Bulletproof ice: how to teach materials science using Pykrete

Students make and test a seemingly impossible material made from ice and sawdust that had been developed for possible emergency use during the Second World War. It was open to the students to be creative with their methods of testing the viability of such a material. The thought of making a battleship from ice that would gradually melt seems ridiculous, but if used in the freezing temperatures of the North Atlantic Ocean the possibility is there because the presence of salt in the water lowers the melting point.