Marymede Catholic College

Year 7 Design Technology Non Resistant Materials

Assessment Task Cover Sheet 2022

This cover sheet is to be attached to all work submitted for assessment.

Work without a completed coversheet will not be accepted.

Student Name:
Pastoral Group:
Subject Design Technology: Non Resistant Materials – Sustainability and
Consumerism
Subject Teacher: Ms Torcasio Mrs Savaglia (circle one)
Due Date: 05/03/2022
Assessment Task: Research Project

STUDENT I declare that the work attached is all my own and I have not received
DECLARATION: unwarranted assistance from teachers, tutors or anyone else prior to its
completion. My work has been completed according to the guidelines set
by my teacher and school. I understand that the submission of part, or
all, of someone else’s work constitutes plagiarism and I accept the
consequences which will be imposed should I do so.

Student signature: ______________________ Date: _____

LEARNING INTENTIONS:
● To examine and reflect upon the sustainability of the clothing industry.
● To identify some of the responsibilities designers and consumers have in the
development of a sustainable future.
Success Criteria:
● I can describe some of the key issues that designers must consider when designing for a
sustainable future.
● I can identify the role that I have as a consumer to make positive changes.
 Orienting activity:
Watch this BTN video on Sustainability and brainstorm your thoughts after watching
Ideas: What is sustainability? What issues are we facing? What does the host do about it?

Sustainability means to fulfill your own needs without compromising the ability to fulfill future
generation’s needs. Our increasing and inefficient use of resources is a big issue that we are
facing. We can do small things such as buying only the things we need which will help our
planet be more sustainable. The host only buys clothes she needs and keeps them for a long
time to prevent them from ending up in landfill.

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ACTIVITY ONE – the big one!

1. Count how many T-shirts, (long and short sleeved t-shirts and singlets) are in your
wardrobe, and note these in the table below
2. Repeat for pairs of jeans.
3. OPTIONAL: If you are curious, count the other clothes listed.

How How How How many What are the dominant

Type of clothing many in many many have brand names
total cost cost more NEVER
less than $20 been worn (Note the main brands such
than $20 as Kmart or H&M)

T-shirts (long and 33 17 16 9 Kmart and Nike

short sleeved) and
singlets

Jeans 4 2 2 1 Zara

Windcheaters/ 19 2 17 1 Adidas and Fila

jackets/hoodies

Track Pants/leggings 21 14 7 3 Kmart

Casual shoes

Sports only shoes

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Organic is defined as “(of food or farming methods) produced or involving production without the
use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or other artificial chemicals”
4. Are any of your items labelled as “organic”? Type/how many items are labelled organic?
5. What brands were they?
6. If none, note this and find an item online from a brand that sells organic apparel. Insert
an image, link and price. Why would/wouldn’t you buy it?

$6

https://www.target.com.au/p/organic-cotton-t-shirt/62499927

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ACTIVITY TWO
Identify three of your favourite T-shirt or jeans brands using the “Good on you” directory (linked
below) and summarise their ratings with a brief description of what they’re doing well and what
they are not doing well.
https://directory.goodonyou.eco/?_ga=2.129158409.448568728.1612181503-
705453338.1612181503

Brand Doing well because Doing poorly because

Nike Its not taking adequate steps to ensure

payment of a living wage for its workers.

Nike has good policies to

 monitor suppliers in its
supply chain
Kmart It uses some eco-friendly
materials including organic
cotton.
Adidas It uses a high proportion of eco-
friendly materials including
recycled materials.
There is no evidence it minimizes
textile when manufacturing its
products.
It has a general statement about
minimizing animal suffering but not a
formal animal welfare policy.
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ACTIVITY THREE
1) Watch the following video
The life cycle of a t-shirt – Angel Chang
2) If you were to briefly describe to someone what this video is about, what would you say?

Tshirts start as cotton growing on trees. The cotton goes through various machines to have
its seeds taken out, have it pressed, and then have it shipped to a spinning facilty. It is then
blended, carded, combed. Pulled, stretched and twisted into yarn which is sent to a mill. At
the mill, machines weave them with heat and chemicals until its soft white. They can then be
dyed to have colour. Then, humans intricately stitch them into wearable clothes. This whole
process pollutes our planet is several ways. Even the people who buy the clothes don’t end
up wearing them which causes huge amounts of landfill.
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3) Using the total number of T-shirts in your wardrobe, calculate approximately how much
water was used to grow the cotton for your total number of t-shirts alone.
● Total number of T-shirts X 30 Bathtubs = 990 Bathtubs full
● Total number of T-shirts X 2700 litres = 89,100 litres

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ACTIVITY FOUR
1) Watch the following video
The Journey of a Pair of Jeans on Vimeo
a) How many pairs of jeans do you own? 4…..
b) How much do you pay on average? .......$28.97......
2) Reflecting on the information in both videos, explain how you and I are likely to be
damaging the environment with our choices as buyers of clothes, (or consumers).

We don’t consider the fact that the production of a pair of jeans severely hurts the
environment and a lot of people since they don’t get the proper pay. We only think about what
we want. Sometimes its not even what we want, it can also be something that a person has
so you have to get in order to please yourself. This causes us to buy too much and not even
wear half of it. The unworn clothes then go to landfill which causes even more pollution.

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ACTIVITY FIVE
1) Watch the following video
A Message from Earth
2) Patagonia is a clothing brand that is driven to reduce their environmental footprint or
negative impact on the environment. Activism is important.
Describe three methods they use to do this.

They have an Earth tax of 1%.

Their sports activists and ambassadors are using their fame to spread the word of positive
social and environmental change.
 In the past year, they funded 1020 groups working on environmental issues.
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3) List two other clothing labels that make T-shirts and/or jeans from organic cotton/linen.
Or perhaps they use other methods to reduce their environmental footprint.
https://www.greenfinder.com.au/Clothing-and-Fashion
Briefly describe what method(s) they use.

Horizon Athletic: Their fabrics are sourced based on the highest sustainability standards. The
fabrics are also woven with Lycra (spandex) which increases durability.

Hype: They have a range of shoes made out of recycled materials, which makes them much
more sustainable to the environment.

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ACTIVITY SIX
1) Watch the following video
What She Makes
2) If you were to briefly describe to someone what this video is about, what would you say?

This video is showing us how big brands are using women to make a profit for themselves.
They are not paying women enough to have a living wage.
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3) Explain how you and I are impacting the lives of others with our choices as buyers of
clothes, (or consumers).

We buy clothes not realizing how much time and effort goes into making singular clothing
items. Sometimes people don’t think about the effort that went into the clothing, instead they
just buy what they think looks good.

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ACTIVITY SEVEN
1) Reflect upon all of this information.
Explain how knowing this information impacts you.
 Use examples and evidence from your research.

We all need to do our part and reduce our clothing waste to make our world a much better
place. Buying fast fashion will not help anyone or anything. Buying organic and long-lasting
clothing will help us not damage our environment. Factories should also pay their workers
fairly. We could help by doing small things like only buying the clothes we actually need and
will wear, donating only the clothes that are actually wearable. Big brands could also try
funding groups working on environmental issues.

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2) Sustainability means “the ability to be maintained at a certain rate or level”
Explore three things that you could do to improve the situation, considering how to
implement or accommodate these changes into your life.

1. Buy less clothing – only get what you need.

2. Try shopping at stores that sell organic clothing.
3. Donate wearable clothes only. – if you can’t wear them, then others can’t either.

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Credits:
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https://www.mcgill.ca/sustainability/files/sustainability/what-is-sustainability.pdf

https://www.target.com.au/p/organic-cotton-t-shirt/62499927