What things are made of

This lesson asks you to describe objects by the materials they are made of, and to ask where those materials come from and what becomes of an object when it is no longer needed. The museum offers one example of old materials being made into something new; the class brings its own objects. ¹

Pick something in the classroom and name what it is made of. Ask where each material came from and what could be done with it when the object is worn out.

Picture a glassmaker's workshop in Córdoba, long ago. Scientists tested glass found in a suburb called Šaqunda. About sixty percent of it was recycled natron glass ². Some was lead glass made with waste from metal-working, which Nadine Schibille treats as a new technology in al-Andalus ^{3 4}. She suggests a shortage of glass from the east may have led to this ⁵.

Think of something you threw away this week. What could its material become, and why did you choose that?

• Andalusi lead glass: how analyses of glass from Šaqunda revealed it.
• Córdoba: the city whose south bank the suburb grew on.
• Natron glass: the kind of glass that was recycled in the suburb.

Collect three used objects and sort them by material. For one of them, write what else its material could become, then read the card about the Córdoba glass.