Materials 3D Lab

Materials 3D Lab is an interactive 3D science lab about the properties of everyday materials. Seven materials (wood, wool, plastic, glass, metal, fabric and clear plastic) are each clamped as a strip in a lab stand. Children choose a material, guess what will happen, then run five experiments: a magnet, a 1 kg weight, a candle flame, a rain cloud, and a torch shone through the strip in front of a picture of a bee. What happens is set by the properties of each material, so only the steel strip is pulled by the magnet, glass snaps instead of bending, cotton burns while wool only smoulders, wool and fabric soak up water, and glass and clear plastic are transparent. A notebook gathers the results into a table for comparing materials, and a short quiz asks which material is best for jobs such as a window, a towel or a campfire blanket.

• Hold the magnet over every material. Which one jumps up and sticks?
• Hang the weight on each strip. Which stay stiff, which bend and spring back, and which flop over?
• Watch a pretend candle flame. Which materials burn, which melt, and which stay safe?
• Pour rain on each strip. Which soak up water and go dark, and which stay dry?
• Hang each strip in front of the bee picture. Which can you see through, and which make a shadow?

1. 1Name common materials and describe them with words such as hard, flexible, waterproof, magnetic and transparent.
2. 2Compare materials by running the same test on each one and recording what happens.
3. 3Choose the best material for a job and explain why, using what the tests showed.

Questions teachers ask