Hey Everyone,

I think it might be a bit confusing to some that my last post was an April Fool’s post. I just wanted to say that there isn’t any truth to the April 1st blog post, it was just for fun.

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I’d like to introduce you all to an exciting new technology,  STemM (Scanning Tunneling emotional Microscopy)  Throughout my experience I have noticed that molecules have emotions.  Some days they are cooperative and other days they are pesky, but until now I haven’t been able to predict which molecular emotion will happen on which day.  With an STemM you can easily determine the molecular emotion of the day.  It senses electron spin and correlates that with the human equivalent of  getting up on the wrong side of the bed. If the molecules are in a cooperative mood I know that I will have a productive day of scanning but if the STeM detects a pesky attitude among the molecules I know that my day is better spent at the beach!!!

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Kate took this awesome pictue of us spelling out GK-12.

Presentation Boot Camp was interesting, engaging and fun. We watched quite a few presentations from TED.com and proceded to critique the presentations. We said what the presenter did well and where we thought the presenter could improve his/her skills. 

The first night of the conference focused a lot on the recent announcement that GK-12 will not be accepting any more grant proposals. The tone of the evening discussions seemed to consist of confusion and anger. 

I’ll keep you posted on what happens tomorrow.

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These snowflakes aren’t actually from the blizzard. I’m planning on capturing a few more when I go home today. I tried to capture some during the blizzard but my sliding door was frozen shut (and it was too much of a hassle to carry my supplies down the hall and out the front door).

I took a few images of the snowflakes I captured with the digiscope (a digital microscope that plugs into the USB port of a computer).  We gave digiscopes to each of the K-12 Teachers that attended one of our NANO Summer Institutes.  

I took these snowflakes to Northridge MS with me last week and the students had a chance to look at them with the digiscope. 
Enjoy!  

I also took an image of my blue jeans.

and a lego.

We use the digiscope as part of NANOweek. We talk about optics and magnifying images using light, and then we talk about how the SEM uses a beam of electrons to “see” objects. We then move into how the AFM and STM “feel” the surface and send data to a computer. The computer then assigns a color to each of the data points and creates an image of the topography of the surface.

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Have you ever wanted to keep a snowflake forever?

I found some directions online, and they work!  

What you need:
Microscope Slides
Cover slips
Super Glue

Step 1: Place microscope slides and cover slips in a plastic zip lock bag and place in your freezer for at least one hour.

Step 2: Place super glue in the freezer for 10-30 minutes. (I only left the super glue in the freezer for ten minutes, and it worked just fine).

Step 3: Go outside and place snowflakes on the slide. You may need to dance around to catch one, or pick one up with a pair of chilled tweezers. I used the chilled tweezers to place a small clump of snow on the slide and then shook the slide so that only individual flakes remained.  I also tried gently touching the slide face down to a pile of snow. 

Step 4: After you have a nice selection of snowflakes on your slide, cover the snowflake with a drop or two of chilled super glue, and place the cover slide on top.  Leave the slide outside (keep it frozen) for 24 hours until the superglue is completely dry. (I left mine outside overnight and it was ready by morning.)

Once the superglue is dry, you can bring the snowflake inside.

Enjoy!

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Students really enjoy fun facts. Actually, everyone enjoys fun facts, which is why I’m also posting this to the Community Blog. 

FUN FACT 1: C60 fullerenes are soccer ball shaped molecules made solely out of carbon atoms. They are called Buckminsterfullerenes, named after Richard Buckminster Fuller. 

C60, Buckminsterfullerene

Richard Buckminster Fuller is famous for his work with geodesic domes.

Richard Buckminster Fuller with a geodesic dome prototype.

FUN FACT 2: A C60 bucky ball is 1 nm tall.

FUN FACT 3: A single strand of hair is on average 100,000 nm wide.

A single strand of hair.

Now for some fun with fun facts!

If I were to take a bucky ball and increase its size so that I could hold it in my hand.

ME! With a bucky ball I made out of pipe cleaners. This bucky ball is approximately 10 cm tall.

AND, if I took a strand of hair and increased by the same factor. How wide would that strand of hair be in comparison? Any guesses???

The strand of hair would be 6.2 miles wide! 

WOW!  

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SUMMER 2010

July 12-16
NANO 7-12 Summer Institute
Monday-Friday, 8:30 – 3:00 PM
See nano.michianastem.org for more information

July 26-30
NANO K-6 Summer Institute 
Monday-Friday, 8:30 – 3:00 PM
See nano.michianastem.org for more information 

FALL 2010

Oct 18-22
Mishawaka High School
Dave Dobrzykowski/ Dan Witt
6 Classes, 88 minutes each
160 Students
We were with each class for 2 class periods (2 separate days).

SCHEDULE
NanoClassroomMHS

Oct 25-29
John Young Middle School
Walt Buras
3 Classes, 85 minutes each
90 Students
We were with each class for 2 class periods (2 separate days).

Nov 8-12
Marian High School
Ken Andrzejewski
1 Class, 50 minutes
24 students
We were with the class for 4 class periods (4 separate days).

SCHEDULE
Monday: Valerie Goss
Introduction: Who are we? Why are we here? What are we doing?
Explanation of “nano” and “What is nano?” Video.
Review of Scale.
Explanation/Demonstration of Atomic Force Microscope (AFM).

Tuesday: Michael Crocker
Explanation of Graduate School.
Nanotechnology Applications
Michael’s Research
Explanation/Demonstration of Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM).

Wednesday: Ken Andrzejewski
“Guess my Gunk” -Guessing game with SEM images. (We will provide powerpoint slides).
AFM Ping Pong Analogue
Correlation of AFM Ping Pong analogue to scanning and image processing. (We will provide powerpoint slides).
Perhaps have students graph their data on Excel.

Thursday: Becky Quardokus
Available Careers in Nanotechnology
STM analogue: Scanning Theremin Activity
Explanation of Scanning Tunneling Microscopy
Becky’s Research
Demonstration of STM

Nov 29-Dec 3
Osolo Elementary
Bryan Nowakowski
1 class, 4th Grade, 50 minutes
21 students
We were in the classroom

Monday: VAL and BECKY
INTRO-Introduction to nano
-Introduce Grad Student(s)
-Mystery Boxes
-Watch video “What is nano?” with the shrinking girl.
-Explain what nano is
-Give examples of research what products nano has influenced

Tuesday: BRYAN
SCALE-Introduction to concept of scale
-review metric system
- Do the folding/cutting paper activity
-Do a form of scale activity using pictures the students are familiar with.

Wednesday: MICHAEL
LIGHT/OPTICS-Telescope/Microscope activity
-magnifying glass and building of telescope.
-take students outside to use their telescopes
Set up DIGI-scope
-explain the scale of the images

Thursday: VAL and BECKY
Learning to see without sight
-AFM Ping Pong ball activity
-Brief overview of Val’s research at ND
Guess the Gunk

Friday: MICHAEL and BECKY
Conclusion of NANO
Demos of instruments
SEM, AFM STM
What do scientists do? A day in the life of a scientist.

Dec 6-10
Holy Family Elementary
Jeanne DuBois
5th Grade, 2 classes, each class was 1 hour
40 students

Schedule
Monday: VAL and BECKY
INTRO-Introduction to nano
-Introduce Grad Student(s)
-Mystery Boxes
-Watch video “What is nano?” with the shrinking girl.
-Explain what nano is
-Give examples of research what products nano has influenced

Tuesday: JEANNE
SCALE-Introduction to concept of scale
-review metric system
- Do the folding/cutting paper activity
-Do a form of scale activity using pictures the students are familiar with.

Wednesday: MICHAEL
LIGHT/OPTICS-Telescope/Microscope activity
-magnifying glass and building of telescope.
Set up DIGI-scope
-explain the scale of the images

Thursday: VAL and BECKY
Learning to see without sight
-AFM Ping Pong ball activity
-Brief overview of Val’s research at ND
Guess the Gunk

Friday: MICHAEL and BECKY
Conclusion of NANO
Demos of instruments
SEM, AFM STM
What do scientists do? A day in the life of a scientist.
Video-Nano Song

Dec 13-17
Woodland Elementary
Michael Wagner
1 Class, 4th Grade, 21 Students
Monday was a 2 hour delay due to snow, so we switched the Monday and Tuesday schedule.

Schedule
Monday: VAL and BECKY
INTRO-Introduction to nano
-Introduce Grad Student(s)
-Mystery Boxes
-Watch video “What is nano?” with the shrinking girl.
-Explain what nano is
-Give examples of research what products nano has influenced

Tuesday: MICHAEL WAGNER
SCALE-Introduction to concept of scale
-review metric system
- Do the folding/cutting paper activity
-Do a form of scale activity using pictures the students are familiar with.

Wednesday: MICHAEL CROCKER
LIGHT/OPTICS-Telescope/Microscope activity
-magnifying glass and building of telescope.
Set up DIGI-scope
-explain the scale of the images

Thursday: VAL and BECKY
Learning to see without sight
-AFM Ping Pong ball activity
-Brief overview of Val’s research at ND
Guess the Gunk

Friday: VAL and BECKY
Conclusion of NANO
Demos of instruments
SEM, AFM STM
What do scientists do? A day in the life of a scientist.

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Bucky Ball Directions

Everyone has been asking for the directions for the pipe cleaner bucky balls! 

I hope the directions are easy to follow!

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The NANO group has been at Holy Family Elementary this week.  Monday was a BLIZZARD! But, Val safely drove us to the school, and the students are great!  They were very helpful and asked lots of great questions.  
 

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