Composite materials are inseparable from today’s life, yet many schoolchildren (and adults) are not familiar with them. In the framework of InnovationLab, an initiative of KU Leuven, a new Science-Technology-Engineering-and-Mathematics (STEM) project was launched, intended to introduce composite materials to schoolchildren. A toolbox was developed which enables teachers to perform composite-related experiments together with their pupils, actualising the pupils’ knowledge in chemistry, physics and mathematics. The students learn about polymer matrices and fibres, produce a composite themselves, investigate its mechanical properties and finally test a composite catapult. This way the scientific awareness of the students is raised and they gain insight into today’s challenges in composite materials and how engineers respond to them.

复合材料与当今生活密不可分，但是许多小学生（和成年人）并不熟悉它们。在InnovationLab的框架中鲁汶大学（KU Leuven）发起的一项新的科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）项目启动了，旨在向学童介绍复合材料。开发了一个工具箱，使教师能够与学生一起进行与复合相关的实验，从而实现学生在化学，物理和数学方面的知识。学生将学习聚合物基体和纤维，自己制造复合材料，研究其机械性能，最后测试复合弹射器。这样，就可以提高学生的科学意识，使他们能够洞悉当今复合材料面临的挑战以及工程师如何应对这些挑战。