How to stop a fatberg

What is a Fatberg, and how do we stop them? Get your students to get a little gross, dive into the sewer (metaphorically!) and learn more about this problem under our city. Students design a solution to combat this problem and help make our city more sustainable. By completing this activity, students find out why Fatbergs are an issue for water companies and our planet. 

What your students will need (per group): 

• Texters/coloured markers or pencils
• A stack of sticky notes (post it notes)
• 1 x sheet of butchers' paper 
• Resources to build models, e.g. sticky tape, glue, elastic bands, cardboard, corks, ice cream sticks, fabric, bottle lids, etc
• Student worksheet

What to do 

1. Introduce students to the design process and ensure they understand what each stage means. Explain that you will be using this design process to come up with a way to stop fatbergs. 
2. Prepare students for the topic of the challenge by viewing this video as a class: 
3. Shift into teams and set a timer for five minutes. Ask groups to think of facts, issues, problems or any pieces of information from the topic and write them on sticky notes or post-its.   
4.  As a class, combine your collections of post-its into a class map. Discuss and decide on the main themes. You will now have a visual map of the topic to explore and a shared language to build on.  Some inquiry questions that can be used to categorise the post-its into themes are:
   
   1. What fatbergs are
   2. Where fatbergs come from
   3. How fatbergs are formed
   4. What impact fatbergs might have on society
   5. What impact fatbergs might have on the environment
5. Return to the topic map consistently to update what students know and organise deeper research as the challenge progresses.
6. Guide teams to define and narrow down the topic into an achievable problem statement. The problem statement often defines the direction of the ideation stage. Some possible problem statements could be:
   
   1. “How might we use education to stop fatbergs forming?”
   2. How might we design a physical device to catch and eliminate fatbergs?”
   3. “How might we design a product that reduces the problems associated with wet wipes?”
7. Prompt teams to write their problem statement in the middle of a big sheet of paper.  
8. Challenge students to brainstorm 50 ideas in 10 minutes (set a timer). Ask them to record their ideas on sticky notes and paste them around their problem statement. 
9. Ask students to analyse their brainstorm and pick their best idea. Some guiding questions that may be used to help students assess their ideas are:
   
   1. Is the idea specific to the problem statement?
   2. Is the idea useful?
   3. Is the idea achievable?
   4. Is the idea innovative?
10. Ask students to elaborate on their top idea using a drawing or a sketch to communicate their idea to the class. 
11. Ask students to plan a two-minute pitch they might make to interested individuals and possibly industry and organisational representatives. The format of the pitch should include: Is the problem statement they definedSome ideas they consideredThe solution they are promotingDrawings to demonstrate their idea.
12. Ask students to design their posters, articles, brochures, story books, prototypes, models etc, taking on the feedback they received from their classmates. (Students should identify gaps in their knowledge and research any information they may need to check the feasibility of their designs.) This may take a few lessons.
13.  Once their designs are complete, ask the students to present their completed designs to the class. 
14. You may like to conclude the challenge by sharing this short video from Melbourne Water about how we might prevent fatbergs from forming in the future!

Curriculum links

Science 

• Science as a human endeavour   (Year 7-10) 

Geography 

• Water in the world (Year 7-8)  

History  

• Historical significance (Year 7-10) 
• The modern world and Australia (Year 9-10) 

Design and technology 

• Technologies contexts (Year 7-10) 
• Technologies and society (Year 7-10) 

Critical and creative thinking  

• Meta-cognition (Year 7-8) 

Personal and social Capability  

• Collaboration (Year 7-8)