Colourful Solutions

The "dye-versity index" represents the total number of colours a student has on them, and therefore the number of dye processes that had to be invented.

This video introduces the importance of colour in the natural world of plants, animals, and evolution, as well as in the human world of self-expression, social interaction, and culture. The importance of colour to life sets the stage to learn about dye technologies in the next step.

The invention of each of technology enabled a group of people at a time and place the power of expression through colour!

After giving them time to read and fill out the concept map for their reading, instruct the groups of three to teach each other what they learned and help each other fill out the remaining blanks on Worksheet 1.

Let students share out what they remember from yesterday's lesson and how each dye technology is made. Then use Presentation 2 to pivot the discussion to the sustainability, cultural significance, status signalling, and efficiency of the various technologies.

Use Presentation to transition from the discovery and invention of dye technologies to the activity and discussion about how inventions become viable products.

Students will study the pros and cons of each dyeing technology at different scales. For the "Cost Cards" activity the Driving Question will be: "How much does it cost to produce the first dyed item using each technology?"

Each set has 18 Cost Cards representing 6 steps in each of the three dyeing technologies. The presentation will break the activity into substages and guide the students through an analysis of the processes.

Starting Price = Total Cost X 1.2 (to include a 20% profit)

Students will reflect on the major expenses of the process and predict how the price per item might change as the scale of production increases. Part 3 will explore how production costs change at different scales, so these questions prime the students to think beyond the Starting Price.

Make sure students complete corresponding worksheet sections to follow the discussion of Price Curves.

Throughout the presentation, synthetic dyes produced from fossil fuels are shown to be a competitive and attractive dye technology. Despite their range of colours and low costs, dyes produced from fossil fuels also cause a lot of problems.

In this video students learn about the many sustainability issues tied to the dye and fashion industries (particularly with fossil-fuel-derived synthetic dyes). This prepares students to reflect on and analyze the consequences of dye technologies as they perform a cost-benefit analysis of the available dye technologies to make a recommendation for Galactic Tees.

A table in the worksheet allows students to compare the range of colours, price point, target audience, sustainability, status signalling, and cultural significance of each dye technology. Based on the compiled information they will identify the most competitive dye technology. Their final recommendation for Galactic Tees's dye technology is supported by the production bottom line, but also by the student's personal priorities (e.g. sustainability or cultural significance).

Each of these technologies has pros and cons, so students are encouraged to reflect on how they could improve their chosen dye technology's disadvantages. Specifically they are tasked with imagining themselves as chemical engineers trying to make Galactic Tees more sustainable.