Maria Nieves Alvarez

1.- INTRODUCTION 

The return to school can be an ideal moment for thinking about school material, its necessity, suitability and norms for its commercialisation and better use. 

The main aim of this workshop is to take advantage of being well - intentioned at the beginning of the school year so that the pupil is able to rationalize the use of school material. 

When buying school material different aspects, and among them safety, should be kept in mind. That is to say, school material cannot be dangerous for the user. For that reason, there is legislation on labelling and safety that should be fulfilled by every school material. 

This workshop seeks that the pupils know how to choose the safest material for them and that they know a little more thoroughly the material they use daily in their school centre. Finally, this workshop seeks to analyse the purchase and use of school material, their use and misuse, as well as the level of fulfilment of safety norms. 

2.- AIMS 

• To know safety and labelling norms to be fulfilled by the school material they use. 

• To know how to choose the adequate school material. 

• To be able to analyse characteristics of school material. 

• To know how to correctly use school material. 

• To learn how to buy the necessary material. 

3.- PROPOSALS OF ACTIVITIES 

Proposal A: 

First, pupils are suggested to carry out an inventory or list of the school material they usually use at school and at home. Later, each pupil will select a material of the list, they will choose it according to their preferences. Then, they will analyse the labels and if the material is not labelled they will have to value the advantages and disadvantages of the material in question. For a proper analysis of the label an index card is facilitated (see didactic material for the student). 

Later, a discussion at school will be carried out during which each pupil will explain his/her final conclusions. 

As a complementary activity pupils can be suggested to organise a competition of ideas to invent materials that are used in class and to elaborate them with rejects and finally to analyse advantages and disadvantages of the designed material. 

Proposal B: 

The teacher and/or monitor of the workshop has purchased school material of several types: glue, pencils, pencil sharpeners, rubbers, rulers, pens and notebooks. For each type, at least three different trademarks of similar characteristics should be bought. 

The class is organised in working groups. Each group will be given a different kind of school material. 

The activity with the school material should be carried out in the following way: 

1. To answer to the following questions (making a wide list of possibilities): 

this school material, what is it for? 

Which is the legislation to be fulfilled by this school material? 

What do you expect from this school material? 

2. To verify the level of fulfilment of the material regarding the answers to the previous questions. Every trademark should be analysed. 

3. To collect the results of the verification of each mark in an individual file and then, data should be put on a comparative file. 

4. It is important to use imagination in order to carry out verifications. For instance, if we are analysing rubbers and we want to know which of the trademarks that are analyzed erases better, doesn't stain, leaves less residues and doesn’t wear out much, we can make a simple exercise: 

• · We draw the same drawing (for instance, a simple house) as many times as rubbers will have to analyse, with the same pencil and on the same kind of paper, but each drawing on a different piece of paper. 

• · We erase with each rubber one of the drawings, keeping the following in mind: we will time the duration of erasing the drawing completely, we will weigh (with scales) the residuals that it leaves (we can also weigh the rubber before and after erasing in order to see the wear of every rubber); we will observe if the rubber stains and how is the paper after erasing, etc. etc. 

• · We can calculate, keeping in mind the wear and the weight of each rubber, how many drawings, similar to the one we have erased, we will be able to erase with each of them (this way we will know which of them will last more and, as we have the prices of each rubber, we can calculate which is cheaper in practice. 

• · We can carry out other activities by using our imagination. 

Processes similar to the verification described for rubbers can be used in order to analyse other school materials. The important thing is that these analyses adapt themselves to the answers we look for and to the level of pupils. 

Always, at the end of each analysis, we should come to a conclusion. 

Proposal C: 

We intend to carry out a practice to analyse felt-tip pens. Is an example of school laboratory, in which besides understanding some scientific knowledge better (for example: of which primary colours is a secondary colour made? or how is a spectrography made?) useful conclusions for our training like consumers can be reached (for example: if felt-tip pens are really a “water” ones or if pigments used have impurities, etc.) 

That is to say, through the practice of school laboratory the following phenomena can be studied: 

· We can carry out a spectrography to identify primary colours that compose each one of the secondary colours. We will also find out if the primary colours (red, yellow and blue) are only made up by pigments of that colour or not. 

· To check if the felt-tip pens are a “water” ones (as it was indicated on their label) or not. That is to say, to check if the pigments we use are water soluble. 

· To check if the pigments we use are natural or if some non soluble product is included. In this case it will leave a black stain in the chalk. 

In the file number 3 is indicated how this simple analysis of school laboratory can be made. 

Proposal D: 

If the activity is part of the classroom proposals can be developed as a cross - curricular project in which school material is analysed from different points of view: historical, mathematical, etc. Nevertheless, ideas of the previous proposal and the materials that are included in this workshop can be useful for the project’s design. 

In short: These and other similar activities can be very useful for the education of young consumers at school.