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Evaluating Solutions: Cleaning and Disinfecting Products

Evaluating Solutions: Cleaning and Disinfecting Products
Contributors
Carissa Haug
North Central Educational Service District
Saskia van Bergen
Free Range Chemist | H2L Consulting
Evaluating Solutions: Cleaning and Disinfecting Products
Summary
In this lesson students will develop an evidence-based argument after investigating the product safety, performance, and cost of a variety of cleaning and disinfecting products designed to remove germs. Students will be introduced to principles of sustainable design, life-cycle thinking, and how to identify safer products through signal words and third-party certifications. The final project is an advertisement that shares the product they chose as the “best.” They will consider the evidence they collected through several investigations and research to make their determination. Students will also consider environmental, social, and economic impacts as well as barriers to use and limitations of the evaluation process.

A huge thank you to Adrien Kimbrough for the implementing the STEMify Your Classroom materials (https://gctlc.org/stemify-your-classroom-supply-list) with high school students and providing developed materials to be modified in this unit.
Keyword Tags
Sustainable Design
Alternative Assessment
Decision Making
Safer Alternatives
Life Cycle
Link to external
Evaluating Solutions: Cleaning and Disinfecting Products
Learning Goals/Student Objectives
- Bacteria are present everywhere and in/on all living things.
- Products can be used for different purposes; cleaning, sanitizing, or disinfecting.
- Choices in cleaning products come with benefits and tradeoffs. We can design investigations to help us make better decisions.
- Scientists use evidence to make claims.
Object Type
Laboratory experiment
Lecture or course slides/notes (e.g., PPT, Prezi, PDF)
Activities/Technology (e.g., in-class activities, online games, hands-on activities/manipulatives, outreach, virtual tools, etc.)
Audience
High School (Secondary School)
Introductory Undergraduate
Common pedagogies covered
Collaborative/cooperative learning
Context-based learning
Hands-on learning
Problem-based learning
Green Chemistry Principles
Designing Safer Chemicals
U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
Good Health and Well-Being
Responsible Consumption and Production
Safety Precautions, Hazards, and Risk Assessment
The Hazards will depend on which cleaning products are used in the stain removal, physical removal and/or disinfecting activity. Wash hands after the use of the cleaning products.

If the disinfecting activity is performed, once complete and pictures have been taken of all samples, immediately discard the Petri dishes in a trash container that is securely away from the student population.
NGSS Standards, if applicable
NGSS.HS.ETS1.3 - Evaluate a solution to a complex real-world problem based on prioritized criteria and trade-offs that account for a range of constraints, including cost, safety, reliability, and aesthetics as well as possible social, cultural, and environmental impacts.
In particular, ETS1.B: Developing Possible Solutions
When evaluating solutions, it is important to take into account a range of constraints, including cost, safety, reliability, and aesthetics, and to consider social, cultural, and environmental impacts.

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Saskia van Bergen
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Moderation state
Published
Related Learning Objects
STEMify Your Classroom Supply List
Reformulating for Safer Choice: Cleaning and Disinfecting Products
Creative Commons License
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.