2023 Education & Outreach: Polymer Crosslinking with Calcium Alginate Hydrogels
Teaching Middle School and High School Students About Polymer Crosslinking
Partner Schools
• Costa Mesa Middle School
• Laguna Beach High School
Student Learning Outcomes
• Understand what a polymer is
• Understand what crosslinking is and how it affects polymer mechanical properties (sol-gel transitions)
• Experiment with polymer processing using a plastic pipette or syringe to make gels of different shapes, sizes, and colors
• Learn real-world application of soft materials
Demonstration Set-up
1. Make an alginate bead from sodium alginate and calcium chloride
2. Visually see what crosslinking looks like at the molecular scale with a video game module
3. Free experimentation with alginate gels and colored dyes
Zachary Urbach, SerxhoSelmani, Adam Grosvirt-Dramen, Hong Wei, Aleksander Bartnik, Steven Sogo, Alonda Hartford, Allon Hochbaum, Regina Ragan (University of California, Irvine)