Classroom Resources For Teachers

Lesson Plans (located at the AGPA K-12 Outreach Website)

• What is a Polymer? – Students will explore polymers in the everyday world. They will use their senses (except taste) to make observations and investigate the properties of polymers.
• Plink Plank Plunk – Students will design musical instruments from provided materials to understand the following properties of sound: frequency and pitch.
• Physical Properties of Bouncing Balls – Students create bouncing balls of various shapes and determine the differences in the height that the various balls bounce.
• Classifying Solids: Matter – Students make observations of solids and classify the items into groups based on their properties. Students are introduced to the three states of matter.
• Will It Stretch? – Students will receive unexpected results when a rubber band is heated and cooled. From this activity they will learn about one of the unique physical properties of the polymer, rubber.
• How Shocking! – Students will be challenged to build a shock absorbing structure using different polymeric materials or rubber that would best protect a gelatin “head” during an impact.
• Where in the World is Rubber? – Students will learn about the various people and places associated with those areas that produce natural rubber. They will be able to define and identify specific regions using human and physical characteristics.
• A Brief History of Rubber – Students will explore the development of rubber and its use in society. They will research the history of rubber and will construct a timeline to display key events and the progression of rubber’s use in society.