Polymer Science
Students use engineering design process to produce slime that meets certain criteria and constraints .
Overview
Students examine everyday hydrogel and aerogel products and identify the structural properties they share, framed as a competition among lab interns for a summer polymer research position. Groups make three types of slime, based on borax, sand, or liquid starch, and design tests to compare them. They use diagrams of crosslinked polymers to explain how each formulation forms its structure. Groups then modify a recipe to improve a property such as viscosity or elasticity, test it by measuring bounce height, stretch speed, and viscosity, and graph the results. Each group completes a claim-evidence-reasoning sheet, displays it, and receives yellow and pink sticky-note feedback from peers during a gallery walk.
Lesson Objectives
- Design a material (slime) that meets certain criteria and constraints going through the engineering process
- Test their material and collect data
- Establish CER (claim, evidence, and reasoning) using a graphic organizer
- Showcase and annotate projects
Standards
NGSS · 5
- CC: Stability and Change. Change is measured in terms of differences over time and may occur at different rates.
- ETS1.ADefining and Delimiting Engineering Problems. Possible solutions to a problem are limited by available materials and resources (constraints). The success of a designed solution is determined by considering the desired features of a solution (criteria). Different proposals for solutions can be compared on the basis of how well each one meets the specified criteria for success or how well each takes the constraints into account.
- PS1.BChemical Reactions. When two or more different substances are mixed, a new substance with different properties may be formed.
- SEP: Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions. Generate and compare multiple solutions to a problem based on how well they meet the criteria and constraints of the design problem.
- SEP: Planning and Carrying Out Investigations. Make observations and measurements to produce data to serve as the basis for evidence for an explanation of a phenomenon.
CCSS Math · 2
- 8.F.A.1Understand that a function is a rule that assigns to each input exactly one output. The graph of a function is the set of ordered pairs consisting of an input and the corresponding output.
- HSF-IF.A.1Understand that a function from one set (called the domain) to another set (called the range) assigns to each element of the domain exactly one element of the range. If f is a function and x is an element of its domain, then f(x) denotes the output of f corresponding to the input x. The graph of f is the graph of the equation y = f(x).
CCSS ELA · 5
- CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.3Follow precisely a complex multistep procedure when carrying out experiments, taking measurements, or performing technical tasks, attending to special cases or exceptions defined in the text.
- CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.7Translate quantitative or technical information expressed in words in a text into visual form (e.g., a table or chart) and translate information expressed visually or mathematically (e.g., in an equation) into words.
- CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.WHST.4Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
- CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.WHST.7Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.
- CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.4Present information, findings, and supporting evidence clearly, concisely, and logically such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development, substance, and style are appropriate to purpose, audience, and task.