The Research Experience for Teacher Program at the University of Akron brings teachers to the University for the summer where they take part in research and use this experience to develop a lesson plan for their classroom. This exercise provides an opportunity for innovation as the constraints on chemicals, equipment, and time force outside of the box thinking. This talk will present how participation in outreach have led to new approaches for the fabrication of shape memory polymers and bending actuators. In addition to leading to exciting outreach activities, the potential for these approaches to explore fundamental polymer science and engineering topics will be discussed.

Innovation at the intersection of research and outreach

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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