Breaking Point: Testing Tensile Strength

This video excerpt from NOVA’s "Making Stuff: Stronger" and accompanying demonstration illustrate the toughness and tensile strength of Kevlar® and other everyday materials.

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Building a Cleaner Battery

This video excerpt from NOVA’s "Making Stuff: Cleaner" and accompanying activity guide for grades K–8 introduce students to the design and use of batteries and the rapidly developing science of clean energy and clean materials.

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The Business of Bioplastics

This video excerpt from NOVA’s "Making Stuff: Cleaner" and accompanying demonstration introduce students to the production and importance of bioplastics, or plastics made from plant or animal products.

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Careers in Plastics

Learn about opportunities for working in the growing field of plastics, including the emerging area of "green" technologies, in this video segment adapted from Pennsylvania College of Technology and WVIA.

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Elements of Steel

This resource from the AMERICAN EXPERIENCE Web site, which contains both an interactive activity and illustrated text, looks at the composition of different types of steel and their impact on technology.

Energy Audit Technology

Watch students as they conduct an energy audit on a home and gain hands-on experience for a career in the green energy industry, in this video adapted from ATETV.

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Grass Bridge

In this video segment adapted from NOVA, watch residents of the Peruvian Andes build a suspension bridge made entirely of grass.

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The Impact of Technology: Nylon

This video segment adapted from A Science Odyssey looks at the invention of nylon.

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Introduction to Plastics

Learn about the basic process of plastics production, and observe how monomers combine to form polymer chains, in this video segment adapted from Pennsylvania College of Technology and WVIA.

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Magnetic Microbots

This video excerpt from NOVA’s "Making Stuff: Smaller" and accompanying activity for grades K–8 teach students how materials scientists are building extremely small robots that may be able to travel inside the human body.

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Materials Lab

This interactive activity from the Building Big Web site explores the properties of different types of building materials.

Nanoscience Career Advice

In this video adapted from North Dakota State College of Science, learn about career options in nanoscience and the classes needed to work in the field.

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Nanowires and the Ever-Shrinking Microchip

This video excerpt from NOVA’s "Making Stuff: Smaller" and accompanying demonstration introduce students to small, thin wires, called nanowires, that may help make computers and electronics even smaller in the future.

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Outsmarting Oobleck

This video excerpt from NOVA’s "Making Stuff: Smarter" and accompanying activity for grades K–8 help students investigate some “smart” materials that respond to forces or changes in their environment in unusual ways.

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Plastic Race Car Competition

High school students learn about plastics technologies as they design and build car bodies for a remote-control race car competition in this video segment adapted from Pennsylvania College of Technology and WVIA.

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Processing Wheat for Food

This interactive activity adapted from Montana State University shows the processes and technologies involved in turning harvested wheat into flour and other by-products.

Shape Shifters: Shape-Memory Alloys and Polymers

This video excerpt from NOVA’s "Making Stuff: Smarter" and accompanying demonstration teach students about revolutionary shape-memory materials.

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The Structure of Metal

In this interactive activity from the NOVA Web site, animations explain different aspects of the properties of metal.

Strong as Steel: Testing Toughness

This video excerpt from NOVA’s "Making Stuff: Stronger" and accompanying activity for grades K–8 help students investigate the strength and toughness of steel and other everyday materials.

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Testing the Quality of Wheat Products

This interactive activity adapted from Montana State University shows how various wheat products used in the food industry are tested to make sure they have the desired physical and nutritional characteristics.