STEM Quest Club: Protecting polymers

At the start of STEM Quest club this week, we looked at what jobs might need a knowledge of science.  The children came up with some interesting ideas: archeologist was very popular.  We also looked at photographs of people who used science in their jobs – in some unusual ways.

This activity this week was developed by CREST and was called Protecting Polymers (pdf).  The year 4 children were the scientists who were investigation which was the best type of cling film to protect left-over macaroni cheese.  With the help of the year 9 STEM Quest leaders, each group started by planning their experiments, and deciding how they were going to take measurements.  All four groups had slightly different methods.  When they had finished their experiments, they were able to use their measurements to give a conclusion about the best cling film.