The Amazing Nano Brothers Juggling Show

Overview
Standards
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Overview

Description:

A 40-minute live dramatic performance exploring nanoscale science and technology. Dan and Joel are brothers - Dan a know-it-all and Joel a naif - who must deliver a juggling show about atoms, molecules, nanoscale forces and scanning probe microscopy when it is discovered that the scheduled performers - the Nano Brothers - are too small to see. The performance delivers extraordinary visualizations created through juggling, lighting, and large-scale metaphors, and entertains family audiences through character acting, jokes with various levels of sophistication, stunts, and kid volunteer opportunities. The finale has Dan and Joel on 7-foot unicycles juggling various consumer products enhanced with nanotechnology.

Objectives

Big Idea:

Everything is made of atoms, which are mysteriously composed of mostly empty space, and we are learning how to image and manipulate individual atoms and molecules, harnessing the properties that emerge at their very small size scale in the new fields of nanoscience and nanotechnology.

Learning goals:

The nanoscale world is measured in billionths of meters, and it is too small to see.
Matter behaves differently at the nanoscale, for example, gravity has less significance than the "stickiness" of atoms, smaller bits of material are more reactive than larger bits of the same material. Heat and motion are equivalent.
Atoms are made of electrons zooming around a nucleus and the distance between the outer electrons and the nucleus of an atom is vast. Matter is mostly empty space.
Materials are made of molecules with are made of different combinations of atoms
A scanning probe microscope converts data about the forces of individual atoms to construct images of them.
Don Eigler led the first team to use a scanning probe microscope to not only image but also to move individual atoms. This 1989 event is often considered the birth of nanotechnology.
Nanotechnology is very new, but it is already being used in lots of commercial and consumer products.
Care must be taken with using these new nano-enhanced materials.
It's okay to ask questions and its fun to think about what things are really made of.

Universal design:

Repeat and reinforce main ideas and concepts.

Provide multiple entry points and multiple ways of engagement

Provide physical and sensory access to all aspects of the program. Visitors can touch, see and hear different elements of the program.

Credits

This product is created by another institution or funding from another grant.

Funding:

Supported by the National Science Foundation and the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative through the Center for High-rate Nanomanufacturing and the Harvard Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center.

Owning institution:

Museum of Science, Boston

Permissions

This linked product was created by another institution (not by the NISE Network). Contact owning institution regarding rights and permissions.

Standards

History and nature of science:

K-4: Science as a human endeavor

5-8: History of science

5-8: Nature of science

5-8: Science as a human endeavor

9-12: Historical perspectives

9-12: Nature of scientific knowledge

9-12: Science as a human endeavor

Earth and space science:

K-4: Properties of earth materials

Physical science:

K-4: Light, heat, electricity, and magnetism

K-4: Position and motion of objects

K-4: Properties of objects and materials

5-8: Motions and forces

5-8: Properties and changes of properties in matter

5-8: Transfer of energy

9-12: Interactions of energy and matter

9-12: Chemical reactions

9-12: Motions and forces

9-12: Structure and properties of matter

9-12: Structure of atoms

Science and Technology:

K-4: Abilities of technological design

K-4: Abilities to distinguish between natural objects and objects made by humans

K-4: Understanding about science and technology

5-8: Abilities of technological design

5-8: Understanding about science and technology

9-12: Abilities of technological design

9-12: Understanding about science and technology

Science as inquiry:

K-4: Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry

K-4: Understanding about scientific inquiry

5-8: Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry

5-8: Understanding about scientific inquiry

9-12: Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry

9-12: Understanding about scientific inquiry

Science in Personal and Social Perspectives:

K-4: Science and technology in local challenges

5-8: Science and technology in society

9-12: Science and technology in local, national, and global challenges

Resources

Links:

"Nano Brothers" video on MOS NanoNerds youtube channel

The Amazing Nano Brothers Juggling Show

Overview

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Big Idea:

Learning goals:

Universal design:

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Earth and space science:

Physical science:

Science and Technology:

Science as inquiry:

Science in Personal and Social Perspectives:

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