2002 Recipients of the "Living in a Material World" $500 Teacher Grants

J. Guild Fetridge, Grades 11-12
Fannie Lour Hamer Freedom High School, Bronx, NY

An Inquiry Into the Basic Properties of Matter (view proposal)
In the South Bronx, students have had very little exposure to "hands-on" science and they are not conversant in the properties of materials that make up our modern world. This three week H.S. unit will be used to teach students about the basic properties of matter (mass, volume, and density) through the use of a series of "mystery" or "inquiry" based science labs.

Gary L. Ayers, Grades 9-12
Avon High School, Danville, IN

Composite Materials for Vehicle Construction (view proposal)
Avon High School is involved in an ongoing research and development project dealing with solar/electric powered vehicles. For the past two years, the science and technology students have researched, designed, developed, testing and raced solar/electric powered vehicles in the national Solar Bike Race. The grant will be used towards a research in building a unique vehicle chassis/body for a solar vehicle project using composite materials (i.e., carbon fiber, Kevlar, fiberglass, etc.) in order to lighten the weight and increase the efficiency.

Nicole Miranda, Grade 5
Darnaby Elementary, Tulsa, Oklahoma

Exploring the Structure of Materials with Fractography (view proposal)
The surface created when a material breaks can reveal a great deal about the internal structure of that material. For the proposed project, students will get to do something they all do quite naturally: break things! The items they break will be made of materials such as metals, plastics, composites, rocks, crystals, wood and paper. They are then exposed to the concept of "fractography," when they examine the fracture surfaces they created under a stereo zoom microscope. A special fixture for breaking items under tensile loading is being fabricated and donated to the project by ASM member, Steve Tipton, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at The University of Tulsa. Specimens can be broken in the fixture, or by hand, for a wide variety of experiments.

Karen Hinkley
Forest Ridge School of the Sacred Heart, Bellevue, WA

Exposing Young Women to Materials Science & Engineering (view proposal)
The Materials Science & Technology curriculum aims to bring back students who have lost interest in traditional science and provide enrichment to those deeply interested in science. The program encourages a totally hands-on exploration of materials and materials processing. The $500 grant will be used to purchase a rolling mill. A rolling mill allows the students to witness changes in area and volume, malleability, and energy changes when rearranging bonds. Property changes with grain size changes, work hardening and tempering of metals. Each of these areas is a non-traditional field for women.

Wanda Routier and Linda Teske, Special Education & Grades 4-5
Sugar Bush Elementary School, Greenville, WI

Plywood: More Than Just A Building Material (view proposal)
This project will introduce students to the composite material plywood. They will learn about where plywood comes from, how it is used, and how its waste products are recycled into usable products to help the environment. Students will conduct research and experiments, take field trips, display their findings at the School Fair, and make a wood project.

Tim Wright, Advanced Physics, Grades 11-12
Stevens Point Area Senior High School, Stevens Point, WI

Rebuilding a Curriculum With New Materials to Build a Material Awareness (view proposal)
A hands-on physics program affords students the opportunity to examine and experiment with many different things to make the concepts real and understandable. The intent of this project is to use modern materials to demonstrate the concepts of physics while also developing an awareness of the materials, an interest and curiosity about the materials and the science behind their development.

Mary Bowman (and four other second grade teachers)
Glendale Acres Communication/Foreign Language Academy, Fayetteville, NC

Second Grade Science Sleuths Gear Up To Solve The Great Polymer Toy Mystery (view proposal)
The 102 students from five second grade classrooms at Glendale Acres Communication/Foreign Language Academy will "gear up" to learn about what polymers (plastics) are and how they can be made into fun and educational toys that they can enjoy. They will participate in classroom experiments to make foam, which will teach them about polymers. Then they will see how polymers can be used to make toys such as plastic gears technology sets. Stations will be set-up for the students to participate in active, problem- solving gear laboratories. The second graders will also solve the mystery of who makes polymers, therefore learning about some careers in materials science.

Alvin Fridie, Grades 9-12, and Virginia Palmer-Fuechsel, Grades 3-8
New School of Northern Virginia, Fairfax, VA

Sound Matters (view proposal)
Sound Matters is designed as a High School level introductory science course at the New School of Northern Virginia. While there are many empirical procedures to investigate materials, sound is very convenient. Musical instruments provide an excellent model for material science and signal processing research. Most students are aware that different materials have unique acoustic properties when struck. Class lessons focus on the scientific and empiric characterization of these observations. The course will explore the importance of material choice in creating sound, the principles which scientists use to describe materials, digital techniques to measure sound and the correlation of the sound signal to the material.

Kendall Howden, Grade 2
Sunset Elementary, Bothell, WA

Wind Chimes: A Materials Comparison (view proposal)
Students will explore different materials, learn about and understand how to classify materials, explore with the sounds different materials make when chimed, and create wind chimes using materials studied throughout the unit.

You can also download the above listing of this year's award recipients in pdf format for a printable copy.

"Living in a Material World"-$500 Teacher Grants program aims to provide support and incentive for K-12 teachers to develop and implement science-teaching activities. Thirty-nine proposals were received competing for the 10 available grants. The Teacher/Student Outreach Committee, a subcommittee of the ASM Action in Education Committee, conducted the review and final selection of the winning proposals.

Our sincere thanks to the members of the Teacher/Student Outreach Committee for their invaluable contribution and continued support of the ASM Foundation's educational programs.