This is a good beginning activity for teaching the lessons in this module, because it puts the students into the shoes of scientists of the early 1900s who were puzzled by such wonderfully useful yet inexplicable materials as cotton and silk, not to mention rubber, wood, and leather. It is meant to tie-in closely with the reading Mystery Materials.

In researching the natural fibers, the students should also encounter some of the limitations of each material. This will make clear to them why scientists wanted to make synthetic materials with the desirable properties of the natural polymers, but not their drawbacks. It is also important students grasp that this goal made it necessary for scientists to understand the molecular structures of polymers, because this understanding would help them synthesize materials with similar properties.

Relevant National Science Education Standards

Unifying Concepts and Processes —Explanation, or rather the lack of an adequate explanation, for the behavior of natural polymers in the early 1900s can be reinforced using this activity.

Science as Inquiry — The idea that the story of polymer chemistry in the early 1900s was an inquiry into the basic nature of polymers can be reinforced with this activity.

Science and Technology — This activity stresses the uses of natural polymers and teaches the students just what materials we are capable of mimicking or even surpassing synthetically, and the limits of synthetic materials.

History and Nature of Science —The state of scientific understanding in the early 1900s is central to the activity.