Year 9 Science · Unit 2 · Lesson 04
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Learning Goals
1. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples have chosen greenstone for axe heads and chert for cutting blades for many thousands of years. Name the property that made each stone suited to its job.
Compare two
Complete the table to compare primary production (mining and extracting ore) with secondary production (reprocessing used metal).
| Feature | Mining and extracting from ore | Recycling scrap metal |
|---|---|---|
| Energy required | ||
| Effect on finite ore deposits | ||
| Carbon dioxide released | ||
| Land disturbed |
2. Australia is a major exporter of lithium. Using ideas from this lesson, explain why increasing lithium mining today could create a resource problem for future generations.
3. An old steel bike has reached the end of its life. Use the waste hierarchy to describe the most preferred thing to do with it and the least preferred, giving a reason for each.
Data: cotton or polyester?
A lifecycle assessment looks at every stage of a product’s life. Table 1 compares only the making stage of two T-shirts.
| T-shirt | Water used (litres) | CO₂ released (kg) | Raw material |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cotton | 2,700 | 2.1 | Grown (renewable) |
| Polyester | much less than cotton | 5.5 | Made from petroleum (finite) |
Source: World Resources Institute (2017).
4. How many times more CO₂ is released making the polyester T-shirt than the cotton one?
Answer times
5. A brand says: “Our cotton shirts are the green choice because cotton is renewable.” Use Table 1 and lifecycle assessment to evaluate this claim.
6. A council is demolishing an old school building, which will leave about 2,000 tonnes of concrete, bricks and steel. Use the waste hierarchy to propose a plan for these materials, and justify each step of your plan.