Whole Earth Curriculum WEC

Lesson 06 — Materials and Their Jobs

Learners sort and describe materials by their properties — hard, soft, strong, clear, flexible — and explain how those properties make each material useful for a different job. They discover that we choose materials on purpose, everywhere on Earth, and that the same job can be done by different materials.

D06 P3: Intellectual & Cognitive Awareness D06.S3 50 minutes Draft

Objectives

Essential question

How do a material's properties make it useful for different jobs?

materialpropertyhardsoftstrongclearflexibleuseful

Materials

Standard materials

Low-tech / no-cost

Enriched / lab & device

Works in different contexts

Four materials matched to jobs by their properties — hard wood for a chair, strong metal for a spoon, soft cloth for a blanket, and clear glass for a cup
Four materials matched to jobs by their properties — hard wood for a chair, strong metal for a spoon, soft cloth for a blanket, and clear glass for a cup

Lesson 6 — Materials and Their Jobs

Summary

Everything we make is made of a material — wood, metal, cloth, glass, stone, paper, plastic — and every material has properties: it is hard or soft, strong or weak, clear or cloudy, stiff or bendy. Learners feel and name these properties, sort materials by them, and explain how a property makes a material just right for a certain job. We choose materials on purpose, and that choosing is a quiet kind of technology people do everywhere.

Objectives

  • Sort materials by their properties and explain how properties make them useful for different jobs. (D06.S3.02.01)

Connection

Your spoon does not melt in hot soup, and your blanket is soft against your skin. That is not luck — people chose those materials for those jobs. Metal is strong and does not melt easily, so it makes a good spoon. Cloth is soft and bendy, so it makes a good blanket. When you pick a material because of what it is like, you are thinking like a maker, a builder, and a scientist all at once.

Materials

  • A set of real objects made of different materials (a wooden block, a metal spoon, a cloth, a plastic or glass cup, a rubber band, a paper sheet)
  • A “material and job” matching chart
  • Paper and crayons

Preparation

  • Gather safe objects with clearly different properties.
  • Prepare the matching chart (property on one side, job on the other).
  • Plan one worked example: feel a material, name its property, name its job.

Facilitator note

This lesson is written to the learner (“you”). The skill is a chain — feel the property → name it → connect it to a job — so model the whole chain once, then guide, then release. Use real objects learners can touch; touch is the concrete anchor. Honor global variety: houses are made of mud brick, wood, stone, or ice in different places, and cups of clay, glass, gourd, or metal — the same job done by different materials, each chosen for what the place has and what the job needs. A light environmental and technology lens: some materials can be used again and again, and some are thrown away — wonder together about choosing materials that last and can be reused, without fear or blame. Note the safety of glass for very young hands and swap in a clear plastic cup where needed.

Procedure

  1. Gather and remember (5 min). We sorted living things by where they live. Now we sort the things people make — by what they are made of.
  2. Feel and name properties (15 min). Touch each object. What is it like? Hard or soft? Strong or weak? Clear or cloudy? Stiff or bendy? Say each property and sort the objects into groups by it.
  3. Match materials to jobs (15 min). Why do we choose each material? “Wood is hard and strong, so it is good for a chair.” “Cloth is soft, so it is good for a blanket.” Match each material to a job and tell a partner your reason.
  4. One job, many materials (10 min). Pick one job — a cup, a mat, a roof. How many different materials could do it? Which would you choose, and why?
  5. Close (5 min). A material’s property tells us its job. People everywhere choose materials on purpose — and now you can too.

Differentiation

  • Support: Feel two materials (soft cloth, hard wood) and match each to one simple job with the frame “It is ___, so it is good for ___.”
  • Support (non-speaking): Point to the property word and the job after feeling each material.
  • Support (blind/low-vision): Identify materials by touch — rough, smooth, heavy, light, bendy — and name the job by telling.
  • Extension: Compare two materials for the same job (wood vs. metal spoon) and explain which you would choose and why.

Assessment

  • Formative (observation): Can the learner name at least two material properties and connect one to a job (“It is ___ so it is good for ___”)?
  • Peer: Partners check each other’s material-to-job matches and reasons.
  • Artifact (portfolio): The “material and job” matching page.

Home connection

At home, find three things made of different materials. Feel each one and tell a grown-up its property and its job: “This bowl is smooth and strong, so it is good for holding soup.”

Resources