Knitted patterns as a model for anisotropic materials

This thesis introduces anisotropy as a special feature present in many aspects of everyday life and further deals with the presentation of anisotropic properties to students based on application of simple examples. The key to activate students' motivation lies in showing the relation of the subject matter to everyday life experience. Acquiring new subject matter should always be based on a plain and well known example. It should be simple and straightforward in order to highlight each particular property. The process of developing comprehensive knowledge of the subject matter requires full, conscious and active participation of learners in the class work. This thesis also contains a detailed description of some simple experiments which make the presentation of anisotropy easily manageable and understandable. The measurements in these experiments revealed the elastic expansion of different knitted patterns as well as the angles of indentation. The result of processing the measured data using the Microsoft Office Excel programme was the calculation of the elastic constant. I have also incorporated anisotropy as a special topic into the primary school physics curriculum and prepared a worksheet since I believe the simplicity of knitted patterns enables and increases independent and active student participation