Welcome to the February Nano Bite, the monthly e-newsletter for the Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network (NISE Net).
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
- NISE Net News and Announcements - Shipping the Boxes and Zipping the Files: NanoDays 2015 News!
- Upcoming Events! - Stay Connected! Upcoming Online Brown-Bag Conversations
- Featured on the Website - Valentine's Day NISE Net-Related Activities
- Partner Highlight - Real-World Examples of NISE Net's Team-Based Inquiry (TBI) - Tulsa Children's Museum Shares Their Evaluation and Capacity Building Project
- Nano in the News - Snowflakes All Fall in One of 35 Different Shapes, A Billion Holes Can Make a Battery
- Community News - National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) Multimedia Contests, Visitor Studies Association Conference 2015 (Call for Posters Now Open)
NISE NET NEWS and ANNOUNCEMENTS!
→ Shipping the Boxes and Zipping the Files: NanoDays 2015 News!
There's a lot of preparation by the Network that goes into helping partners get ready to host their own NanoDays events. NanoDays 2015 is just around the corner, taking place March 28 through April 5 nationwide, and we have many great resources for helping you shape your events!
If you were awarded a NanoDays 2015 physical kit, you should be receiving your kit very soon - kits shipped February 2nd.
UPCOMING EVENTS!There's a lot of preparation by the Network that goes into helping partners get ready to host their own NanoDays events. NanoDays 2015 is just around the corner, taking place March 28 through April 5 nationwide, and we have many great resources for helping you shape your events!
If you were awarded a NanoDays 2015 physical kit, you should be receiving your kit very soon - kits shipped February 2nd.
- The NanoDays 2015 online digital kit is now available for download! - The free, downloadable digital version of the NanoDays kit is available to anyone but designed particularly for those who did not receive a physical kit, for those outside the U.S., K-12 educators, libraries, and other educational organizations. Many of the activities use inexpensive, readily available supplies.
- NanoDays 2015 Training Videos - Over 50 short videos, perfect for training staff and volunteers on individual activities as well as presenting nano in informal settings more generally.
- Join us for an upcoming Online Brown-Bag Conversation on ways to incorporate evaluation into your staff and volunteer trainings for NanoDays events and make improvements for the future.
- If you've ever wondered how those amazing NanoDays physical kits are created, watch this short time-lapse video of the 2014 kit fabrication process.
→ Stay Connected! Upcoming Online Brown-Bag Conversations
The Science Behind NanoDays 2015 - Part 1
Wednesday, February 18, 2015
2 pm - 3 pm ET [Sign up]
Are you interested in learning more about the science behind the NanoDays activities and how they relate to cutting-edge research? Join Lizzie to talk about the science behind graphene and nano-coatings and discuss three new activities from the NanoDays 2015 kit: Exploring Materials - Graphene, Exploring Properties - Heat Transfer, and Exploring Products - Kinetic Sand.
Improving Your Institution's Evaluation-Capacity Building - Partner Examples of Team-Based Inquiry (TBI) for NanoDays Staff and Volunteer Trainings
Tuesday, March 3, 2015
3 pm - 4 pm ET [Sign up]
Join this conversation as we talk about Team-Based Inquiry, an evaluation-capacity building process developed by the NISE Network, and discuss different ways you can think about improving your institution's events, programs, or trainings using TBI. We'll cover what TBI is before providing examples from Network partners about how they have used it to create better staff training programs, and hack and change NISE Net activities to better suit their audiences.
Pseudoscience and Nanotechnology
Wednesday, March 11, 2015
3 pm - 4 pm ET [sign up]
New science, like nano, can be misused, misconstrued, or co-opted by greed. This conversation will explore how to identify poor science and will examine how the word "nanotechnology" has been used to sell a variety of products. We'll finish with a fun "real-science vs. pseudoscience" game show, so come join us!
The Science Behind NanoDays 2015 - Part 2
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
3 pm - 4 pm ET [Sign up]
In this second in the Science Behind NanoDays 2015 series, Lizzie will discuss the scientific background and their connection to cutting-edge research for two more NanoDays activities: Exploring Products - Nano Food and Exploring Tools - Transmission Electron Microscopes (TEMs).
The Science Behind NanoDays 2015 - Part 1
Wednesday, February 18, 2015
2 pm - 3 pm ET [Sign up]
Are you interested in learning more about the science behind the NanoDays activities and how they relate to cutting-edge research? Join Lizzie to talk about the science behind graphene and nano-coatings and discuss three new activities from the NanoDays 2015 kit: Exploring Materials - Graphene, Exploring Properties - Heat Transfer, and Exploring Products - Kinetic Sand.
Improving Your Institution's Evaluation-Capacity Building - Partner Examples of Team-Based Inquiry (TBI) for NanoDays Staff and Volunteer Trainings
Tuesday, March 3, 2015
3 pm - 4 pm ET [Sign up]
Join this conversation as we talk about Team-Based Inquiry, an evaluation-capacity building process developed by the NISE Network, and discuss different ways you can think about improving your institution's events, programs, or trainings using TBI. We'll cover what TBI is before providing examples from Network partners about how they have used it to create better staff training programs, and hack and change NISE Net activities to better suit their audiences.
Pseudoscience and Nanotechnology
Wednesday, March 11, 2015
3 pm - 4 pm ET [sign up]
New science, like nano, can be misused, misconstrued, or co-opted by greed. This conversation will explore how to identify poor science and will examine how the word "nanotechnology" has been used to sell a variety of products. We'll finish with a fun "real-science vs. pseudoscience" game show, so come join us!
The Science Behind NanoDays 2015 - Part 2
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
3 pm - 4 pm ET [Sign up]
In this second in the Science Behind NanoDays 2015 series, Lizzie will discuss the scientific background and their connection to cutting-edge research for two more NanoDays activities: Exploring Products - Nano Food and Exploring Tools - Transmission Electron Microscopes (TEMs).
FEATURED ON THE WEBSITE
→ Valentine's Day (February 14) NISE Net-Related Activities
NANO THROUGHOUT THE YEAR - WINTER ACTIVITIES
MEETINGS AND CONFERENCES
Twitter
Facebook
Linkedin
Read the Nano Bite e-newsletter online at /newsletter/nano-bite-february-2015.
Do you have something you would like to submit for inclusion in the NISE Network Nano Bite monthly e-newsletter? Please send your announcements, articles, or community acknowledgements to Kayla Berry, NISE Net Coordinator, at [email protected].
→ Valentine's Day (February 14) NISE Net-Related Activities
- Sweet Self-Assembly program
- What's Nano About Chocolate video
- What's Nano About Chocolate signage in Nano Museum Labels (Graphic Signs)
- Exploring Fabrication - Gummy Capsules (NanoDays 12, 13) short activity
- Molecular Gastronomy Mr. O video
→ Real-World Examples of NISE Net's Team-Based Inquiry (TBI) - Tulsa Children's Museum Shares Their Evaluation and Capacity Building Project
By: Linda Allegro, Tulsa Children's Museum
Developed by the NISE Network, the TBI process involves an ongoing cycle of inquiry: question, investigate, reflect, and improve.
Opening less than two years ago, Tulsa Children’s Museum's Discovery Lab hosted their organization’s first Nano Camps last summer. This newest camp program was supported by a NISE Net mini-grant and staff also participated in the 2014 Team-Based Inquiry (TBI) Cohort to help them evaluate and improve the program.
The primary educational focus at Tulsa Children’s Museum (TCM) is on helping to foster Next Generation Science Standards or 21st Century process skills. The focus on the Nano Camp was on developing collaboration and problem-solving skills through hands-on activities and experimentation. The full-day, week-long camp was offered twice: first as a pilot camp for grades 3-6, then as a second camp targeting younger kids (grades k-2). Throughout the week, campers kept journals about what they learned while introduced to nano topics. Additionally, the week's hands-on activities ended with a culmination project (building a carbon nanotube out of balloons!). Three hands-on activities of particular use for the campers were Exploring Products - Computer Hard Drive, Exploring Nano & Society - You Decide, and build a Balloon Nanotubes.
Through inquiry-based facilitation, each activity required the children to use teamwork and problem-solving skills. The kids enjoyed the hands-on activities and were intrigued by the concept of nano, with one of the Spanish-speaking campers even identifying connections between the term nano and their own language and culture.
To learn more about Tulsa Children’s Museum's summer Nano Camp and TBI Cohort project, continue to the full Partner Highlight and watch their 2014 TBI Cohort project presentation (skip to minute 0:24:16).
By: Linda Allegro, Tulsa Children's Museum
Developed by the NISE Network, the TBI process involves an ongoing cycle of inquiry: question, investigate, reflect, and improve.
Opening less than two years ago, Tulsa Children’s Museum's Discovery Lab hosted their organization’s first Nano Camps last summer. This newest camp program was supported by a NISE Net mini-grant and staff also participated in the 2014 Team-Based Inquiry (TBI) Cohort to help them evaluate and improve the program.
The primary educational focus at Tulsa Children’s Museum (TCM) is on helping to foster Next Generation Science Standards or 21st Century process skills. The focus on the Nano Camp was on developing collaboration and problem-solving skills through hands-on activities and experimentation. The full-day, week-long camp was offered twice: first as a pilot camp for grades 3-6, then as a second camp targeting younger kids (grades k-2). Throughout the week, campers kept journals about what they learned while introduced to nano topics. Additionally, the week's hands-on activities ended with a culmination project (building a carbon nanotube out of balloons!). Three hands-on activities of particular use for the campers were Exploring Products - Computer Hard Drive, Exploring Nano & Society - You Decide, and build a Balloon Nanotubes.
Through inquiry-based facilitation, each activity required the children to use teamwork and problem-solving skills. The kids enjoyed the hands-on activities and were intrigued by the concept of nano, with one of the Spanish-speaking campers even identifying connections between the term nano and their own language and culture.
As Linda Allegro, Director of Educational Impact states, the children "were trying to understand the scale of what we were addressing. I think that, in and of itself, was most significant about the camp – the exposure to the nano scale."
To learn more about Tulsa Children’s Museum's summer Nano Camp and TBI Cohort project, continue to the full Partner Highlight and watch their 2014 TBI Cohort project presentation (skip to minute 0:24:16).
→ Snowflakes All Fall in One of 35 Different Shapes - No two snowflakes are alike...or are they? Snowflakes are an example of self-assemble systems, and the structure of snowflakes results from the nanoscale arrangement of water molecules in an ice crystal. Researchers from Japan have been able to categorize snow crystals or flakes into one of 35 different shapes. One physicist from Caltech points out that "the study of how crystals form and that knowledge can be applied to making crystals for a host of other applications. For example, silicon and other semiconductors in computers and electronics are built from crystals."
Related NISE Net activities and resources:
Related NISE Net activities and resources:
- Snowflakes: Nano at its Coolest - a NISE Net stage demonstration introducing nanoscale science through the subject of snowflakes. During the program, visitors watch videos of snowflakes growing and observe real ice crystals growing in a chilled chamber.
- Ready, Set, Self-Assemble - this NISE Net short activity is a full-body program that introduces visitors to the concept of self-assembly in a fun and energetic way.
→ National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) Multimedia Contests - Calling all students (within the U.S. and U.S. territories) to demonstrate through multimedia (i.e., video and photographs) how their nanotechnology research may bring solutions to real-world problems and how it could benefit society. See NNI's Student Video Contest and NNI's Image Contest for more information and deadlines.
- For information on video production, view a recording of NISE Net's Online Brown-Bag Conversation: Videos 101 - Tips, Tricks, and Strategies for Small-Scale to Large-Scale Video Production
NANO THROUGHOUT THE YEAR - WINTER ACTIVITIES
→ There's plenty of sweet activities to keep visitors engaged during the month of February from activities for Valentine's Day to ideas for participating in National Engineers Week and Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day!
- Valentine's Day (February 14): Sweet Self-Assembly program, What's Nano About Chocolate video
-
Great Backyard Bird Count (February 13-16): Some feathers (such as peacock feathers) are iridescent due to nano-sized structures within the feathers; for more about iridescence check out:
- Exploring Materials - Thin Films short activity
- Colors at the Nanoscale: Butterflies, Beetles, and Opals program
- Butterfly Blues video
- Biomimicry: From Nature to Nanotech program
-
National Engineers Week (February 22 - 28)
- Explore the nisenet.org by exploring the topic "Materials, Tools, and Applications."
-
Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day (February 26)
- Explore the nisenet.org by exploring the topic "Materials, Tools, and Applications."
- International Year of Light 2015
MEETINGS AND CONFERENCES
- 2015 MRS Spring Meeting – San Francisco, CA – April 6 - 10, 2015
- ACM Interactivity 2015 – Indianapolis, IN – May 13 - 15, 2015
- 2015 ASTC Annual Conference - Montreal, Canada - October 17 - 20, 2015
Read the Nano Bite e-newsletter online at /newsletter/nano-bite-february-2015.
Do you have something you would like to submit for inclusion in the NISE Network Nano Bite monthly e-newsletter? Please send your announcements, articles, or community acknowledgements to Kayla Berry, NISE Net Coordinator, at [email protected].