Natural and man-made materials
Chemistry · Key Stage 1 · The School
What natural means
Some materials come from nature. Wood comes from trees. Wool comes from sheep. Cotton comes from a plant. Rock comes from the ground. Nobody makes these materials in a factory. Nature makes them.
What man-made means
Some materials are made by people. Plastic is man-made. Glass is man-made too. People mix and heat ingredients to make them. A man-made material did not exist before someone made it. Most man-made materials come from a factory.
Some materials are both
Metal starts as rock in the ground. That part is natural. Then people dig it up and heat it. That part is man-made. Glass starts as sand, which is natural. Then people melt it into glass. Many materials begin in nature and are changed by people.
Sorting a pile of objects
Look at five objects: a wooden spoon, a plastic cup, a wool jumper, a glass jar and a metal fork. The spoon and jumper start fully natural. The cup is fully man-made. The jar and fork start natural and are changed by people. Sorting them shows that natural and man-made are not always two separate piles.
Why it is not about good or bad
Natural does not always mean better. A wooden chair can rot in the rain. Man-made does not always mean worse. A plastic raincoat keeps you dry for years. Natural and man-made are just two different starting points. Choosing a material is still about which properties suit the job.