It's party time ... and balloons are a part of i! Nothing like colourful balloons, rising up against a blue sky, right? Balloons are made of latex or synthetic plastics. Filled with helium, a balloon can travel hundreds of kilometres before ending up as litter, being eaten by birds or other (sea) animals, or falling apart into hundreds of thousands of tiny particles, also called microplastics.
Let your pupils investigate the impact of balloons on our habitat. Together they'll come up with alternatives that do not cause any harm to nature or the environment.
Pupils explore the culture of (releasing) balloons (worldwide and throughout time), the material balloons are/were made of, the different types of balloons, and the challenges (waste, toxicity, animal suffering...).
The questions below may excite to explore.
About me
- Who likes parties? Why or why not?
- What parties have you been to? What happened there?
- Was there cake? Good food? Fireworks? Balloons?
- Who has taken part in a balloon competition before (the one where you attach a card to a balloon, in order to maybe win a prize)? Was your balloon found and where?
- Who has found a balloon with a card on it? Where was it?
- Was the balloon intact or broken?
- Did you send the card back? What did you do with the (rest of the) balloon?
- ...
About balloons
- How are balloons made? What material are they made of?
- Who invented the very first balloon? What material was it made of?
- What different types are/were there, all over the world?
- How do the manufacturers get balloons in such nice shapes?
- How come some balloons can fly while others cannot?
- How far (and high) can balloons fly?
- Where do they end up when they land? What happens to them then?
- What about the gas (helium) that makes balloons fly? Where does it come from?
- Can that gas be used for something else? What if the gas runs out?
- Can we make our own (environmentally friendly) balloons?
- Who likes to eat soup? Did you know that there is also plastic soup? What do you think it is?
- ...
The pupils investigate and apply environmentally friendly alternatives for balloons and apply them. The self-made 'balloon' has to meet following conditions:
- Made of environmentally friendly/sustainable materials. Have the pupils critically examine these terms.
- The 'balloon' can fly and can be brought back 'into the air' afterwards
- The 'balloon' can be easily assembled/disassembled and takes up little space in storage.
The pupils write a letter to the city council with their findings. Ask the council to stop releasing balloons and wasting helium, and present the alternatives you discovered to them.
- (Grand) parents are an important factor in turning the proposed actions into a success. Involve them in the plans from the beginning, give them a say, let them help determine the goals.
- Visit the municipal environmental service and/or the intermunicipal waste association. Prepare this with the pupils and let them ask specific (and critical) questions about (micro) plastics, the path of a balloon, helium…
- Interview a shopkeeper of a toy or carnival shop. Ask what he/she knows about the issues that balloons bring about. Ask for alternatives.
- Formulate a specific, measurable and achievable (SMART) goal. Communicate this at the start of the project through all channels, evaluate actions regularly and adjust if necessary.
- Let the pupils explain their research, conclusions and proposals for action to the school management and/or school board. Dare to ask for a clear commitment (e.g. stop buying balloons).
- Make the plans known within the school group (and/or other schools you are in contact with). Exchange experiences.
- Organise a moment at which you announce the plans and goals to the parents, the school population... in an entertaining way. Prepare yourself (or the pupils) well and substantiate with arguments.
- A (class) puppet and/or a play (e.g. about a bird that got sick from a balloon) is useful to introduce the theme in a visual way.
- Link the research results of the pupils to a show (exhibition, stage, ...) during e.g. the open door, school party ...
- Organise a flying competition with the environmentally friendly alternatives built by the pupils (e.g. wind birds, kites, etc.). Invite everyone to this. Turn it into a party!
A piece of systematic thinking:
- Synthetic clothing in particular uses fibres that contain microplastics. Around 200,000 harmful fibres are produced per litre of wash water. Through wastewater, they end up in rivers and eventually the sea.
- Meanwhile, it is known that all kinds of chemicals in the sea, such as pesticides, dioxins or oestrogens, bind to plastic in much higher concentrations than the surrounding water. Microplastics absorb toxic compounds from the water like a sponge. These toxins can accumulate in the fatty tissue of marine animals.
- Recent Belgian research has shown that North Sea mussels contain an average of one particle of microplastic per gram of meat. This means that per portion of mussels, which contains approximately three hundred grams of mussel meat, you ingest an average of three hundred pieces of microplastic.
You can open up the theme of the balloons to plastics in general (e.g. PET bottles, (free) plastic bags, packaging waste, etc.).
MOS wrote an action sheet 'Smart eating and drinking' that links up with this theme and focuses on both beverage packaging and healthy beverages. Highly recommended!
- Dieballongaatnietop.nl: Here you can find everything about the balloon problem. Surf on the site and be sure to also check out the fun and original alternatives
- plasticsoupfoundation.org: Via this website, you can find out everything about the masses of plastic that are poisoning our seas, with an extensive image bank of photos and videos. Highly recommended!
- planeetzee.be: Background info (also for 3rd graders) about what plastic does to (sea) animals.
- ballonnenfee.be: Here you can find the abridged history of the balloon (don't tell the children, let them find out for themselves).
- scientias.nl/wereld-is-bijna-door-haar-helium-heen: Interesting info on helium and the problems a possible shortage can cause.
- nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luchtballon: When the topic is opened up to hot air balloons.
Did you know that…
around a hundred thousand marine mammals and more than one million seabirds die every year as a result of suffocation and ingestion of plastic?