01.30.2015
Written By: Ralm Ricarte
Howdy y’all,
Today, we returned to the complex but beautiful subject of polymer science. We started with a short presentation about current polymer scientists and showed some examples of new polymer technology (like the one featured in this article).
We then broke into small groups to discuss the students’ data from the Happy-Sad Sphere experiment. Contrary to the students’ hypothesis, the sphere bounciness did not increase as the temperature increased. Instead, each sphere’s bounciness reached a minimum at the glass transition temperature. We discussed the mechanism and repercussions of this phenomenon with the students.
The students then learned about the behavior of polymers in solution (i.e., dissolved in a liquid) by experimenting with diapers. Diapers, Ms. Smith’s favorite subject, contain the polymer polyacrylate (PA). This polymer gives diapers the ability to soak up a large amount of “waste”. To study PA’s swelling ability, the students soaked the diapers in various liquids and measured the amount of liquid each diaper retained.
Though this experiment was messy, the students had a blast. They enjoyed thinking about which solutions to test and found the swelled polymers fascinating to look at and touch. We encourage our students to recreate this experiment at home (but please don’t use up all of your baby sibling’s diapers in the name of science).
– Ralm Ricarte