As part of the Penn State RET program in nanomaterials, each teacher writes a lesson plan to take back to their classroom. Below are the lesson plans, tailored to be shared with other teachers who are interested in adding materials science to their physics, chemistry, math and technology curriculum.
2023 Lesson Plans
Engineering Polymers – Synthesis & Characterization (high school)
Preparing an Emulsion (high school)
Microfluidics (high school)
2022 Lesson Plans
Material Deformation – Finding Young’s Modulus (high school – AP Physics)
Intermolecular Forces and Phase Separation (high school)
Distinct aqueous phases without a membrane, complex coacervates, create a different sort of phase diagram (high school)
Structural Color Resulting from Total Internal Reflection (high school)
2021 Lesson Plans – No Lessons; modified virtual “Sustainability & Materials” professional development workshop
2020 Lesson Plans – No Lessons; program cancelled
2019 Lesson Plans
Candle Soot Hydrophobicity (middle school)
The Fluorescence of Invisible Ink (high school)
Introduction to Materials Science and Crystallography (high school; related classroom worksheet)
Pump it up! (middle school)
Investigating Surface Properties of Scanning Electron Microscopes (SEM) Images (upper elementary / middle school)
The Effect of Hofmeister Salts on Egg Whites (high school)
Physical Science – Final Project (middle and high school)
2018 Lesson Plans
Investigating Surface Tension and Hydrophobic Properties (upper elementary / middle school)
The Lotus Effect: Lithographic Reproduction of the Blue Morpho Butterfly (middle school)
Single-Slit and Double-Slit Diffraction (high school)
Why Salts Matter (high school)
Hard vs. Soft Water – What comes out of our faucet? (high school)
Design and Production of a Microfluidic Chip (high school)
2017 Lesson Plans
How index of refraction affects OLEDs (high school)
Emulsions (high school)
Hydrophyllic/Hydrophobic Surfaces on Glass Slides (5th grade)
Modeling Bioimaging in the classroom (high school)
Connecting the dots in Electricity (high school)
Investigating how Surface Chemistry and Topography influence surface wetting (high school)
2016 Lesson Plans
Herbal Synthesis Student Workheet Herbal Synthesis Lesson
Measuring Capacitance Lesson Plan
Coffee Nanoparticle Synthesis Lesson Plan
“How clean is the air” Lesson Plan
Antibacterial gel vs Bacteria Lesson Plan
2015 Lesson Plans
Hofmeister Phase transitions Lesson Plan Click here to see a video!
Light Interaction with Matter Lesson Plan
Science of Suncreen Lesson Plan
High Pressure High School Demos
