Reducing Reliance on Rarity Kit

Recognize and test how materials are removed from the Earth and used in modern technology. Reducing Reliance on Rarity will help your student discover how the development of technology relates to our environment.

In this kit, students will uncover the anatomy of a smartphone and how the materials used to build a smartphone relate to the degradation of our environment. Students will use hands-on science experiments to delve into the phenomena of Earth’s materials and their use in a smartphone. Reducing Reliance on Rarity comes with a full-color Student Workbook and Teacher Guide. This kit contains activities and information that focuses on the phenomenon of the anatomy of a smartphone.

As part of a special program from Home Science Tools, this Launch level kit will provide over 14 hours of knowledge, educating your student about how modern technology impacts our Earth.

In this kit, the student will partake in these fun activities:

1. Uncover the anatomy of a smartphone.
2. Create their own mines and use them to excavate charcoal.
3. Simulate how renewable and nonrenewable resources are used with games.
4. Use their inner circle to compare cost and value.
5. Grow plants under different conditions to visualize the non-monetary costs of mining.

Use “Reducing Reliance on Rarity” to answer questions such as:

• How does technology impact our environment?
• What are renewable and nonrenewable resources?
• How is cost, benefit, price, and value determined?
• Who is impacted by my choices?
• Where are materials found around the planet?

More Information

• Safety Information (SDS)
• There is a set of missing lab steps on page 14 in Activity 2: Possible Properties and Uses. The missing section is as follows: 
  • Conductivity – Electricity – What to do:
    1. Clip the end of one alligator clip to an end of the aluminum electrode.
    2. Clip the end of the alligator clip not attached to the aluminum electrode to the longer
    arm of the LED.
    3. Clip the end of a second alligator clip to the other arm of the LED and one of the wires
    from the battery pack.
    4. Clip the last alligator clip to the other wire from the battery pack and the other end of the
    electrode.
    5. Put two batteries in the battery pack. Observe the LED for any changes. Note: If it doesn’t
    light the first time, switch the LED around so the ends of the alligator clip touching the arms
    of the LED are changed.
    6. Repeat for the copper electrode.
    7. Answer Reflect Questions 1e at the end of this section.

This kit contains:

• 3 Alligator Clip Leads
• 1 Aluminum Electrode
• 2 Aluminum Pie Plates
• 1 Bamboo Skewer
• 2 Packs of Beads
• 2 Charcoal Briquets
• 1 Copper Electrode
• 2 Cups
• 1 Red LED
• 1 Matches
• 1 Peat Moss
• 1 Pebbles
• 1 Measuring Scoop
• 1 Ruler
• 6 Salt Packets
• 1 Sand
• 1 Straw, Clear Plastic
• 1 Straw, Flexible Plastic
• 1 Straw, Neon Plastic
• 1 Straw, 0.15-in diameter (Note: Straw color may be either red and black.)
• 1 Tealight Candle
•  1Wisconsin Fast Plants Seeds

On hand, you will want to have:

• Water

• Learning outcome: Work through the processes of uncovering and using materials to make a smartphone.
• NGSS science standards alignment
• HS-ESS3-1 Construct an explanation based on evidence for how the availability of natural resources, occurrence of natural hazards, and changes in climate have influenced human activity.
• HS-ESS3-2 Evaluate competing design solutions for developing, managing, and utilizing energy and mineral resources based on cost-benefit ratios.