Lesson video

Hello, my name is Mrs Finley.

And today we're going to learn about designing textile products for different lifestyles.

Okay, before we start today make sure you're somewhere quiet where you can concentrate and that you have with you the correct equipment.

Today, you will need some paper, coloured pencils and a pencil.

You may want to go and get those things and get yourself ready for the lesson now, if you do pause the video now.

In today's lesson, we're going to start by looking at user requirements.

What do you understand by the term user? What do you think? That's right, I user is a person that interacts with the product.

And requirements is what they need that product to do.

When we as designers create products we're always thinking about the person who's going to use our product and what they need that product to do.

We are then going to move on and look at the environmental impact of cotton.

We've done a lot of work on cotton already so we're going to start to look at its impact in the environment.

And we're going to link that to the story of cotton.

We're going to look at the cradle to grave movement of our cotton t-shirt.

Okay, so we've come to the section that's one of my favourites in the lesson it's the key words.

Let's look at what we've got for today.

User requirements.

We've already talked about that.

So user requirements is what the person using the product would like the product to do.

Water contamination.

Now think what do you know from the word contamination? Let's look at the sentence together.

Water contamination is caused by runoff from fields which then cause pollution downstream.

So the nutrients that are on the top of the soil and sometimes we call that top soil, the very best quality soil will get treated with nitrogen and other chemicals or pesticides.

And if that doesn't go into the soil and it rains on the soil, that water is washed off and all that chemical infused water goes into streams which moves down with her and can go into drinking water of animals or humans.

And we call that water contamination.

And our final keyword for today, is soil erosion.

This is generally caused by over farming and it's when the top soil that wonderful nutrient rich soil that we need grow great products is overused by farmers and then washed away.

As always I would like you to look out for those words in our presentation.

And when we have chance to do some writing later on I really want to be seeing those words used.

Okay, so let's look at this.

We've got a cotton t-shirt can you see any of those key words on that page? Well done, user requirements is there.

So what do I want you to do? Well, I've got a cotton t-shirt I would like you to come up with eight user requirements, things that someone wearing that cotton t-shirt would need that cotton t-shirt to do.

There's another word on the screen as well properties.

Do you remember what properties were? Yeah, how the material behaves the characteristics.

So you might want to think about how cotton behaves, so your task.

I would like you to go for eight if you get five, that's amazing but I want you to go for eight even if you think it's wrong.

Okay, try hard.

User requirements things someone wearing a cotton t-shirt would need that t-shirt to do.

So have you paper and pencil ready, pause the video now, eight user requirements.

Go for it.

Okay, fantastic.

Are you ready to look? Let's see how brilliant you have been.

First one, if you get them give them a lovely tick.

Lightweight, that's right.

If it's the summer or hot weather and you're running around you need that t-shirt to be lightweight.

Not damaged when it's being washed because quite often t-shirts are washed quite a lot.

So we don't want them to be ripped or torn or fade when they're in the wash.

Stronger when wet.

This is a fantastic property of cotton that actually gain strength when it is wet.

And resistant to wear and tear.

I expect you've put on there something about not ripping or wearing down as it's being used.

Give yourself a tick if you've got that well done.

Okay, what other four things could there be? Let's have a look.

Cool to wear, yeah, you may have put that slightly differently when you wrote about lightweight.

Comfortable and soft, yes.

If we're wearing a cotton t-shirt it's going to be against our skin, so we really want to make sure that it's lovely and soft.

Can be dyed.

And also last one, highly absorbent.

Did you remember that from the properties of natural fabrics if you did well done and special well done if you've spelled it correctly, A-B-S-O-R-B-E-N-T.

Well done.

What I would like you to do now is make sure that you have got all of these eight user requirements written down.

It's really important for the next task.

And I know that for some of you there's quite a lot of information on there but we're going to do a little activity, that's going to be lovely and quick and you can start to really understand what those user requirements mean.

So if you could please do, pause the video now and make sure you've got all eight written down and well done.

Okay, so in today's lesson it's all about the user and we're going to have a little look at how cotton is used by three different types of users.

Very quickly, I'm sure you're already doing this have a little look at those pictures.

What sort of situations is that material finding itself in? Let's look at the first one together.

So we've got a little girl in a cotton dress, a summer dress, the middle picture.

Well, actually that's some fast-fashion t-shirts you might remember that from a previous lesson cotton t-shirts.

And on the right, we've got someone in the army training in a cotton t-shirt.

What we're going to do is we're going to look at these three situations and I am going to get you to identify from your list of eight which you think are the most important user requirements, but don't worry we're going to do this together So let's go for it.

Okay, so here is our cotton dress.

What I would like you to do now is to start or put a little star on those lists of eight different user requirements which you think are the most important for a summer dress for a child.

So pause the video now, look through those eight user requirements you've just written in and put a little star next to the ones that you think are most important.

Maybe three or four.

Okay, go for it.

Fantastic.

Okay, nice and quick wasn't it? So, should we have a look together? Okay.

I have chosen cool because it's going to be the hotter weather and you don't want your clothes to make you feel hot.

I've put comfortable and soft to wear and this really links back to users because often children falling clothes, itchy and uncomfortable.

So cotton we know is lovely and soft.

Lightweight, that's right, because often the children will be very small and does not damage when being washed children are always getting dirty and so their clouds are washed a great deal often just after one wear.

So we must make sure that our clothing is long lasting.

I wonder if you've got any of those you might have thought a better reasons for some of the others.

Let's try another one.

You ready? Let's go.

Okay, we've got the army t-shirt and this person's being pulled up over a wall and their clothing is already wet.

Is that a clue? I don't know.

Right, so same drill this time, I want you to underline which words which user requirements you think are most important in this subject, in this situation.

So underline, maybe four user requirements that you think are most appropriate for this.

Pause the video now.

Great stuff.

Shall we compare lists? Okay, let's go for this.

I've said soft to what? Lightweight, because then they do lots of running sometimes they're going to have bags on their back and I'm really thinking about the user in that situation.

Resistant to wear and tear.

You can see that the t-shirt there is rubbing up against that concrete wall so you don't want to get tears in it and stronger when wet.

I think most of you would have got that one.

And that's really interesting that cotton specifically is stronger when it is wet.

Okay, one more let's go for this team.

Well done, great stuff so far.

Okay, so we've got the fast-fashion cotton t-shirts so we've done starring, we've done underlining.

Let's do a little circle by the side of them.

So draw a little circle by the side for the user requirements on your list of eight that you think are the most relevant for fast-fashion cotton t-shirt.

Pause the video now.

Well done.

Okay, last one.

Let's compare lists, lets see if I got any of the ones that you got.

Okay, so I've said absorbent because it's got to be dyed easily.

So I've put absorbent in there.

Resistant to wear and tear because it's going to be warm cause it's a t-shirt thinking about the user there again and can be dyed.

It's quite a vibrant mix of colours there but really if we think about it it's all the same product, it's just that that fabric was dyed at the star.

We're going to move on now and look at the lifecycle of a cotton t-shirt.

But before we start I have got a question for you.

How many litres of water do you think are used to make one t-shirt? Is it 44 litres? 100 litres? two litres? Or 2000 litres? What do you think? Quick, quick, quick, final decision.

Okay, you ready? This is going to amaze you, is 2000 litres.

And just to show you what that is you know those drinking bottles those little bottles of water you get where you combine something like that.

That's equivalent to four thousands of 4,000 of those so from the moment that seed goes in the ground to the moment that person puts their t-shirt on that t-shirt has used 2000 litres.

Unbelievable.

Okay, let's go on the next activity.

Look at these four terms and which of these do you think are environmental issues surrounded with growing cotton? Water scarcity, pollution, water contamination, and soil erosion, which of those four do you think is an environmental issue with growing cotton? Okay, major decision.

But I can tell you that actually it was a bit of a trick question 'cause all four are.

And you might be sat there feeling quite smug with yourself 'cause you've got that correct and not only that that you noticed some of the words that were on today's keywords as well.

So double well done to you.

Before we start looking at the lifecycle of cotton I really wanted to start to introduce you to these four terms. And we're really starting to look at the wider aspects and the wider issues with the products we design and the products we buy as well and bring into our homes.

So let's look at the first one.

When we think about water scarcity we're talking about drinking water being diverted from villages and used to grow cotton.

So in order to be able to keep the cotton being grown and for people to be paid, they're taking water away from villages they're bypassing streams and they're using that water on the fields.

Pollution.

This is where fertilisers and pesticides, now fertilisers and pesticides are chemicals which we use to make cotton grown faster, stronger.

They might be used to keep insects away or birds away so that the best plants can be made and the largest volume on that space they have available.

So fertilisers and pesticides are used which actually can make people very ill and that is a cause of pollution.

Water contamination and this is where runoff from fields cause pollution in water down stream.

Now I know that you're sat there thinking, hang on, hang on.

this is a key word well done, it was water contamination.

And you'll remember I said that before the chemicals have really got deep into the soil if it rains, those chemicals are washed away sometimes with the top soil as well and they get into the streams and then animals might drink them.

Or they might go into the water supply villages.

Soil erosion is our last one.

And this is where overuse of the soil not letting the soil rest means that the soil has no nutrients within it and it's not very useful for growing cotton anymore.

So what farmers do is they move on they expand their land and this isn't good because sometimes this can be taken away for fields that we use to grow crops that feed people as well.

I think you also be telling me through the screen that soil erosion was on our keywords today as well.

So well done.

So these four things, we're going to come to this at the end as well.

Water scarcity, where fresh water is taken away from villages and used for crops.

Pollution, things like fertilisers and pesticides that are used on fields.

Water contamination, where you have runoff from these chemicals that gets into the drinking water.

And soil erosion, where all the nutrients are taken away and the soil is wasted.

Well done.

We're now going to look at the story of our cotton t-shirt.

Throughout this we're going to look at six main stages, growing, harvesting, processing, manufacturing wearing and using, and the end of life.

We're also going to consider the environmental impact at these stages as well.

So there's four terms we've just looked at, we're going to go back over and look at where they come into each stage.

And there's a lovely picture here on the right of a cotton field and we'll be looking at that a little bit more closely in a minute.

So what I would like you to do is I've taken those six stages and I have drawn them out in what we would call a lifecycle from cradle to grave from the beginning of the story to the end.

So using the whole of your paper I would like you to create a lifecycle like mine on the screen, where you've got growing, then harvesting, processing, manufacturing, use and end of life.

And then as we go through each stage we're going to write notes together.

So pause this video now and copy down the lifecycle.

So we're going to start the story of our cotton t-shirt.

And our cotton t-shirt starts in the field in India where it is grown.

The fields are massive there are 11 times the size of Buckingham in palace.

So let's start our story now.

Okay, so growing of cotton.

Cotton seeds are planted and the farmers will make sure that they use chemicals on the soil so that weeds and things don't grow up between the cotton.

The cotton plant will flower, die and leave a boll.

There's is our bolls right there.

This bust open and our cotton dries in the sun.

It takes about five months to grow cotton.

Pause the video now and write some notes next to growing of cotton.

So when we harvest cotton our little boll areas with a smiley face, he's going to be picked up by a large tractor and plucked off the plant.

So what you'll see is all the stalks and the stems left in the field and they're just taking the very, very top of the plant.

It's pressed into bales called modules and then our cotton is taken to be processed and that's when it's going to be cleaned.

So on your lifecycle where it says harvesting can you put some notes please about how cotton is picked by large tractor and how it's put into large bales called modules.

Pause the video now.

We're now at the processing stage.

When the cotton comes to the processing plant the first thing they want to do is separate all the twigs, and bulk, and seeds and extract beautiful lovely cotton.

And this is done using hotter air and pressure.

And all our little cotton boll is then cleaned to remove all the dirt.

There are lots of different processes that are used in this but I would like you to pause the video now and write some little notes on the processing stage.

Okay, I've got one more little thing to show you on processing before we move on, so let's have a look.

When the cotton has been cleaned away from the seed and the bulk and the other little bits it's then blended, card, combed, pulled, stretched and twisted into threads called slithers, they're knitted roughly into sheets.

And I didn't really know the best way to show you this but what I've done as a little picture to show threads all going along into one big piece ready to be woven together into a sheet and you can just still make out our little comfortable person there.

When then knitted into these sheets they're then treated with heat and chemicals to make them lovely and soft.

And what we know cotton to be which is generally white in its first stages.

Our cotton will be bleached and dyed from that into lots of different colours which are used and shipped all around ready for manufacturing.

So we now have our cotton sheet and it's ready to be manufactured, that means made into our cotton t-shirt.

And once the t-shirts are cut and sewn sometimes they are embroidered and sometimes they are heat pressed.

And I've got two really lovely examples coming up to show you.

Here is the heat press t-shirt that we made, have a little look at that I could do with ironing it but you will know that cotton creases easily.

So there we go.

But you can see on the pictures that the t-shirt goes into a heat press and then the image is transferred onto the t-shirt and that's what it looks like in the bottom right hand corner.

But you can also embroider as well.

And clothing accounts for 10% of carbon emissions.

So the actual processing, the electric that used, the energy all of that produces carbon and so it's a very heavy impact on the environment at this stage.

What I would like you to do as always I would like you to pause the video now and write some notes in the manufacturing section of our life cycles.

Okay, let's move on now.

I've got some lovely pictures here to show you a little bit closer of an embroidery machine, embroidering Oak Academy in and also a little bit of a close up on that t-shirt that I showed you that was having its image transferred previously.

We've now gone through manufacturer and our cotton t-shirts ready to be bought.

And it is, so here's our user wearing our Oak National Academy t-shirt it's bought and it's worn and it's cleaned.

And it's lifetime that t-shirt is going to be washed many, many times and this continual washing of clothes there's a real environmental impact.

And it's one of the reasons that clothing has such a high carbon footprint as well.

What I would like you to do as always is now pause the video and I would like you to write a few little notes about use.

Okay, so we're going to have a look at what happens at the end of life, that means when it's no longer needed.

So our little cotton boll it's gone all the way from being a seed in the ground to being processed and manufactured, being made into our lovely t-shirt and then being worn and washed and now it finds itself at the end of its life.

First thing that might happen is that it might be thrown in the bin and discarded.

And with that, it probably end up in landfill.

It may be handed to another person, you might be aware of that I certainly was when I was younger as well that was very exciting.

And it's a great thing to do because we know that these fabrics are hard-wearing.

So to throw them out when they've still got life in them is very wasteful.

And the third thing that might happen is that that material might be sorted and stranded and then used again in another product.

And this is something that a lot of high street shops are offering to their consumers, to their clients, people who buy things in their store.

You can bring a bag of clothing and you get a voucher to spend in their shop and they recycle, sorry, they sought, they shred the fabrics and they reuse them in different ways.

And that might not just be in clothing actually.

What I would like you to do is you'll notice on your lifecycle that you've got three arrows.

I would like you to write the three different things that could happen to our t-shirt at the end of its life.

So pause the video now and add those names.

So here we are.

We've gone through all the stages of the life cycle of our t-shirt from growing in the fields of India to the bolls being harvested, processed, manufactured from those sheets into our lovely t-shirt to being used and worn.

And then there's three different options at the end of life.

If you haven't already you might quite like to put some little drawings in where you've written your notes.

So if that's something you would like to do pause the video now and add those sketches to help you remember those different stages.

Okay, we're now going to move on.

Do you remember when I asked you this question earlier in the lesson which of these are environmental issues surrounding the growing of cotton? Can you remember the answer? That's right.

They all were.

Water scarcity was where fresh drinking water was diverted and used for the growing of cotton or the growing of crops.

And people found it hard to source water clean water to drink.

Pollution.

Can you remember what pollution was about? I'm going to give you a clue something to do with things you put on the soil to make crops and cotton grow better.

That's right.

Well done.

Great stuff.

Okay, so it's about fertilisers and pesticides being used which can make people actually quite ill.

And remember I said to you that it might not actually be them going on the soil it might actually be people using and handling them as well that make them ill.

Water contamination.

Now, what was special about water contamination and soil erosion? Yeah, you got it.

They were our key words water contamination was where drinking water was contaminated with other chemicals.

And we said that this could be run off from the field same way.

And soil erosion.

Well, that one was about over farming and tiring that soil out so that farmers move on to different areas.

What I'm going to ask you to do and I'm going to come back to this slide in a minute is I'm going to ask you to in your lifecycle I would like you to identify where these environmental issues come in the actual life cycle of cotton.

So if we say that water scarcity is where drinking water might be diverted for the use of growing cotton or actually the production of cotton where my water scarcity come in your life cycle.

Have a little look at your life cycle now in front of you, where might water scarcity come in there? That you might just want to write WS next to it.

So where might water scarcity come? So taking away drinking water from people to use to grow crops.

Do you want to put that one now? Amazing.

Lets look at pollution.

Where in your lifecycle do you think fertilisers and pesticides might be used? I'll tell you what, why don't we pause the video now and you have a little look.

See if you can put P for pollution where you think fertilisers and pesticides might be used.

Okay, fantastic.

Let's look at water contamination.

Where do you think runoff from fields might cause pollution downstream? Pause the video now.

And finally soil erosion.

Where do you think farmers might exhaust the soil so that they have to expand and more land? Pause the video now and see if you can maybe write an SE for soil erosion.

Okay, so that was very tricky and quite challenging.

So I really wanted to give you that last little bit of challenge in our lesson today but as always I'm going to go through the answers with you.

And remember, it's not about there being a right and wrong because you have thought about this and you've written and you know in your heads why you're thinking this, sometimes your reasoning is just as valid as what I have put.

But I'm going to show you my answers, okay.

So water scarcity I've put out the growing stage, the processing stage, and the use.

And the reason for that is obviously diverting water at the very beginning when you're grabbing those crops.

But also there's quite a lot of water goes into processing cotton and often that maybe use from water that would otherwise have been used for drinking.

And also in the use in the washing of products.

So if you are washing a lot of clothing you are going to be using lots of water and it may be not where we live but in some areas that might cause some water scarcity.

In actual fact, in the summer months sometimes we have periods of times where we can't use water so much and being asked to do less or use eco settings on our washing machines.

If you haven't put those in feel free to pop them in now.

Okay, pollution is the next one.

Now I've put pollution in growing because I'm thinking about those chemicals that are being used as fertilisers those pesticides.

I've also put it into processing where chemicals are also used where that cotton is washed through and it is treated.

And I've also put in end of life.

Now, I know it doesn't come under fertilisers and pesticides but the throwing away of our garments is going to cost the landfill which might cause pollution, free chemicals being leached out into soils and things like that.

Okay, let's see what I've got for the next one.

I think it's water contamination.

Yes, it is amazing.

So water contamination obviously water been used for growing we might get contaminated with chemicals that are used on the field and again in harvesting as well.

And also I've put it in at the end and I was talking to you earlier about that run off from where products go into landfill.

It rains on the landfill and the water washes through the waste, and that's lots different things, it's not just going to be cotton t-shirts in there it might be old tin cans that have rusty.

There might be pots that used to have chemicals and things like that.

There's a real hazard water contamination at that point.

And our final one, which was what, was our final one? Began with an S second word was E have a quick look at your life cycle, your notes, very good soil erosion.

And we're very interested in soil erosion and water contamination because they were absolutely on our keywords.

So there we go.

So I've put erosion in at the growing stage which I reckon you would have got.

When we look at this life cycle one of the things that gets me is the amount of environmental impact at the growing stage.

And that is why recycling isn't just a good thing to do, it's a necessity.

If the biggest amount the damage we are doing is at the point in which we are getting these materials from their source then that is something we need to reduce as well.

The water scarcity, the soil erosion, the pollution, the water contamination these can be reduced if we maybe change our practises or we start to look at the materials and things that are around us.

And you can help just because you're not a manufacturer you can help by making better choices when you buy products.

So that brings us to the end of today's lesson.

And well done.

We've really started to build on a lot of our foundation knowledge that we had previously learned.

And I know there was some really difficult concepts that we looked at today, but it's important that whether we are adults, children, students, that we make sure that the choices we make when we are buying products are the right choices for our environment.

As always, there is an exit quiz today if you'd like to have a go, and I will look forward to seeing you another time.