Trashion Show: Weaving Art into Lessons on Human Impact and Sustainability

The most fun project that I do with my students is by far our annual Trashion Show, a project that compliments the NGSS standards related to human impact. As students learn about sustainability, they are challenged to repurpose landfill-bound textiles and other materials to create new outfits and costumes. We do this project at the end of the school year, and I’ve found that it’s a great way to keep students engaged and motivated even with summer vacation on the horizon. Students work with a purpose: to use their creativity to put on a great show! Guiding students in creating the Trashion Show keeps me motivated, too! As their teacher, I love seeing students' individuality on display in the outfits they create and the other work they do. 

Well before we begin working on the Trashion Show, I start soliciting donations of used textiles. Over spring break, I send out an email asking families to save items for us while doing their spring cleaning. This year my dad was the face of my donation campaign. I used a photo of him holding a very well-loved and worn t-shirt that he was donating to us with the subject line, “Do You Dress Like My Dad?” 

Once students begin working, they may have specific used materials that they are seeking, so I send additional emails with a list of their desired trash. My general rule for creating Trashion Show pieces is that we shouldn’t create more trash than we started with, so students need to design outfits that can be taken apart into recyclable pieces at the end of the show. (The exception is for used materials that can't be recycled.)

Not all students want to be designers and create outfits, but there are other important jobs that need to be done. A DJ is needed to work with designers and models to select songs to play. The marketing director works on advertising by drafting emails to send to teachers and families and fliers to post in the school. There are typically two MCs who introduce and close the Trashion Show and read descriptions of the outfits as they are being modeled. Speech writers work with MCs on the script and assist designers with descriptions when needed. 

The teacher acts as a project manager, keeping the work flow in motion by guiding students who finish their tasks to find work that needs to be done in another area. As students are in the midst of creating their outfits and costumes, I provide them with opportunities to showcase their works-in-progress and plans for the outfit. The goal of sharing their work helps students stay focused, and I can easily see the development of all of the pieces. 

Model and Designer of "Childhood Dreams"

My dad's old shirt made new again!

The Trashion Show is a project I lead with the 6th-grade class, but other members of the school community are drawn in as models and later as our audience. Involving kindergarteners and other younger children as models is always a crowd pleaser, and I often have my daughter model an outfit that I have made. The model who always got the most applause though was our former principal, Phil Beaumont, who is a natural (and professional) performer! 

Holding a Trashion Show is a nice way to bring the entire school community together and have some fun while weaving art into science lessons.

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Students Explore Engineering and Sustainability through the Future City Competition

The Future City Competition is an engaging, project-based activity that opens the door to middle school students in learning about engineering and sustainability. Students work on teams to design sustainable cities of the future, envisioning a world that they would like to live in. The project encourages creativity and problem solving. I have used it with my middle school students to teach the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) related to engineering practices and human impact.

The Future City Competition is open to students in grades six through eight. The season starts in the fall though the theme is announced in late spring. It's exciting to learn about the new theme and start to brainstorm ways of engaging students with it. 

I use the Future City Competition as part of the regular curriculum in seventh-grade science classes. Students start working on the project at the beginning of the school year. I put them in groups of three (four when needed). Groups begin with a team-building exercise such as a three-circle Venn diagram about themselves so that they get to know one another better (see link below). I review the new Future City Competition theme and introduce the deliverables that the teams will be working on. Students continue their work through early winter as they progress through the stages of the engineering design process.

The three main deliverables are an essay describing the design of the city, a physical scale model, and a presentation that uses the model. The model is always a student favorite. It is made primarily of recycled materials and requires creating one or more moving parts. The variety of the deliverables both highlight and develop diverse student strengths, including the ability to understand scientific and engineering concepts, competency in research and writing, the ability to create things with your hands, and presentation skills. Throughout the project, students develop teamwork, problem-solving, and project management skills. I tell students that each team member will bring different talents and strengths that will be helpful to their team at the various stages of the project. (I have recently simplified the city essay by requiring only an outline of the city design for teams not going to competition).

The Future City Competition has regional competitions, often for each state, and winners go on to the national competition. A regional competition may limit the number of teams sent by each school, so many schools have a school-level competition to select teams for the regional competition. Winning at the regional level and going on to the national competition is highly competitive, but there are more accessible prizes in multiple categories that teams may win. Teams from the Museum School have taken home several of these prizes.

Registration for Future City Competition opens in late spring and continues through the fall. Below is a link to get more information and to register.

Future City Competition

Here is a video of a team presenting their city design at the national Future City Competition:

Future City National Finals: Michigan

If you are looking for a team-building activity, follow this link to a blogpost on Venn diagrams:

Classroom Icebreaker / Getting to Know You Activity: Venn Diagrams

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