The Secret Life of Things is a set of short animated videos exploring the hidden environmental impacts of everyday things. Each video comes with a free pack of learning resources to inspire and engage budding designers and product developers with life cycle thinking and eco-design. Read more
The Secret Life of Things (SLOT) project combines educational animations with learning resources to help students understand the hidden environmental impacts of everyday things. The animation and resources have been developed for use in educational settings.
We've created learning resources on life cycle thinking and eco-design to help educators inspire the next generation of designers to consider the environmental impacts of their design choices.
The first animation, Life Pscycle-ology, comes with 14 learning resources:
8 Fact Sheets
4 case studies
2 main class activities
> Mobile phones fact sheet
> Life Cycle Thinking
> E-Waste
> Product Stewardship
> Design for Disassembly
> Design for Longevity
> Eco Design Strategies
> Design for Upgradability
> Mobile phones case study
> Sports shoes case study
> Floor coverings case study
> Packaging Recycling case study
> Production quiz
> Life cycle mapping picture cards
The full learning resources can be downloaded in the 'download resources' section of this site and can be browsed through in the students hub.
Students can be directed to the students Hub to access the resources, watch the animation, view links and recommended readings as well as provide feedback on The Secret Life of Things project.
Learning Tasks
Please feel free to use these learning resources in any way you like. All content is published under Creative Commons, but please acknowledge our efforts by citing us and linking the information back to the Eco Innovators or The Secret Life of Things websites.
We are now conducting an extensive evaluation of these resources across six leading Australian Universities, and will provide a report at the end of 2010. We want the resources to be as useful and informative as possible, so please feel free to leave feedback or email us suggestions.
We'll be developing new animations and learning resources, so be sure tojoin the mailing list to receive updates.
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Included at the end of each resource is a discussion and research section which includes: recommended debate and essay topics, research questions, class activities and design briefs.
These are included in the educators' and students' versions of the resource PDF, however the teacher notes have been removed from the students resource.
Educators can decide to include or omit this section when providing handouts or they may select learning tasks to incorporate into their normal class structure.
How have you been using the learning resources and have you found them useful?
What recommendations would you to make to help us improve the learning resources?
Please note that all comments will be moderated and any inappropriate or offensive items will be removed. Comments may be used in other parts of the website.
World changing - A users guide to the 21st century
By Alex Steffen and Al Gore, 2006, ABRAMS
Packaging sustainability - Tools, Systems and strategies for innovative package design
By Wendy Jedlicka, 2008, John Wiley & sons
Natural Capitalism - Creating the nextindustrial revolution
By Paul Hawken Amory Lovins & L.Hunter Lovins, 2000, Little, Brown & company
Sustainable Fashion & Textiles - Design Journey
By Kate Fletcher, 2008, Earthscan
The sustainability Revolution - Portrait of a paradigm shift
By Andres R. Edwards, 2005, New society Publishers
Emotionally Durable Design
By Jonathan Chapman, 2005, Earthscan
The Designer's Atlas to Sustainability : Charting the conceptual landscape through economy, ecology and culture
By Ann Thorpe, 2007, Island Press,
The Design of Everyday Things
By Donald A. Norman, 1988, Basic BookCradle to Cradle: Remaking the way we make things
By William Mcdonugh & Michael Braugart, Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, 2002, North Point Press, New York
Design and Environment: A Global Guide to Designing Greener Goods
By Helen Lewis, John Gertsakis, Tim Grant and Nicola Morelli, 2001, Greenleaf Publishing
Sustainable by Design - Exploration in theory and practise
By Stuart Walker, 2006, Earthscan
Massive Change
By Bruce Mau, Jennifer Leonard & Institute, 2004, Phaidon Press Limited
Design for the other 90%
By Cynthia E. Smith, 2007, Editions Assouline
Green from the Ground Up : Sustainable, Healthy and Energy - Efficient Home construction
By David Johnston & Scott Gibson, 2008, The Tauton Press
The Laws of Simplicity: Design, Technology, Business, Life
By John Maeda, 2006, The MIT Press
Green Studio Handbook - Environmental Strategies for schematic design
By Alison Kwok & Walter Grondzik, 2007, Elsevier
Design Futuring: Sustainability, Ethics and New Practice
By Tony Fry, 2009, Berg, Oxford
The Waste Makers
By Vance Packard, 1960, Pelican Books
The Green Imperative - Ecology and Ethics in Design and Architecture
By Victor Papanek, 1995,Thames & Hudson
Design for the Real World - Human Ecology and social change
By Victor Papanek, 1984, Academy Chicago Publishers
Small is Beautiful - Economics as if people mattered
By E.F. Schumacher, 1973, Blond & Briggs
Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth
By R. Buckminster Fuller, 1969 (2009 edition), Lars Muller Publishers
The Eco-design Handbook
By Alastair Fuad-Luke, 2002, Thames& Hudson
1000 EcoDesigns and where to find them
By Rebecca Proctor, 2009, Laurence King Publishing Ltd
Experimental EcoDesign: Architecture/ Fashion/ Product
By Cara Brower, Rachel Mallory & Zachary Ohlman, 2009, Rotovision SA
Design for Sustainability - A Sourcebook of Integrated, Eco-logical Solutions
By Janis Birkeland, 2002, Earthscan
Transmaterial A Catalogue of Materials That Redefine our Physical Environment
By Blaine Brownell, 2006, Princeton Architectural Press
Ecology of Commerce
By Paul Hawken, 2003, Weidenfeld anf Nicolson
Sustainable By Design
By Donald Norman, 2000, MIT Press
Gone Tomorrow: the Hidden Life of Garbage
By Heather Rogers, 2005, The New Press, New York
