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NanoTeach. Lessons Learned -- Edward Lawrence. Why Nanotech?. An opportunity to introduce science without textbook answers Nano cuts across many science/engineering disciplines; allows students to approach science from many different vantage points
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NanoTeach Lessons Learned --Edward Lawrence
Why Nanotech? • An opportunity to introduce science without textbook answers • Nano cuts across many science/engineering disciplines; allows students to approach science from many different vantage points • Nano gets at many basic misconceptions, exposes student needs in powers of ten and relative scale • Nano has inherent interest (Cutting Edge Cool)
Bottoms Up Feynman's "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom" postulated the idea you could write the entire Encyclopedia Britannica on the head of a pin. This would require text to be text be 1/25000th of its current size.
What’s Happening • Carbon Nanotubes are sheets of Graphene (Carbon atoms in a single layer) rolled up into a super-strong thread tube. Is this Spiderman’s web?
Eco Apps n
But, what will we tell the kids? There are Nine Big Ideas in Nano (choose one or two) • Size and Scale • Structure of Matter • Forces and Interactions • Quantum Effects • Size-Dependent Properties • Self-Assembly • Tools and Instrumentation • Models and Simulations • Science, Technology, and Society
The Gecko’s Way • http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/10/animal-inspire-robotic-designs/all/ • sticky.bot.cnn • Engineering questions
How do we know?? • T • T2
Can my students learn this? • Calif. HS student devises possible cancer cureBy Steve Hartman • If you ever worry about the future of America, there is no need: it is in good hands. A high school student named Angela is proof of that. We think you'll agree she is nothing short of amazing. CBS News correspondent Steve Hartman met her on the road. • Born to Chinese immigrants, 17-year-old Angela Zhang of Cupertino, California is a typical American teenager. She's really into shoes and is just learning how to drive.Butthere is one thing that separates her from every other student at Monta Vista High School, something she first shared with her chemistry teacher, Kavita Gupta. • It's a research paper Angela wrote in her spare time -- and it is advanced, to say the least. Gupta says all she knows is its recipe -- for curing cancer. • "Cure for cancer -- a high school student," said Gupta. "It's just so mind-boggling. I just cannot even begin to comprehend how she even thought about it or did this." • "I just thought, 'Why not?' 'What is there to lose?'" said Angela.