What it is: Track My T is a truly impressive website that I learned about from @dianadell on Twitter. Track my T lets students type in the unique lot number on their t-shirt and then go through an amazing interactive journey tracking their t-shirt from its very beginning as a cotton seed on a farm, to every step before they bought it. Students can track their actual t-shirt or choose a random t-shirt to follow. On their journey students will learn about picking cotton, the cotton gin, yarn spinners, textile mills, cut and sew factories, and distribution centers. This is an incredible journey that teaches students the process that goods go through before they end up in the local store. Each stop on the journey includes video, images, and information about what happens during that part of the t-shirt creation process. In addition, students will learn about and encounter historical figures like Eli Whitney. At the end of the journey students can check out their custom T tag, learn more about the screen printing process, and learn how to reduce their carbon footprint.
How to integrate Track My T into the classroom: Track My T is an amazing site. From beginning to end your students will be engaged and enthralled with this website. The ability to track their actual t-shirt is really something! Use this activity as a whole class with an interactive whiteboard, as a center activity in the classroom, or individually in the computer lab setting. As a follow up activity, have students put placemarks on a Google Earth map on the location where their t-shirt/pants/shoes were made. This activity could easily be expanded to the geography classroom (perfect for national geography week which is this week!). Students could do additional research about the country where their t-shirt originated from. To expand the activity even more, have students Tweet about their findings, see if they can get a response from someone that lives in that country.
Tips: Be sure to take a look at the accompanying lesson plan on Track My T. The lesson teaches students all about fair trade.
Leave a comment and share how you are using Track My T in your classroom.
Hi Kelly,
Have you tried this with any students yet? I was excited to see it, but can’t find any kids in a brief survey of our school library that have this number in their shirts…have you had that problem? I tried looking up when this rule was implemented to know how new shirts had to be, but couldn’t find info on it. Just wondered if you had tried it.
Thanks!
Carin
Yes, I have tried it with students, we only had two t-shirts in a class of 24 that worked. I had the rest of the students use one of these codes or choose a random code to go through the site with.
Hi – do you happen to have a code for a t-shirt made in Nicaragua? Trying to do a research project and could only find information on one made in Honduras. Thanks!
I don’t have one myself…anyone else have a code?