This week we have looked at classifying materials. The students examined a bike and identified all the products used to make it. This included everything from the paint to the foam inside the seat. They grouped these matarials into metals, plastics/synthetics, and other.
We then looked around the room and classified as many things we could into the following categories:
- Wood
- Plastics/synthetics
- Composites
- Ceramics
- Metals
- Natural fabrics
We took a deeper look into metals. We examined a variety of metals and then the students researched a particular metal and shared back their expertise. The students looked into the metal's melting point, conductivity, malleability and all sorts of other information. Mercury and titanium were fascinating metals to look into. Georgia made a clever link between melting point and malleability. Nicholas asked a great question around why mercury is a metal when it is liquid. This led to a great discussion around what is a metal. This is a definition of a metal:
Any chemical element that is an effective conductor of electricity and heat can be defined as a metal.
Some definitions:
- Alloy - a metal made from a combination of metals, e.g. steel (iron and carbon), brass (copper and zinc), Bronze (copper and tin).
- Galvanised - coated in a protective layer of zinc.
- Stainless steel - steel with a high amount of chromium which stops it from corroding.
- Malleability - how easily its shape can be changed.
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