If you ask the average high school student about the basic goals in preserving historical materials, the student will most likely be able to state some parameters: exclude oxygen, keep moisture low or at least constant, block UV light. How do you do this and still let people see the objects? The challenge of designing display cases that protect materials against aging but also allow people to look at them is a real life materials problem to solve, and there is no one right answer. This might be a headache to a museum conservator, but it is an exciting opportunity for a chemistry teacher, as a workable solution will require critical thinking. As a summative project, students are given the challenge to design the best display or storage case for a certain object. It could be metal tools from various ages, or salt-infused clay objects from an ancient dig, or fragile plastics from the 70's, or spacesuits that have been to the moon and back. Which chemical process will change the object fastest and what strategies can be used to slow that process? Why could one material be good for displaying one object but not another? How would you test that? Various examples from the Smithsonian Institution and other museums can be used to challenge students to combine what they know about reaction rates, equilibria and material properties to design solutions. These examples, plus a few labs and demos to supplement, will be presented.

Polymers in museums challenge: Preservation of museum objects as a high school project

254th National Meeting (2017)

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