Students try to select at least any ten items occurring in their surroundings. They themselves try, or with the teacher’s assistance, to guess what a majority of these items have in common and to infer that all of them are made from materials. Further they infer that for a large group of these items and products, a basic or highly used material is polymer (or synthetic polymer, plastic). They try to evaluate why it is so (low cost of material and then also of the product, ease of processing, formability, or - with some materials - it is incombustibility, ideal density, etc.), next they try to more exactly define (and discuss using the Internet and literature sources) the concept of polymer and polymer material, synthetic polymer and plastic.
After that the students will experimentally explore some of the properties of the selected synthetic polymers and systematise the acquired knowledge. On this basis, they will next try to identify an unknown sample of polymer on the basis of their own considerations and predetermined procedure /on the basis of the Internet search and findings from the previous activity).
The students will try to apply the acquired knowledge during the consequent activity, within the framework of which they will propose an appropriate polymer to be applied (used) in the given product. They should not consider only technical but also economical and aesthetic parameters. These considerations can also contain the students’ ideas about the product concerning e.g. the endurance under extreme conditions or the design and to justify them in the follow up discussion.
The consequent activities include the two experiments, from which the students have to draw conclusions and which should demonstrate the properties and the relation to the structure of polymers, in particular how the structure and the properties are influenced by the conditions through the preparation of polymer and next also the properties and reactions of polymer under mechanical loading.
Using the acquired knowledge, the students will write a short essay entitled “ Life with polymers“ or “ Life without polymers“, which will reflect and consequently discuss with other students their opinions on the world of polymers and the importance of polymers in the life of man and society. It is important that the students write the essay on the basis of the knowledge acquired (experiments, literature, the Internet) within the previous activities; their opinions can therefore be robust and superimposed on real experience. In this case, when performing the task, interlink is formed between the disciplines, interdisciplinary bonds occur and more competencies are developed.