Hey everyone!

I'm Abby Brown.

When you look around it's fun to wonder how things were built.

I mean, who thought of stacking rocks on top of each other?

And how did they come up with the idea for a substance that makes the stones stick together and stay really, really strong?

People had to explore lots of different types of materials and use their imagination and even experience trial and error as they created newer and stronger versions of the invention like the stone pillars.

Go Beyond with Iowa PBS and the Science Center of Iowa.

♪♪ ♪♪ Science is all around us and sometimes we don't even know it.

My friend Jolie is here to help us be creative and solve problems.

♪♪ So think about a time maybe when you were wondering, how can I keep the cords from my headphones from getting all tangled?

Or, how do I organize all of the cords and wires coming out of my computer?

Did you begin to design something in your mind and think about could I build something that would help me to solve that problem?

That is thinking like a maker.

♪♪ Hi, my name is Jolie and I work here at the Science Center of Iowa.

And I'm here today in our innovation lab to talk to you about being a maker.

The innovation lab is a place where we create, have ideas and explore using different tools and materials.

You can do that where you are too, you don't have to just be in the innovation lab, you can do those things where you are as well.

The things that we can do in this lab are amazing based on the kinds of equipment and material that we have.

So we might use laser cutters, 3-D printers, we have virtual reality, we have lots of tools and here at the Science Center we use those for workshops and classes, camps and lots of different opportunities for visitors of all ages to create and make things and to be a maker.

So what does it mean to be a maker?

A maker is someone that thinks, designs, tinkers, collaborates and solves a problem with a purpose.

They look at materials and equipment in new and innovative ways.

They learn from natural circumstances, both successes and mistakes.

And they use 21st century skills such as collaboration, creativity, critical thinking and communication to solve problems.

♪♪ So we're going to begin today by learning as a maker how to use plastic fusing to make things.

So before we get to that point I want to talk a little bit about safety.

When we're being a maker, we want to make sure that we have an adult around or we talk to adults before we use some of the tools and equipment.

We want to ask for permission and make sure that this is in a safe environment to use these things.

Let's begin by talking about the materials we're going to use for our plastic fusing.

We're going to use an iron, scissors.

We're going to use various plastics.

These are all plastics that have come from bags, there's some bubble wrap in here too.

And we're going to use an ironing board.

If you don't have an ironing board you could certainly use a towel.

And the last piece of equipment that we need is parchment paper.

If you don't have parchment paper, you could use a paper bag.

Parchment paper is something that we use in baking, so you may be able to find that in your baking supplies in your house.

So as we get started let me talk a little bit about the iron and the safety that we need to think about with our iron.

It's not plugged in right now so it is not hot.

But the important thing to think about is this piece right here, this is the sole plate and when the iron is plugged in the sole plate can get very, very hot.

So when it's hot we don't want to touch it with our skin or anything that could burn or melt.

That's very important.

We want to have an adult around to make sure that we're using this iron in a safe manner.

When it's plugged in and hot but we're not using it, we want to safely stand it up somewhere so that we don't accidentally touch it.

So there is a heel rest right here and we can set our iron like that so that the sole plate is not interfacing with the materials that we're working with.

I'm going to plug in the iron now so it can start getting hot as we move forward.

♪♪ Next, we're going to talk about the plastic that we have.

So I have a variety of plastic pieces here from different types of bags, things like bubble wrap, you might have bags from the grocery store or clothing store or even a bread bag.

And we can look at those plastics in new ways.

We might think about colors.

We might think about textures.

We might think about the thickness of the bag.

Or we might look for certain letters or words that we like on the bag.

We might look for characters like Clifford.

And we can use these plastics now to create a textile that we can make and create things with.

So let's look at how we're going to do that.

We're going to begin with our parchment paper.

Parchment paper is a very special type of paper that has been treated with an acid and then has a silicone substance put on the top of it that prevents it from burning at temperatures less than 400 degrees and also keeps things from sticking to it.

So we're going to use this parchment paper to keep the plastic from touching the ironing board or the towel as well as the sole plate of the iron when it's hot.

So we're going to begin by putting down a layer of the parchment paper and then we're going to start putting on our pieces of plastic.

So as I'm looking through these pieces, I might think, I wonder how this is going to melt?

Will it take more time?

Will the temperature have to be hotter for some plastics than others?

These are great questions that we can come up with answers to once we begin using the heat from the iron.

So I'm going to take some pieces of our plastic and I'm going to layer them here on my parchment paper.

I'm going to take some of my bubble wrap and I might use my scissors to cut out just certain pieces.

And I can use this bubble wrap, if I wanted to I can even pop all of the bubbles first before I fuse it.

That sometimes is the really fun part.

♪♪ And I can lay it on here and maybe I might pick another piece and I can layer them here.

So remember once we start to use the iron that we want to make sure that there is an adult present with us that might be able to help us out.

Sometimes I even need an adult to help me when I'm doing my projects.

So I'm going to put a layer, another layer of parchment paper on top of the plastic.

That is very important so that when we put the hot iron on here it doesn't melt to the sole plate of the iron.

So I'm going to grab the iron and I'm going to press and push down on the plastic.

We want to make sure we keep our hands away from the heat from that sole plate and that the iron, that hot sole plate of the iron isn't touching any of the plastic itself.

So I'll just keep moving the iron around and pushing down.

And then I'm going to rest it here on the heel rest.

Let the parchment cool just a little bit.

It will be hot and warm.

And then after it cools we can peel the parchment paper off.

I always have really good questions too about why the parchment itself doesn't melt?

And why does it cool so fast but the plastic is still very warm?

Those are great questions to ask.

So now, here is our piece of used plastic.

So those three pieces that I have put together are now combined.

I notice that in some places maybe it didn't stick the same as others.

I wonder why that happened?

Some places the plastic didn't completely fuse together.

I wonder if it's because I didn't use enough heat or I didn't hold the iron on there for long enough.

So I'm going to put it back.

I'm going to put it back onto my parchment paper, put another layer of parchment on top, and then use the iron again to fuse.

And then we'll see if it fused together better.

Let it cool for a moment.

Peel off the parchment.

And now those pieces are connected together.

Look how different the bubble wrap looks now.

It has a very different texture to it than it did before.

So what's really great about this is basically I created a textile, I've created almost like a fabric that I can use in many different ways.

So I might create something from this textile.

So I'm going to show you a couple of different ways that we could create a pocket.

So I'm going to keep fusing more pieces of this together.

And then we're going to fold it -- ♪♪ -- in order to create a pocket.

♪♪ Okay, so I'm going to begin with this piece and I'm going to cut it -- ♪♪ -- so it's more of a regular size.

Oh, and look, I notice there's another piece where it didn't fuse.

I'm going to put that back here and press down on my iron again so I make sure we get all those plastic pieces connected.

♪♪ Let it cool.

♪♪ Pull it off.

There we go.

Now it's connected.

So I want to create a pocket and I'm going to do this by basically folding my plastic over like this and then I want to connect the sides here to create my pocket.

I can do that by fusing the plastic but I have to think about this.

How can I connect the edges without making the whole piece fuse together?

I can use the parchment paper.

So what I could do is take my parchment paper, I'm going to fold it and put it inside of my pocket and then fold it over.

So now when I put the iron on here it will only fuse the piece of plastic that don't have parchment in between them.

So I'm going to put another piece of parchment on top.

And then use my iron and I'll push down and I want to fuse those edges that will help to create my pocket.

♪♪ Let it cool.

♪♪ Peel it.

Peel it.

Now, if I take my parchment piece out, now I have a pocket.

So I could trim the edges with my scissors.

♪♪ And now I have a little pocket I could use.

And maybe I could keep my headphones in here so that my cords don't get all tangled up.

And I could even put a snap on here or I could put a button if I wanted to close this.

I could store all different kinds of things in my pocket.

♪♪ Next, what I'd like to do is show you how you can use fused plastic and a sewing machine together.

♪♪ We're going to begin the same way we did before, by picking some pieces of plastic.

Again, I'm going to look at colors and textures, designs that are on there, and wonder how are they going to look together.

I found some really fun bubble wrap that is pink so I'm going to add that and I'm going to layer them as I did before.

♪♪ And be really creative here.

Design something that might be really exciting for you, something that has letters or maybe you make your name or a picture.

And I'm just going to keep layering those pieces of plastic over my parchment.

Again, put a layer of parchment on top of here.

Now, as I do this I see that I have pieces of plastic beyond that layer.

That's okay.

I just don't want to touch the iron to those pieces of plastic because they could melt onto my sole plate.

So I'm going to push down and fuse my pieces.

Did you hear the bubble wrap pop?

♪♪ Let it cool.

♪♪ And then we can begin to peel it apart and I can see all my pieces didn't really fuse together very well.

So I think I need more heat.

I can either turn up the iron, if I have more pieces of plastic it might take a higher temperature.

Or I can just put my iron on here for longer and push down to really get that heat into the plastic to help it to fuse.

♪♪ Let's see how it turned out this time.

♪♪ Oh no, some of my pieces got too hot!

Maybe I used too much heat.

So sometimes we might have to experiment with the plastics and find out what's too much heat and what is too little heat.

So let's see.

How do I handle this now that I have maybe a hole in mine?

Do I throw it away?

Or do I keep trying something different?

I think I'll try something different.

So let's take a different piece of plastic and maybe I might add a patch to it.

Or if I have a hole I can put something else over that hole to fill it in.

This is what is great about being a maker, being innovative, we just try new things and we figure out how it's going to work.

So I'll put another piece on here.

♪♪ Making sure that I have parchment between my plastic and my ironing board as well as the plastic and the iron so that we don't have melted plastic.

♪♪ And we see what we come up with.

♪♪ So look at this new piece.

So I just added and I just keep adding pieces of plastic and put those on there.

And it will, the more layers of plastic that I put on there, the tougher and stronger that piece of fused plastic is going to be.

So this time what I'm going to do since I have such strong plastic from fusing it is I'm going to run it through the sewing machine and I'm going to make my pocket that way.

A sewing machine is a kind of tool that has been around for a very long time and is used in order to create things like the clothes that you wear or the backpack that you carry, even the covers to the seat in your car.

And we're going to use this tool, the sewing machine, this time to also make a pocket.

But we're going to sew it instead of fuse it.

So I have my plastic that I've put together and I'm going to cut out the shape that I want to use, similar to how I did before.

♪♪ And I'm just cutting it basically into a rectangle that I'm going to fold over.

♪♪ So it looks like this.

And I notice I have a couple of pieces here that are not sticking still.

So I'm going to put those back on my piece of parchment and fuse those -- ♪♪ -- so they get nice and stuck together.

♪♪ Hear all those pops from the bubble wrap.

That's really fun when you get to pop the bubbles like that.

Okay.

Let it cool.

♪♪ Now we'll peel it.

Okay.

So here's my piece of plastic.

So I'm going to fold it in half just like I did for our last pocket but this time what I'm going to do, instead of just fusing the edges, I'm going to actually run it through the sewing machine.

And when we use the sewing machine often times we sew things inside out so that we don't see the seams or the edges.

So I'm going to flip it this way so the wrong side or the side that you don't necessarily want to look at that doesn't have the pattern is on the outside.

I'm going to fold it in half and I'm going to put this into my sewing machine and I'm going to sew here and here.

And then we're going to turn it inside out in order to create our pocket.

Okay.

So I'm going to come over to the sewing machine.

Some things to think about when you're using the sewing machine is keeping your fingers away from the needle when it's moving up and down.

That's very important.

The sewing machine has a motor inside of it and that motor will use the pieces, they are called the feed dogs, against the presser foot to pull the fabric through on its own.

You don't have to do that.

You don't have to force it through or pull it through, the sewing machine will do it on its own.

So when we are going to sew this we want to keep our fingers away from the needle and just let the machine pull our fabric or our plastic through.

So I'm going to put it down here and put the presser foot down and that is going to pinch the plastic between the presser foot and the sewing machine.

I have a pedal down here for my foot and when I push on the pedal it's going to have the needle move up and down and pull that plastic through.

So here we go.

Keeping my fingers away from the needle.

(sewing machine sewing) Okay, I'm going to lift the presser foot here.

Pull this out and cut it.

And there I just sewed our fused plastic.

I'm going to do the same thing to the other side.

I'm going to run that through.

Again, put the plastic down here between the presser foot and the feed dogs, push on the pedal.

(sewing machine sewing) Lift it up.

Okay.

And now I have a seam on both sides.

I'm going to trim those a little bit so we don't have so much of that seam.

And now I have a pocket.

But if I really want to see the exciting colors that we put together on the other side, I can turn it inside out so that we don't see the seams.

And now we have a pocket.

So we could use this idea and these techniques and create bigger pockets.

We could put pockets on our pockets.

So we could put the little pocket on top of here if we wanted to.

We could put a strap on this and maybe turn it into a bag.

I want to show you an example of a bag that I made previously.

I didn't use the sewing machine.

Everything on it is just fused plastic.

♪♪ So this is a bag that I made completely out of bubble wrap.

So it has, inside it has straps and it actually has another extra pocket inside where I could keep things.

So I might put my pens or my pencils in here.

I might take this bag to the library and maybe put my books that I checked out in here and carry them home.

I might use this when I'm carrying groceries maybe that I could put groceries into this bag.

This entire bag is made just out of fusing plastic.

I didn't use a sewing machine and it's very, very strong.

So think of how you could solve problems that you have at home or ideas that you might have of something you want to make that you could use fused plastic for.

This is a great example of upcycling.

These are plastics that we might otherwise throw away or we might recycle them.

But in this case we are upcycling them.

We're taking them from their state right here and using them for another purpose.

And in this case making a bag.

♪♪ Such a fun project, Jolie.

That is definitely one I'll be trying with my kids at my house.

Thank you everyone for going beyond with Iowa PBS and the Science Center of Iowa.

And always remember to ask questions and wonder.

That's what science is all about.

♪♪ ♪♪