Taking Its Temperature

In this activity (pages 5-7), learners investigate the properties of smart materials, which are materials that respond to things that happen around them. Learners are introduced to the concept of a transition temperature, which is the temperature at which the smart material changes from one solid phase to another. Below this temperature, Nitinol is soft, bendable, and if you bend it, it will keep its bent shape. Above this temperature, Nitinol is stiff, and if you try to bend it, it will spring back. In this activity, learners design their own experiment to determine the transition temperature of a piece of Nitinol wire. Safety note: Young learners should have adult supervision. [Activity is publicly available through a web crawler capture on Archive.org.]