Bars of Soap | How is it made? | Design Technology | STEM | Reading Passage

Studying how bars of soap are made turns everyday hygiene into a powerful design and technology case study for middle and high school STEM. A clear reading passage with questions walks students through saponification chemistry, formulation choices, and industrial workflows some of which include mixing, refining, triple roll milling, vacuum plodder extrusion, cutting, stamping, curing, and packaging. Learners could practice the full design cycle as they compare plant and animal fats, evaluate surfactants and fragrances, and weigh trade offs in cost, safety, and performance. Guided questions build technical vocabulary and suggest data skills by analyzing pH, hardness, moisture content, lather, and slip, then connect results to user needs and product testing. The topic supports cross curricular links to chemistry, materials science, and business with extensions on sustainability, life cycle thinking, biodegradable ingredients, and waste reduction. It fits quick lessons, cover work, or a short project where students sketch prototypes, plan trials, interpret quality control results, and justify design decisions with evidence. This ready to use classroom reading helps busy teachers deliver engaging, standards aligned learning that develops creativity, problem solving, and real world manufacturing insight. This process is a great one to learn about and so with that in mind, let's look into this topic with my useful resource here.

This How is it made? article provides the perfect grab and go, print and provide resource that can supplement lessons. It is an article with questions to check comprehension and inspire design and production thinking. I am very proud of this series of how is it made? articles and they are rich with information and wonder at the majesty of design, production and the manufacturing process.

Each how is it made? article includes a fun fact(s) to add to the knowledge gained from this article. Formatted in an easy to read and digest manner, each paragraph is numbered to help with referencing and each question answer has a paragraph reference number to point to the specific information (where applicable). Two images also to inspire students and get them interested in the subject topic.

WHY / WHEN TO USE:

• Useful for substitute (sub) teaching
• To enhance design / product thinking / STEM education
• To extend students
• To increase technical literacy in your class
• A weekly reading task
• Great as a lesson filler when class goes too fast
• To inspire students on a particular topic
• Give a selection of these articles for students to choose from

WHAT'S INCLUDED:

• 3 page Word doc image - textboxes teacher version with answers
• 2 page Word doc image - textboxes student version with room to fill in answers (text boxes)
• 3 page PDF teacher version with answers
• 2 page PDF student version without answers (but space left to do so)
• 3 page Google doc image - textboxes teacher version with answers
• 2 page Google doc image - textboxes student version with room to fill answers (text boxes)

Please note: That the Doc versions are images with editable text boxes overlayed on top and this is the most effective way to keep the article sleek and well-designed and also that students cannot change things significantly.