Sustainable Electronics Initiative

The Challenge of Teaching Sustainable Electronics to Elementary Students

From the SEI Blog - Posted Friday, June 7 by kirstenwalker - Comment on this post (0)

When I first started at the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) last year, it took me a while to wrap my head around all that is involved with sustainable electronics. As an environmental educator it quickly became clear that I had to figure out a way to translate this information and its environmental connections and concerns to learners of all ages. At first, I thought this material would not be appropriate for students younger than middle or high school because of the concepts behind circuits, conflict minerals, and toxic materials. I soon learned that I needed to alter my thinking and come up with ways to present this to an audience we meet with frequently–elementary students.

Two events helped me with my perspective on teaching in this area. The first was the Naturally Illinois Expo. Learners of all ages attend the Expo every year to see presentations by the scientists at the five Illinois Scientific Surveys (Illinois Natural History Survey, Illinois State Archaeological Survey, Illinois State Water Survey, Illinois State Geological Survey, and the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center). Many of the elementary schools from the East Central Illinois area attend the Expo to see science in action. After some initial observations, I realized that elementary school aged students understand the value behind precious metals (found in many electronics) and neurotoxins when the word is broken down and explained. Once students realize that there are precious metals and neurotoxins found in electronics, the importance and needs related to the environment, personal health, and recycling become very clear.

The second event was when Joy Scrogum and I were asked to teach a hands-on lesson for two hours about sustainable electronics to a group of mostly second grade girls. We felt a true test on the horizon. There were challenges and barriers  we had to overcome. First, there were a number of small and potentially hazardous parts to be found in something as simple as a cell phone, so displaying those parts was troublesome. We often carry around two keyboards to different outreach events. One is an older model that has a full circuit board and the other is a newer, lighter version with a plastic sheet circuit board (see below). Those visuals helped, but the older circuit board has sharp solder points, so it is not conducive to hands-on activities.

Circuit board of older keyboards.

Lighter weight keyboard with plastic circuit.

It came down to a variety of approaches on the topic starting with a discussion of what would happen if they had lost their personal game devices. Since students felt an emotional attachment to their devices, the students were able to see their own value in making sure they take care of them. We presented a short video from a PBS show (Loops and Scoops) on the materials found in game devices and the problem with disposal of electronics. We briefly presented the number of miles it took for the parts of an electronic gadget  like a laptop or game device to be assembled and shipped to them. We talked about the solutions and problems associated with electronic items and the current landfill ban in Illinois. Finally, we presented them with some of the concepts that college students have submitted to our annual International Sustainable Electronics Competition . Then we challenged them to create a new electronic device out of old electronics that would otherwise be discarded. It took some time and collaboration, but then the ideas were flowing and the girls were excited to draw what they would invent with discarded electronics. One of my favorites was a device that could be hooked up to the carrier of one of the girl’s cats that would translate her “meows” to human speech. The girl thought it would be a great way to know what her cat wants and she could communicate to her cat in return. Genius.

A second grader’s idea on how to recreate a new electronic from other electronics.

The picture above was from girl who seemed to grasp the concept that everyone seems to lose the remote control but not their phones, so why not have your cell phone double as device to change the television channels?

Keyboard beads made from broken keyboards collected for recycling by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

We finished the class with an activity that required a lot of preparation on on our part. Keyboard keys can be made into personalized bracelets. It required removal of back posts and drilling holes to feed string through the keys, but they are always a big hit. The girls were particularly happy to see that we had created kits with the letters of their names and extra decorative beads for “bling.” Overall, we achieved our goal presenting sustainable electronics to students at a grade school level. I’m sure modifications will be made to improve the format of the day if we take another opportunity to present, but we feel the activities were appropriate and enjoyable.

Student Involvement: Museum Studies and Raising Awareness of the Impacts of Electronics

From the SEI Blog - Posted Tuesday, June 4 by Joy Scrogum - Comment on this post (0)

Karen Morrison, at her museum studies minor defense, May 10, 2013, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

In addition to conducting and sponsoring research, the Sustainable Electronics Initiative (SEI), works to integrate principles of sustainability into the curricula and educational experiences of engineers, industrial designers, computer scientists and others involved in the design, manufacture, consumption, and end-of-life management of electronic products. With its location on the UIUC campus, SEI is well positioned to work with the academic community to address electronic product life cycle issues and sustainability, as well as to involve students in such considerations via internships and research projects. The connections to discplines such as industrial design, materials science, and electrical or computer engineering are fairly obvious. But we like to point out that sustainable electronics can relate to virtually any field of study, especially when you consider how ubiquitous electronics have become in our society. We all use and benefit from electronics, and are all in some way part of the system related to electronic device production and consumption, which must be made more sustainable as part of the overall effort of making human existence more sustainable. So we need to all be part of considering and creating those sustainable solutions, regardless of factors such as our individual area of expertise. As a fine example of this, we had the pleasure of working with a student this past semester (Spring 2013) who was minoring in Museum Studies here at UIUC. “We” being me, Joy Scrogum, Co-coordinator for SEI, and ISTC’s Environmental Education Specialist, Kirsten Hope Walker. Karen developed an interactive display related to sustainable electronics for use in outreach activities. She was a chemistry major, so she was comfortable with science and translating scientific concepts to the general public, but she had no previous experience considering the sustainability of electronic devices. So it was great to watch as she worked her way methodically through the issues with our guidance, and considered how to present them, effectively learning the material and then figuring out how to teach it to others. Karen wrote the blog post below, describing her experience. We’re extremely proud of this intelligent, resourceful, and affable young woman, especially given her recent acceptance of a position with the California Council of Science and Technology in Sacramento. Congratulations, Karen!

Interdisciplinary is the new buzzword in academic circles. Being interdisciplinary is all about crossing boundaries and using techniques and notions that were designed or developed in one field to benefit or answer questions in another. Interdisciplinary is often used synonymously with progress, radical ideals, and breaking barriers, and many of the original melded areas (chemical biology or women’s studies) are today recognized as established disciplines in their own right.

By its very nature, sustainable electronics is an interdisciplinary field. The lifecycle of electronics – development, manufacture, sale, disposal or reuse – touches aspects of computer science, environmental law, operations research, sociology, human rights, and economics. The questions and problems in creating and empowering sustainable electronics are complex and cannot be addressed with simple answers.

One of the biggest challenges in sustainable electronics, then, is translating this complex problem to you and me (and the broader society we live in) and encouraging us to respond in some way.

This is where being interdisciplinary becomes helpful. Presenting material and then probing the public to engage and respond is one of the central tenants of modern museum studies. Although it is easy to think of the science museum where every panel is carefully constructed with simplistic information, or the art museum where visitors are visually stimulated and left to form their own conclusions, modern museums are aiming to do so much more. Museums exist in a unique sphere where people from different backgrounds and experiences can come to one location and engage with questions that are faced by our current society.

My goal in working with the ISTC Sustainable Electronics Initiative was to apply the theories and paradigms of content display used by museums to SEI. This involved four key steps: narrowing down the material, identifying the audience, creating display material, and revising the material iteratively.

In my initial discussions with Joy and Kirsten, we loved the idea of an interactive globe to show how the physical materials in a laptop move across the globe, from raw materials to the final product and sale. Logistically, however, this was difficult to execute in a reasonable amount of time. We also wanted material that was flexible and could be used for adult or school-age audiences.

With that in mind, I developed a scrolling presentation that identified the locations that laptop materials came from, the factories where parts were manufactured and assembled, the countries where laptops are sold, and where laptops move after their first use. Although this presentation met many of our content needs, it didn’t allow for people to engage directly with the material or choose what topics they wanted to learn more about. In essence, we were feeding information to people rather than engaging or provoking them to dive deeper on their own.

This realization pushed me to a web-based platform. Web 2.0 allows users to navigate through many layers of material at their own pace based on their personal interests (much like you’re doing with this post now!). Ultimately, this platform addresses many of the fundamental questions we wanted to originally address and will hopefully spur more discussion about the complicated questions faced in creating and maintaining sustainable electronics!

Check out the project: evokewonder.com/istc2.

–Karen Morrison