Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hi Louise and Chris.

I just wanted to let you know that I finally got to present my project. My teacher and classmates were amazed. My display board was really awesome, but more importantly, they felt they learned alot from listening to my oral presentation. I got to present again in front of other judges in my school and have been selected to compete against other schools.

I'm very excited and wanted to thank you again. I couldn't have done it without your help.

I will let you know how I make out.

MICHAEL

Michael wrote:Hi Louise and Chris.

I just wanted to let you know that I finally got to present my project. My teacher and classmates were amazed. My display board was really awesome, but more importantly, they felt they learned alot from listening to my oral presentation. I got to present again in front of other judges in my school and have been selected to compete against other schools.

I'm very excited and wanted to thank you again. I couldn't have done it without your help.

I will let you know how I make out.

MICHAEL

Michael,
I'm glad your presentation to the class went so well! Good luck with next science fair!

Louise

I'm glad it was well received. You were doing quite advanced materials science for your age group (phase changes in composite materials, demonstrated visually) and also presented it in a way that everybody could relate to, showing the forces involved with expansion in a quite dramatic way.

The usual way this sort of thing is taught is with the iron/carbon phase diagrams (used for steel and cast iron variations) but after seeing this I wonder if my instructors in college and high school missed an opportunity. Salt and water are possible to do safely without needing a forge etc and the changes are visible to the naked eye. Steel is of course a very important material to learn about, and water has some oddities about how it behaves compared to most materials but still....what you did could be taught with nothing more than a freezer required and demonstrates a lot of things about how materials behave as they go from liquid to solid and the reverse, and how we get different structural materials from the same elements by heat treating them differently.

Michael,
Congratulations! I'm glad that it went so well.