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Mad Materials, Strange Polymers, Crazy Colloids: Public Outreach with the NC Science Festival

“Mad Materials!:
Strange Polymers, Crazy Colloids and Mad Materials Science”
-
Astonishing materials, crazy chemistry, and all things squishy and gooey
were
the
stars
of a family-friendly, hands-on evening of science on the
Duke University campus
(Apr.
17
th, 2013), sponsored by Research Triangle MRSEC.
This event was part of the NC Science Festival, a state-wide multi-day
celebration showcasing science and technology in NC
.

Faculty
and
students
shared
hand-on, interactive demos with “
oobleckcornstarch polymers, polymer
origami
that
folds itself magically,
instant
gummy worms, usual
ferrofluids, and
other “soft matter” with strange properties. Several demos were inspired by
MRSEC-specific research, including a demo involving elastin-like polypeptides
(ELPs) from the
Chilkoti lab
and a 3D stereo demo of molecular simulations from the
Yingling lab.

 

About
350 visitors (~200 K-12 students) attended this event. Post-event assessment
data confirmed that respondents thought the event “made STEM learning fun” and
made them more aware of STEM in their daily lives.