Experiences

Saving materials when working with paper

Agnieszka Gołembiewska

Poland

Primary school

Technology

Teaching in class

Direct

While working with children in Grade 4 I noticed the problem of wasteful use of paper during cutting elements of a certain shape and size. When a task required cutouts such as circle with a diameter of 9 cm, the students put the compasses almost the middle of the cards, drew the circle, cut it out and the rest of the A4cartoon was thrown in the trash.
Solving the problem was based on a specific task to cut out from the cardboard as many wheels having a diameter of 9 cm. Children noticed that you can cut from one up to six wheels from such a sheet. As a result of discussion and citing various examples (roofer covering the roofs with sheets of metal, plumber cutting pipe pieces, carpenter cutting wood boards or tiler cutting expensive tile, or stonemason expensive granite or tailor cutting material for blouses) students have noticed the benefits of the economic use of materials due to the cost of purchasing paper, ecology (less forests cut), etc.
Currently, children know that we start cutting out "from the edge" do not throw away the rest of the sheet, as it can still be useful to carry out other work.