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Besides mystery meal labs, any ideas on making macromolecules really, really interesting to my teens? I tried a Deficiency and Disease research project last year but it took a really long time and I am toying with something around our school lunch menu......

Hi there! I too am hoping to create some lesson that is a bit more interactive. I've used the NCCSTS (http://sciencecases.lib.buffalo.edu/cs/) webiste before and have done a case study on energy drinks that worked well. However I was hoping to do something more hands-on.

I have the students make a polymer - gak (white glue, water, and sodium borate) and use this as a springboard for further work with macromolecules. Here is a recipe: http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/lab/experiments/glue-borax-gak

The NSTA Learning center has a nice collection of activities for teaching polymer science.

NSTA Polymers Collection (7 items)

Natural Polymers

- Obsolete

A History of Polymers: The Road to the Plastic Age and Beyond

- Obsolete

Polymer Synthesis

- Obsolete

View All 7 Items

Polymers Collection (5 items)

Macrogalleria

- User Uploaded Resource

Chemical Heritage Synthetic Polymers

- User Uploaded Resource

Teaching Plastics

- User Uploaded Resource

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