Download Pupil research made materials

Textiles
Plastic
Cardboard
Ceramics
Glass
Leather
Metal
(Click on a material to find out more about it…)
Metal
•Do you know how
metal is made?
•Metal is found in rocks. Sometimes metal can actually be seen in a
rock as small shiny pieces. In other cases, the metal is actually part
of the rock and can not be seen by the eye. Different kinds of
rocks have different kinds of metals. Sometimes the rocks are
collected in mines. The rocks are then crushed and treated with
chemicals to remove the metal from the rocks. Pieces or hunks of
metal can also be heated up until they melt together.
Textiles
•Do you know how
Textiles are made?
A Textile is a cloth, which is either woven by hand or machine.
‘Textile’ has traditionally meant, ‘a woven Textile’. The term comes
from the Latin word texere, meaning to weave.
Fibers are the raw materials for all Textiles. These natural fibers
come from plants, animals, and minerals. For most of history, people
had only natural fibers to use in making cloth. But modern science
has learned how to manufacture fibers in order to create textiles
we need and use in everyday life, e.g. clothes, blankets, curtains
etc.
Glass
•Do you know how
Glass is made?
Glass is a combination of sand and other minerals that are melted
together at very high temperatures to form a material that is ideal
for a wide range of uses. Glass is made by melting together several
minerals at very high temperatures. Silica in the form of sand is
the main ingredient and this is combined with other minerals and
melted in a furnace at temperatures of 1700ºC. Other materials
can be added to produce different colours or properties. Glass can
also be coated, heat-treated, engraved or decorated.
PLASTIC •Do you know how
plastic is made?
Plastics are used in thousands of products ranging from computers
to toys, cookware, sports equipment, and even clothes. Plastic
makes up 11% of average household waste. Plastic is made from oil,
which is a non-renewable resource. This means that one day it will
run out. Oil has taken millions of years to form. It is made from
dead plants and animals and will probably run out in the next half
century. There are lots of difficult and long processes to be done
for plastic to be made.
Leather •Do you know how
Leather is made?
The leather used in making shoes, handbags, belts, gloves, wallets,
and many kinds of clothing and furniture is really the skin of
animals. It is usually taken from the skin of animals like cattle, pigs,
sheep and goats. This skin goes through a few processes before it
is ready to be made into products people use. First, all the hair and
flesh are removed from the skins. Then the skins are cured, or
treated with chemicals, to make them soft and flexible, and keep
them from rotting.
Ceramics
•Do you know how
Ceramics are made?
Ceramics are all around us. This category of materials
includes things like tile, bricks, plates, glass, mugs, plates
and toilets. Ceramics are materials formed by heating and
cooling. The surfaces of such materials are usually smooth.
Ceramics range from porcelain and pottery to advanced
coatings such as the heat-resistant tiles used on the space
shuttle.
•Do you know how
Cardboard
is
made?
Cardboard
Cardboard is a generic term for a heavy duty paper based
product. They make cardboard out of outer flat sheets
(liners) of puncture resistant paper, sandwiching a central
‘filling’ of corrugated short fibre paper. The chemicals in
the paper are used to ‘stretch’ the fibres, making it
stronger and stiffer.