Typical organization of science and
mathematics K12 education divides
subjects into discrete courses. However, science and engineering are
highly interdisciplinary fields. To better equip students to engage
in the interdisciplinary nature of real-world STEM research and practice,
projects can be used to highlight the interconnectivity of core subjects.
Here, we present an exploratory, guided inquiry classroom research
project. This work details student-led experiments combining physics
and chemistry principles to fabricate silicone bouncy balls and analyze
resulting mechanochemical relationships in these elastomeric materials.
In this project, students embodied researchers to uncover foundational
relationships among chemistry, physics, and mathematics. To do this,
students used silicone kits to design an array of polymer formulations
resulting in bouncy balls of varying stiffnesses. Students aimed to
answer a physics-based research question using chemistry and mathematics.
The resulting data was used to discuss the effect of polymer chemistry
on the behavior of the bouncy balls. This exercise serves to combine
hands-on fabrication methods with quantitative analysis, using experimental
methods of varying costs and complexities that can be tailored to
instructor time and budget. The project presented here is appropriate
for upper-level high school students or first-year undergraduates.
The pedagogical goal of the work is to empower students to realize
and use connections between chemistry, physics, polymer science, and
engineering to understand the process of material design and selection.