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Activity (Hands-On)Grades 4 - 6

Deformation: Nanocomposite Compression

A photograph shows two students and a teacher focuses intently on an activity at a table.Teamwork in action.

Students learn about nanocomposites, compression and strain as they design and program robots that compress materials. Student groups conduct experiments to determine how many LEGO® MINDSTORMS® motor rotations it takes to compress soft nanocomposites, including mini marshmallows, Play-Doh®, bread and foam. They measure the length and width of their nanocomposite objects before and after compression to determine the change in length and width as a function of motor rotation.

Many types of engineers design and build robots to complete tasks. For example, some biomedical and computer science engineers design robots that perform surgery on patients or measure patients' vital signs. Some biomedical and chemical engineers design material-based robots that combine multiple components to generate composites with various functions—such as drug delivery, tissue engineering and scaffold design—that are responsive to stimulations in an environment. Electrical and mechanical engineers often work together to design smart items—trashcans, coffee makers, slow cookers and microwaves--that simplify everyday tasks.

After this activity, students should be able to:

  • Design and build a LEGO robot capable of compressing an object.
  • Program a robot with LEGO software.
  • Open up the MINDSTORMS data logging program with the rotation sensor and find out how many motor rotations it takes to compress a given object.
  • Calculate the ratio of strain on an object using Equation 1, where L is the length of the object being deformed and Lchange is the change in length of the deformed object.

Equation 1: strain = (Lchange)/ L

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