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Published by
Australian Academy
of Science
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Activities | It's an advanced material world |
- Strange Matters, USA
- Stuff for teachers – students investigate structure, properties, processing and performance aspects of material science.
- Science Net Links, American Association for the Advancement of Science, USA
- Materials and manufacturing – students identify the properties, limitations and durability of materials and their suitability for different purposes.
- Recycled materials – students identify materials that can be recycled and possible uses for these materials.
- Carbon: Structure matters – students explore the molecular structure of matter and how it can affect the physical characteristics of a material.
- Polymers and people – students learn how advances in science depend on advances in technology and vice versa.
- What do scientists do? – students report on scientific fields of research to appreciate the diversity of science.
- Polymer Science Learning Center, University of Southern Mississippi, USA
- Educational resources – provides links to a number of activities and demonstrations about polymers, including ‘Polymers that save lives’ and ‘As the ball bounces’.
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration, USA
- Absorption and radiation – students investigate the effect of different colors, reflective surfaces and materials on radiant heat absorption and heat radiation.
- Nanosense, USA
- Size matters – provides an introduction to nanoscience, focusing on concepts related to size and scale, unusual properties of the nanoscale and example applications.
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA
- Science upd8, UK
- Is it terminal for Telfon? – students evaluate evidence surrounding the use of the chemical PFOA and considers a range of viewpoints on the issue including their own.
- Hard stuff – students learn how scientists made a super-hard material that is cheaper and better at cutting than diamond.
You will need to register to access the activity, but it is free.
- University of Cambridge, UK
- Atomic scale structure of materials – provides an introduction to crystalline, polycrystalline and amorphous solids, and how the atomic-level structure affects the properties of a material.
- Exploring the nanoworld, University of Wisconsin, USA
- Memory metal – nickel-titanium is used to illustrate how novel properties can occur when alloys are created and how phase changes can occur between two solid phases.
- Using shape memory metals in simple machines – students learn the connection between memory metal’s atomic structure and its physical characteristics, and identify how memory metal characteristics can be used to solve problems.
- National Physics Laboratory, UK
- Polymer stretching – this applet helps to visualise the changes going on within a polymer when it is stretched.
- Semiconductor resistivity – this applet allows you to change temperature, substrate, and doping in a simulated semiconductor, and discover what difference these parameters can have on the conductivity of the material.
- The bike: Bicycle frame design project – students choose suitable materials to make a bike frame.
- Interviews with Australian Scientists, Australian Academy of Science
- Transcript of an interview with physical chemist and materials scientist, Professor Frank Caruso. Includes teachers notes and activities.
- Structures and materials, VicPhysics, Australia
- Copper wire prac – students investigate the behaviour of copper wire under tensile stress.
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