Purdue University Materials Engineering 2016 Space Day

Give a thank you to these volunteers the next time you see them! Bradlee Beauchamp, Alex Bruce, Megan Forshey, Gustavo Guzman, Diana Heflin, Ben Helfrecht, Nes Kedir, Matthew Korey, Kara Luitjohan, Gamini Mendis, Theresa Saenz, Michael Sakano, Andrew Schlup, Ben Stegman, Jorge Ramirez, Harley Rowland, Congying Wang, Alyssa Yaeger!
Over 250 K-12 students introduced to Materials Science and Engineering as part of Space Day 2016
MSE undergrads, graduate students, and post docs teamed up in October to excite and inspire young students about science through space themed demonstrations. Highlights of the day included melting pennies on ceramic tiles to show how thermal insulation and breaking liquid nitrogen frozen racquetballs to demonstrate the glass transition.

Over 250 K-12 students introduced to Materials Science and Engineering as part of Space Day 2016

MSE undergrads, graduate students, and post docs teamed up in October to excite and inspire young students about science through space themed demonstrations. Highlights of the day included melting pennies on ceramic tiles to show how thermal insulation and breaking liquid nitrogen frozen racquetballs to demonstrate the glass transition.

Hands on activities included finding the strength to weight ratio for fibers (steel, Kevlar, cotton, and fishing line) and building lunar landers by using different materials to minimize shock. For more information on how to perform these activities yourself, please see the resources below.

Strength to weight tensile testing activity: http://www-tc.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/assets/education/making-stuff/stuff-toolkit-stronger-demo.pdf

Lunar lander activity: http://teachers.egfi-k12.org/lesson-build-lunar-lander/

Space Day information: https://engineering.purdue.edu/PurdueSpaceDay

Gamini Mendis helps students count water bottles to find the weight the fiber broke at for the strength to weight ratio activity.

Students get excited about testing their fibers to find the best materials for space.

Students design their lunar landers to reduce shock when dropped from great heights. 

Andrew Schlup shows a student how to tie fibers for the strength to weight ratio activity.