Blooming paper

Educational objectives

• To explore the properties of everyday materials and observe how they can be changed to enable new ways of using them.
• To explore materials working as a smart system.

Blooming paper

Download student activity sheet [pdf]

Key student learning

• Mixing materials can create new ones.
• Smart systems - some materials are known as ‘smart’ because they ‘remember’ their shape after they have been distorted. Other materials that are not ‘smart’ can be combined together to make a smart system. For example, tights that have encapsulated oils or caffeine that smoothes and moisturises the legs while they are worn. Paper impregnated with seeds that can then be grown at a later date is a practical analogy of a smart system.

Materials list, per student or group

• Paper, e.g. shredded office paper, newspaper, paper towels
• Washing-up bowl
• Water
• Wire mesh (23cm x 31cm to make an A4 screen)
• 120cm carpet tape or duct tape
• Stapler
• Electric hand blender
• Seeds, e.g. cress or flower seeds
• 1 kitchen cloth
• 2 newspapers
• 2 wooden boards or books (e.g. telephone directories) protected by plastic bags
• Food colouring (optional)

Making the wire mesh screen

You can buy galvanized fine wire mesh on a roll at DIY and car repair shops. Carefully use wire cutters to cut a section a little larger than the paper you want to make, then make it safe by taping the sharp edges with carpet tape or duct tape. Staple it in several places to stop it from peeling up when the frame is wet. We recommend that you pre-prepare the screens for your students.

Practicalities

If you usually make paper in a different way, just add the seeds to the pulp immediately before you dip the mesh. This way the seeds won’t get too waterlogged or damaged as the pulp is blended. Your Art or Design and Technology colleagues may have paper making equipment.

Soaking time

If you are using newspaper or paper towels you can just soak this in hot water overnight to achieve the pulp. However, shredded office paper is much stronger and will not break down unless left for well over a week so an electric hand blender is needed to produce the pulp.

Choosing the seeds

To get quick results use mustard or cress seeds, which just need to be kept damp in a saucer of water to grow.

To get a more substantial plant, use wild flower or poppy seeds and follow the planting instructions on the pack. This will usually require laying the seeded paper on top of a pot of soil or planting the sheet just below the surface and watering well. If you are sending the seeded paper as a gift or card ensure that you also send the recipient the planting instructions.

Designing and writing planting instructions could be part of the activity.Plant seeds are very resilient and, if kept dry, can last for months waiting for the right conditions to germinate.

Pulping method

Paper is made of cellulose fibres, usually from wood or cotton; the longer the fibre, the stronger the paper. Soaking the paper in a bucket of hot water overnight (or longer with stronger papers) and breaking it up with your fingers means that the fibres are less damaged and the paper is stronger.

If you mix the paper with a blender you chop up the fibres, making them shorter. This means that the paper is more fragile, which makes it finer but harder to remove from the mesh in one piece.

Beware

Make sure you remove all of the excess water by squeezing it thoroughly between the boards and dry the paper quickly (overnight on a windowsill is usually sufficient) or the seeds will start to germinate.

Discussion ideas

• What was the paper originally made of?
• What is happening to the paper as it turns to pulp?
• How can we reduce the amount of paper we waste? Reinforce the need for recycling and demonstrate how effective it is.

Beater filling (men adding pulp) 1936.

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One part of the processes and machinery involved in paper-making.

Extensions

• Use a hand lens or microscope to look at the structure of the paper. Tear a piece of the original paper and look at the edges. Can you see the fibres? Compare them to the rough edge of your new paper. How has the paper bonded together?
• Explore how other paper products, such as banknotes, are made.
• Add food colouring to get different shades of paper.
• Try using different types of paper and different types of seeds.
• Try testing the strength of the paper you make. For example, attach a bulldog clip to the bottom of a strip of paper and hang weights from it, or suspend your strip between two desks and place weights on it. Compare paper made with a blender and paper that has been soaked overnight.
• Explore the different uses of smart systems and smart materials. Discuss why they have been developed.

Links to everyday life

Paper in history

History shows that the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans all used paper, although nature got there first. Paper wasps chew cellulose fibres from plant stems and dead wood and mix them with saliva to produce water-resistant papery nests.

Piece of papyrus with hieroglyphic inscription, Egyptian, 1400-1200 BC.

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Paper planes

A paper plane has been designed to be launched from the International Space Station. The 30g plane, designed by engineers at Tokyo University, will be released during a space walk or jettisoned from the air lock and will travel 240 miles to Earth at speeds of up to 15,200 mph.

The 20cm paper dart, which looks like the Space Shuttle, has been engineered out of silicon-treated heat resistant paper that can withstand the temperatures of up to 200 degrees centigrade as it re-enters the Earth’s atmosphere. If it survives the descent it will most likely end up in the sea.

The plane bears a message in several languages saying: “This plane flew from the International Space Station. Please return the plane to Japan Origami Plane Association”.  If the project is successful it could inspire new designs for lightweight re-entry craft or for planes to explore the upper atmosphere.

Paper batteries

Scientists have developed paper batteries, which are 90% cellulose (the same material as in paper), impregnated with carbon nanotubes. These carbon nanotubes allow the paper to conduct electricity by acting as electrodes.

The batteries look like sheets of paper and can be rolled, folded, twisted or cut without any loss of efficiency. They can also be stacked, like a pile of paper, to increase the power output. Paper batteries have the potential to be used in medicine as blood can act as an electrolyte to activate them.

Paper clothing

Paper has also been used as an unusual material in the fashion industry.

Paper dress, 1995.

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Curriculum links

Key Stage 2:

• Grouping and classifying materials
• Describing changes to a material
• Properties of materials

Key Stage 3:

This activity encourages practical inquiry skills in the area of ‘Chemical and material behaviour’, specifically:

• Production of new materials with desirable properties
• Nature of materials due to internal structure Link to biological ecosystems

Key Stage 4:

• Smart materials
• Smart systems