What happens when plastics break down into microplastics and nanoplastics?

Suitable for 14-19-year olds (secondary and high schools, and college), this article and accompanying activity sheet can be used in the classroom, STEM clubs and at home.

This resource links to KS4 and KS5 chemistry and environmental science.

It can also be used as a careers resource and links to Gatsby Benchmarks:
Gatsby Benchmark 2: Learning from career and labour market information
Gatsby Benchmark 4: Linking curriculum learning to careers

• This teaching resource explains the work of Dr Jeffrey Farner and Dr Olubukola Alimi, environmental engineers at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering in Florida, USA, and the University of Alberta in Canada. They are investigating what happens when plastics break down into microplastics and nanoplastics.

• This resource also contains an interview with Jeff and Bukola and offers an insight into careers in environmental chemistry. If your students have questions for Jeff and Bukola, they can send them through the Futurum Careers website.

• The activity sheet provides ‘talking points’ (based on Bloom’s Taxonomy) to prompt students to reflect on Jeff and Bukola’s research and challenges them to design an engineering solution to an environmental problem in their area.

This resource was first published by Futurum Careers, a free online resource and magazine aimed at encouraging 14-19-year-olds worldwide to pursue careers in science, tech, engineering, maths, medicine (STEM) and social sciences, humanities and the arts for people and the economy (SHAPE).

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