| EPSRC Reference: |
EP/D065488/1 |
| Title: |
PPE:Fantastic Plastic - or how to make your first million |
| Principal Investigator: |
Mitchell, Professor GR |
| Other Investigators: |
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| Researcher Co-Investigators: |
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| Project Partners: |
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| Department: |
Physics |
| Organisation: |
University of Reading |
| Scheme: |
Partnerships- Public Engage |
| Starts: |
01 August 2006 |
Ends: |
31 March 2010 |
Value (£): |
84,073
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| EPSRC Research Topic Classifications: |
| Materials Characterisation |
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| EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications: |
| No relevance to Underpinning Sectors |
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Summary on Grant Application Form |
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Fantastic Plastic - or How to Make Your First Million:GCSE level students are fascinated by how different their lives will be in 5 years time. This talk offers a vision of their future: either as consumers of the latest high tech application of polymeric materials or as the science innovators and entrepreneurs researching the materials, developing the products and bringing them to the market. This newly developed talk will match the requirements of both the new GCSE Science syllabuses and the Enterprise Education elements of the curriculum. It will take students through the basic properties of polymers and how they can be manipulated to the concept that research and development can design materials for specific purposes and that business is built upon such developments. The original Fantastic Plastic talk was extremely popular and seen by 25,000 people in 4 years. This talk will take the best of that and move it into the future. However, beyond this, it will focus on the impact of science on the students' lives by highlighting the way that science has taken problems and found solutions that have then become available to everyone through enterprise. This way students will be introduced to the idea that science is an avenue to career opportunities. As a souvenir a pencil made of a recycled plastic cup will be given to each audience member. This as proved to be a particularly effective way of drawing the talk to a close after a section devoted to the environmental questions and recycling and biodegradable plastics.At the request of teachers who have already hosted the talk, a resource pack of worksheets will be developed that match the new GCSE requirements and draw on the content of the talk. This will allow teachers to set follow-on work to consolidate knowledge either within class or as homework.Fantastic Plastic - or the Science of SlimeYoungsters love slime. As a result of many requests for Fantastic Plastic based acitvities for younger audiences, this project will develop the ultimate demonstration lecture and hands on activity session for slime loving youngsters, taking them through a number of every day applications of polymers, from nappies to chewing gum, to more futuristic possibilities. The final 'make and take' activity will allow them to make their own slime and potty putty or rubber ball.A pack of activity sheets will be produced, again as a result of teacher requests, so that they can revisit the ideas from the demonstration and hands-on events with the children.
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Key Findings |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Potential use in non-academic contexts |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Impacts |
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| Description |
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk |
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| Date Materialised |
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Sectors submitted by the Researcher |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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| Project URL: |
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| Further Information: |
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| Organisation Website: |
http://www.rdg.ac.uk |