6C-2 Recycled Planters

Our Maker Fair project was reusing wine bottles as self-watering planters. We got our inspiration from the Beach Cleanup field trip. The problem of waste is a big one in our community, and we became very aware of this in the 6th grade Beach Cleanup. People tend to throw away, or even litter things that can be used in many other ways. Our project was a pretty easy one: that is part of the reason why we chose it. The people looking at our project could actually do the project themselves! At the beginning, we were taking our time. Then we started to realize that we should get started. We had picked out our bottles, but we were having a lot of trouble cutting the first one! That was our biggest challenge. It was made of very thick glass, as we found out later. We started to delay cutting that particular bottle and we cut the others instead. We ended up using our recess time to cut some bottles, but it was worth it! Thankfully, we completed it on time, but we were very close to not doing so! The people who saw our project were very surprised that we cut the bottles using our method! They had positive reactions, and they enjoyed the project a lot (I think)! I learned that you should definitely not procrastinate: Luna and I have learned our lesson from this project! If we had more time, I think we would have planted actual seeds to grow in the planter instead of transplanting the sunflowers the day of. That would have been a more reliable experiment. We should learn from the values of the Maker Fair that even if you think your environmental solution won't work, you have to try it to see the result. You have to always think out of the box! Even if it seems crazy, everything is worth a try.

A (very) helpful video: 3 Ways To Cut A Glass Bottle

-  Ellie & Luna