Download This Sample
This sample is exclusively for KidsKonnect members!
To download this worksheet, click the button below to signup for free (it only takes a minute) and you'll be brought right back to this page to start the download!
Sign Me Up
Table of Contents
Stephanie Kwolek was an American organic chemist, famous for inventing Kevlar. It is an immensely durable plastic, used as a replacement for steel reinforcing strips in racing car tires and currently used in a large number of applications where high strength is required without high weight.
See the fact file below for more information on Stephanie Kwolek or alternatively, you can download our 25-page Stephanie Kwolek worksheet pack to utilise within the classroom or home environment.
Key Facts & Information
BIOGRAPHY
- Stephanie Louise Kwolek was born in New Kensington, Pennsylvania on July 31, 1923. John Kwolek, her father, was a naturalist, and died when she was ten years old. She and father spent hours together exploring the woods and fields near their home and filling scrapbooks with wildflowers, leaves, seeds, grasses, and pertinent descriptions.
- Nellie Kwolek, her mother, was first a homemaker and then a career woman. Kwolek inherited her love of fabrics and sewing from her mother. When Kwolek was a child, she thought that she would become a fashion designer, but her mother told her that she would starve in that business because she was a perfectionist.
- At an early age, Kwolek showed an interest in teaching, chemistry, and medicine.
EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION
- Stephanie Kwolek attended Margaret Morrison Carnegie College, a woman’s college of Carnegie Mellon University. At the DuPont Company, she applied for a position as a chemist.
- Kwolek was interviewed by W. Hale Chard, who invented the process of making cellophane waterproof and was a research director of the company. Chard said that he would let Kwolek know whether she got the job about one week later. However, Kwolek asked him that if he could make the decision sooner since she would need to reply for another offer.
- Chard rapidly called in his secretary and gave Kwolek an offer letter. A few years later, Kwolek thought that her assertiveness was one of the reasons Chard made his decision in her favor.
- During Kwolek’s stay at DuPont, the polymer research she worked on was more interesting and challenging so she decided to leave her plans for medical school and focused more on organic chemistry.
- Kwolek was involved in several projects, including a search for new polymers and a new condensation process that happens at lower temperatures, from about 0 degrees up to 40 degrees Celsius.
- The melt condensation polymerization process was instead occurring at more than 200 degrees Celsius and was used in preparing nylon, for example. Otherwise, the lower-temperature polycondensation processes make it possible to prepare polymers that cannot be melted and only begin their decomposition at a temperature above 400 degrees Celsius and employ very fast-reacting intermediates.
THE SUPER FIBERS
- At the age of 40, DuPont Company asked Kwolek to formulate another generation of fibers that were capable of performing in extreme conditions. The project included preparing intermediates, synthesizing aromatic polyamides in solvents, and spinning the solutions into fibers.
- While working on the project, Kwolek discovered that under specific conditions, large numbers of molecules of the rod-like polyamides became lined up in parallel and formed liquid crystalline solutions that were possible to spin directly into oriented fibers of very high strength and stiffness.
- The polyamide solutions were different from any other polymer solutions prepared in the laboratory. They became opalescent when stirred, unusually fluid and buttermilk-like in appearance.
- The person managing the spinning equipment feared that the turbidity (the quality of being cloudy or thick suspended matter) was caused by the presence of particles that would plug the tiny holes in the spinneret and initially refused to spin the solutions.
- After some time, Kwolek persuaded him to spin the solutions, and strong, stiff fibers were obtained easily. This breakthrough produced many fibers that were spun from liquid crystalline solutions, including the “yellow Kevlar Fiber”.
- Kevlar fiber does several useful things. It saves lives for police and the military as lightweight body armor. It can also convey messages across the sea as it protects the undersea optical-fiber cable.
- It also allows bridges to suspend with super-strong ropes and is used in countless more applications from protective clothing for athletes and scientists to canoes, drumheads, and frying pans.
AWARDS AND RECOGNITION
- In 1994, Kwolek was included in the National Inventors Hall of Fame for her invention of the technology of Kevlar fiber. She was only the fourth woman member of 113 at that time.
- Kwolek also received the National Medal Technology in 1996 and the Perking Medal in 1997 that was presented by the Society of Chemical Industry. Lastly, in 2003, she was included in the National Women’s Hall of Fame.
- Kwolek became a mentor for other women scientists and participated in programs to introduce young children to science. “The Nylon Rope Trick” was one of her most cited papers and was written with Paul Morgan.
- The paper describes the demonstration of the condensation polymerization in a beaker at atmospheric pressure and room temperature. It also became the demonstration now common in classrooms across the world.
- In 2013, Kwolek’s story was told in a children’s book written by Edwin Brit Wyckoff. The following year on June 18, 1904, Kwolek died in Delaware at the age of 90.
Stephanie Kwolek Worksheets
This is a fantastic bundle which includes everything you need to know about Stephanie Kwolek across 25 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use Stephanie Kwolek worksheets that are perfect for teaching students about Stephanie Kwolek who was an American organic chemist, famous for inventing Kevlar. It is an immensely durable plastic, used as a replacement for steel reinforcing strips in racing car tires and currently used in a large number of applications where high strength is required without high weight.
Complete List Of Included Worksheets
- Stephanie Kwolek Facts
- Kwolek’s Profile
- Filling the Fibers
- What’s the Error?
- Uses of Kevlar
- Polymerization
- Crossword Solutions
- Fact or Bluff?
- Questions from Stephanie
- Jumbled Fibers
- Kwolek’s Quote
Link/cite this page
If you reference any of the content on this page on your own website, please use the code below to cite this page as the original source.
Link will appear as Stephanie Kwolek Facts & Worksheets: https://kidskonnect.com - KidsKonnect, September 3, 2020
Use With Any Curriculum
These worksheets have been specifically designed for use with any international curriculum. You can use these worksheets as-is, or edit them using Google Slides to make them more specific to your own student ability levels and curriculum standards.