The Ellen MacArthur Foundation has invited secondary schools to apply for a free resource kit which brings the circular economy to life.

The Handling Collection is a box full of products and accompanying teaching resources designed to challenge students to think differently about product design, materials and business models.

Each product has a story and there are worksheets developed by teachers, trialled in the classroom, to give information about the product and raise questions.

Each kit contains many hours of ideas for classroom activities, suitable for several subjects, with a particular emphasis for Design Technology, the Sciences, Business and Geography.

What’s in the box?

Products:

The core of this collection is a selection of products which help you to explore aspects of a circular economy.

• Ecovative mushroom packaging
• Vegware packaging
• Aveda shampoo
• Desso carpet tile
• Broken mobile phone
• Sharklet antibacterial film

Information resources:

• Animation videos
• Two presentations to use in class
• Teachers’ notes and worksheets for each product and for a range of additional products not physically included in this box that are easy to source
• Specific videos and graphics for particular products
• Instructions and videos for running a ‘Teardown Lab’
• Circular economy card game

There are 100 of these kits; apply for yours at http://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/news/handling-collection