys. Propeller staff can advise students on refining prototypes for affordable community use. The New Orleans Family Justice Center can connect students with family-serving staff who can share repair-and-reuse challenges and review whether prototypes are safe, durable, inexpensive, and simple to maintain.

Phase Overview

Phase Key Experiences
Discover
I can inspect safe, decommissioned toys in a repair-clinic launch and trace why low-cost parts fail, why repairs are difficult, and how repeated replacement increases costs and waste for a New Orleans family resource center.
Examine
I can interview family-serving staff and analyze toy repair examples to identify user needs, safety concerns, replacement costs, and the environmental effects of discarding broken toys. I can observe and measure properties such as strength, flexibility, texture, and mass to identify durable, affordable materials for replaceable toy parts. I can use a particle model to explain how material properties and changes relate to matter too small to see. I can measure and graph mass before and after teacher-approved heating, cooling, or mixing investigations to show that matter is conserved. I can compare several repairable-toy concepts against criteria and constraints for safety, materials, time, low cost, waste reduction, and ease of repair.
Engineer
I can develop a safe, low-cost modular toy prototype as a product designer by selecting durable materials, planning replaceable connections, constructing and labeling the parts, and drafting a clear repair guide for the family resource center.
Do
I can conduct fair repair, durability, and repeated-part-replacement trials with controlled variables, collect and graph performance and cost data, identify failure points, and use evidence to recommend improvements that extend the toy’s life and reduce waste.
Share
I can share an interactive toy-repair demonstration, repair guide, evidence of affordability and waste reduction, learning journey, and reflection on my growth as a collaborator and problem solver with Propeller, New Orleans Family Justice Center, family-serving staff, peers, and families, then respond to their feedback.