Materials Science Project Ideas

Strength in Numbers?
Ever try to tear a telephone book in half? Even though you can easily rip one or a few pages to shreds, the entire phone book has strength in numbers and holds together. This project is an introduction to measuring and comparing the strength of materials. Does spaghetti get extra strength if you bundle it together, or does strength simply increase proportionally with the number of strands? If you're interested in materials testing, get… Read more

Testing Sunscreen Effectiveness
How effective are different sunscreen products at blocking harmful UV radiation from sunlight? This project shows you how to use a UV detector to find out. Read more

Which Metal Is the Most Resistant to Corrosion?
Here's a practical engineering challenge: you need to build an enclosure for your dogs, using material that they can't chew through. It's going to be a lot of work to build, so you want to do it right. What material should you choose for the fencing? This project uses the scientific method to evaluate materials. Read more

Fallen Arches: The Surprising Strength of Eggshells
Arches have been used for structural engineering since ancient times. This experiment tests the strength of a naturally occurring arch shape: the shell of an egg. How much weight do you think an eggshell can support? Read more

How Things Break *
If you're interested in analyzing how things break, check out the Science Buddies project Fractography: The Way Things Break. Read more