Recycling is good, but upcycling is better! Recycling is turning what we normally throw away into something we can use again either, in its current form or as something else. Upcycling is taking something we normally recycle and transforming it into something more valuable.

We create too much waste, and upcycling is a fun way to reduce the amount of rubbish we generate. In this subject, students will create upcycled items for their own use, for school use or to give as gifts, or to sell as a fundraiser for a conservation or community organization.

It’s better for the Earth if more people upcycle. How can you encourage more people to start upcycling?

Students will have the opportunity to develop and demonstrate creative and entrepreneurial skills such as being inquisitive, persistent, imaginative, collaborative, and disciplined?

Progress is assessed by asking:

• Do they take risks both creatively and with their classmates?
• Do they prefer to follow someone else’s directions?
• Did they impart their own influences on the items produced?
• How much effort and creativity did they contribute to create something new/beautiful/valuable?

“Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.” – William Morris

Here are some of the projects the students have created this year…