Designs For a New Generation: I

Cork Project Designs

     This past school year, while studying about the environment and cork trees that are indigenous to the Iberian Peninsula in Spain and Portugal, students were given a two part assignment: to use cork in an arts/crafts project and to invent or design a product made with cork. They also wrote their projects in Spanish. 

      Mr. Jeff Lloyd and the folks at RealCork (100@Cork) provided us with educational material including the history, uses and environmental importance as well as cork samples. This information was used for both parts of the project.

 For the art and crafts portion, Ms Ceara Cates at Meadowood in Napa Valley donated the cork stoppers that were used in the investigation of cork properties and utilized in the students’ DIY crafts. Some of the cork crafts were the usual ones such as corkboards, card holders, animal figurines, flash drives, candle holders and jewelry, to name a few. More unique ones included fishhook bobbers (carved into insects), a clock, and a flute made out of the stoppers.

Cork Jewelry 

Cork Flute

   

     For the second part of the project, students investigated the properties of cork to develop ideas for inventions/designs. In total there were over 100 ideas with several being sports oriented, such as lacrosse, football and baseball equipment. Some other ideas included a blanket (my favorite), deck shoes entirely made of cork, hurricane shutters, a swimming pool, the entire underside cover of a car, and the flute as well.

     I was quite impressed to read all my students’ ideas especially because they were able to study the culture, language and be involved in a science-based scheme that may have a great impact on reducing climate change. If we begin using more cork, then perhaps we can use fewer resources and buy fewer items. It would be quite an honor to see some of these ideas become a reality in the near future.

    Apart from being all recyclable and sustainable, cork is a priority species. On a previous blog post, I discussed the importance of cork and dehesas which you may read about it here.

These are the properties of cork: elastic and resilient, lightweight and floats, insulates and fire retardant (in its natural form); impermeable, durable, and hypoallergenic.

http://www.corklink.com/index.php/the-amazing-natural-properties-of-cork/

     This is a coffee cup that is being sold at Whole Foods Market here in Houston. It is a reusable glass cup with a cork band for holding while in use.
Resuable cups are a great way to limit overuse of our resources!

Cork Tree Planting

     In doing our part to help the environment, a group of my students and their penpals from Matías Martinez School, planted some cork trees in Burguillos del Cerro during our March trip to Spain. Through a donation of funds from the West U Rotary, we were able to purchase the trees and supplies, and provide lunch after the tree planting activity.

We hope to continue more tree-planting in the future throughout the areas of Extremadura and Portugal. If you would like to get involved, please send me an email at: proyectobdcspain@gmail.com. 

Cork tree being planted in Burguillos del Cerro

Cork harvesting begins mid-June and ends in August throughout Spain and Portugal.

Below are trees that were harvested last year at Nicomedes' Farm.

                                                       

R. Aguilar