Old things can become new designs — Design, 4–6 years
Designers can look at an object that is no longer needed and imagine another useful life for it. Reusing keeps a material in use while giving the new object a different job.
Reuse changes the job
Reusing means making an old or unwanted thing useful in a new way. A box that once held food might become a puppet theatre, so its cardboard has a fresh job instead of being thrown away.
Why reuse is useful
Making every object from new material uses resources and creates rubbish when the object is finished. People began finding second uses for containers, cloth and other things so useful material would last longer.
Making a box organiser
Take a clean cereal box and ask what it could hold. Cut the top only with an adult, cover the box with paper, and draw a picture of pencils on it. Put pencils inside: the old box now has a new job.
Reuse is not just decorating
It is easy to decorate an old object and still leave it doing nothing. That feels like a new design, but reuse needs a real job too: ask what the changed object can hold, support or help us do.
Reuse at home
A jam jar can hold buttons, a tin can become a plant pot, and an old T-shirt can become a cleaning cloth. These choices work when the object is clean, safe and suitable for its new job.
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