Question: what kind of experiment would you bring to schools?

Andy Norton answered on 13 Jun 2011:

Tough question! I’d like to some mechanical tests if I could. We have this experiment at the moment where we get the students to try stretching a piece of steel or copper on this machine, and they write down the extension and stress during the experiment. I’d like to adapt that, and maybe try and get different material on there (like plastics, string, ceramics etc.) so that students get a really good understanding of how different materials, not just metals, behave.

I am also interested in bringing experiments like making silly putty to schools. We can make “goo” using things like PVA (like the glue stuff that you have probably used), and add something else to it to hold it together. Different amounts of this “binder” make the goo stronger/weaker, and it’ll be good for students to have a go at doing this (as it is fun playing with the goo, teaches them about different plastics and their properties, gets them doing experiments etc.). That sort of thing would be great at school!

Do they sound good to you?