Similar to dissection in a biology class, The Life Cycle of Everyday Stuff asks students to dissect a telephone. For instance, the plastic cover of a phone protects the inner components but is also easy to clean. Students soon learn that product design has a big influence on every stage in the life cycle. Subsequent chapters offer a look into the second and third stages of a product s life cycle raw materials and manufacturing. In these units, students are encouraged to discover what products are made of and why, and also how raw materials are manufactured into the items we use every day.
Students then evaluate the useful life of a product the fourth stage of life cycle assessment.
This chapter examines issues of product durability, depreciation, and waste. For example, compared to a pencil or paper cup, a telephone is more durable, made from more expensive raw materials, and takes more time to manufacture. Therefore the telephone s useful life is much longer than the useful life of some other products. Finally, students learn what happens to a product once its useful life has ended. This last stage in a product s life cycle identifies concepts of disposal and reuse.