Earth-Friendly Fabrics
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Question Sheet: Earth-Friendly Fabrics

SCIENCE

Before reading:

1. What qualities do you look for when you shop for clothing? Does the type of fabric matter?
2. From what fabrics are your clothes made?

During reading:

1. Name four Earth-friendly fabrics mentioned in this article.
2. Which Earth-friendly fabrics are already available to shoppers, and which ones are still at the research stage?
3. What is a sustainable business?
4. In what ways is the production of cotton hard on the environment?
5. What is PET? What is it used for?
6. What might fabrics made from chicken feathers be like?

After reading:

1. As a shopper, are the choices that you make important for the environment? Why or why not?
2. What qualities or factors are important to you when you shop for clothing? Why?
3. Are environmentally friendly fabrics really available? Go online and look for organic cotton clothing. Report on what kinds of clothes are available to a shopper. Would you wear them? Why or why not? See www.eartheasy.com/wear_orgcot_clo.htm (Eartheasy.com).
4. Who developed bamboo-based fabrics? How are these fabrics made? What qualities does this fabric have? What sorts of clothes might be made from bamboo cloth? See www.wisegeek.com/what-is-bamboo-fabric.htm (Conjecture Corp.).
5. Eco-friendly clothing is often designed for babies. Compare the reasons why someone might want to buy a baby organic or Earth-friendly clothing versus buying it for an adult.
6. What happens to your old clothes? Is wearing used or hand-me-down clothing an environmentally friendly act? Why or why not? In what other ways could old clothing be recycled? See ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/5000/5504.html and ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/5000/5505.html (Ohio State University) or www.wasteonline.org.uk/resources/InformationSheets/Textiles.htm (Waste Online).

SOCIAL STUDIES

Environmentally sensitive companies often claim that their clothes are "fair trade." What does this term mean? Why are people concerned about "fair trade"? See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_trade (Wikipedia), www.fairtradefederation.org/ (Fair Trade Federation), or www.transfairusa.org/ (Fair Trade Certified).

LANGUAGE ARTS

1. Suppose that you have designed your own line of Earth-friendly clothing. What would your brand name be? What kind of clothes would you create? Draw an advertisement that you would use in a newspaper for your line of clothing.
2. Imagine that you're trying to get a movie star to wear an Earth-friendly outfit to the Oscars. Write a persuasive letter explaining why he or she should wear this new type of clothing.

MATHEMATICS

Your house has six windows. Each one is 3 feet tall and 3 feet wide. You want to get drapes for these windows. The fabric comes in rolls that are 45 inches wide. To allow for pleats, you need to buy enough fabric to cover twice the width of each window. How many yards of fabric should you buy in total? You also want to put a border around all sides of all six drapes. How much of this border must you purchase?

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