Education
Museum Shows
Materials Matter: It's a Nanoworld After All
Mindy Bowen performs the Materials Matter show at The Discovery Center in Springfield, MO.
Working together, the MRSEC and the Franklin Institute have produced the Materials Matter museum show, a 60 minute cart-based interactive exploration into the "micro" mechanisms behind the unusual and surprising "macro" behavior of materials such as aerogels, shape-memory alloys, polymers, electronic ink, and zeolites. We've distributed 22 copies of this show to science museums nationwide.
View the shows below to learn more about each demo. Each link has information on procedures and F.A.Q.'s.
Demonstrations
Electronic Ink
Electronic paper is made up of tiny balls that are white on one side and black on the other. The balls are sandwiched in between 2 sheets of rubbery plastic material. The balls can switch colors when they come close to a positive or negative charge. It is similar to when your hair is attracted to a balloon because of static cling.
Gummi-worms
The word polymer can be broken into two parts, "poly" means many and "mer" means parts. A polymer is made of many parts called "monomers." Gummiworms are a particular type of polymer which has been "cross-linked." Cross-linked polymers chains are tangled together which makes them strong.
Mystery Mix
The mysterious mixture appears to be made up of one gray substance. When we use a magnet we can separate the mixture into two materials. One is a black iron powder that is attracted to the magnet and the other is a white powdery substance, sand, which you may have seen at the beach!
Six Pack Rings
The word polymer can be broken into two parts, "poly" means many and "mer" means parts. A polymer is a huge chain-like molecule made by combining many smaller parts. Six-Pack Rings are made from specific type of polymer referred to as a "plastic."
Specific Shows
