Mapping Materials Science and Engineering

Inspired by school visits, and feedback from KS3 pupils, our Engineers have developed activities and videos that link to different areas of Materials Science and Engineering.

They have also worked with Emma Falconer who has created two fantastic posters and we need your input to help develop the third one (you can also find out more about the project here).

Illustrations

• Glass and Silicon Through Time
• Metals through Time
• Future Materials – in development – we need YOUR ideas for this. Follow this link to let us know your thought on important materials in the future: Materials of the Future – Fill in form

Please contact us if you would like an electronic copy of the A1 poster of Glass and Silicon Through Time or and / or Metals Through the Ages

Videos 

For the full playlist of videos developed in this project click here

Video 1 – Aluminium in aerospace

Video 2 – Cyanotypes

This video will be uploaded soon…

Video 3 – Lightbenders

Video 4 – Making a Loudspeaker 

Credits: Various video clips were taken from Pexels, the list of clips used, and attributions, can be found here: Loudspeaker video – credits

Video 5 – Manchester Materials – Six Sides and a Nobel Prize

Activities

Activity 1 – Bridging the Gap

Download the activity sheet here..

Developed by Anna Dickinson-Lomas

A great bridge-building activity.

Activity 2 – Cyanotypes

Download the activity sheet here.

Developed by Drew Antonio and Samantha Chow

Materials Science meets art – use UV light to create beautiful images using cyanotype dyes.

Activity 3 –  Lightbenders

download activity sheet here

Developed by Adam Gardner and Pha Thibthong

Two demonstrations relating to the refractive index of materials. These look at total internal reflection (and how optical fibres work0 and how you can make object seem to disappear by matching refractive indices.

Activity 4: Loudspeakers – how do they work?

Download activity sheet here

Developed by the Magnetic Materials group at University of Birmingham

Build your own loudspeaker to find out how what an important role magnets play in making them work.

Activity 5 – Water slides

Download activity sheet here

Developed by Dan Scotson, Tess Knowles  and Niamh Fox

Which material(s) will be best to coat a water slide? Why not try if for yourself.

This is the homepage for the Mapping Materials Science and Engineering project that was funded by the Royal Academy of Engineering‘s Ingenious Awards scheme.