UW-Madison MRSEC IEG Nanoworld Discovery CenterDe Pablo DMR-0079983

Educational Outreach: Public Science Education

University of Wisconsin – Madison (UW) MRSEC personnel, in collaboration with Discovery World Museum in Milwaukee, WI, have developed a satellite museum exhibit on nanotechnology for the UW campus. The Nanoworld Discovery Center, an on-campus exhibit about nanotechnology and its role in our lives, was introduced to the public and university communities at an unveiling event at the Engineering Centers Building in December 2004. The exhibit was made possible through the UW MRSEC and an NSF-funded Internships in Public Science Education (IPSE) grant, and with additional funding from the Ira and Ineva Reilly Baldwin Wisconsin Idea Endowment. A virtual tour of the exhibit is available at: http://www.mrsec.wisc.edu/Edetc/cineplex/exhibit/index.html The exhibit has been featured in both Milwaukee and Madison newscasts, most recently by the Madison Channel 3 CBS affiliate. An excerpt of the interview with Prof. Crone is available on the Channel 3 website: “Badger Breakthroughs: What Is 'Nanotechnology'?” <http://www.channel3000.com/wisctv/index.html>.

IEG Nugget: Exploring Issues of Nanotechnology and Society

University of Wisconsin – Madison (UW) MRSEC Interdisciplinary Education Group personnel, Prof. Wendy Crone and Greta Zenner, co-taught an Engineering Professional Development (EPD 690) seminar course on Analytical and Pedagogical Approaches Nanotechnology and Society with Prof. Clark Miller from the UW La Follette School of Public Affairs and Dr. Karin Ellison from the UW Graduate School in Fall 2004. This interdisciplinary seminar involved faculty, postdoctoral, and graduate students form disciplines ranging from engineering and chemistry to sociology and journalism and mass communication. Through discussing topics such as “Technology, Risk, and Society”; “The Military and New Technologies”; “Nano-Critics”; and “Nano and Science Fiction”, seminar participants deepened their understandings of the interactions between society and nanoscale science and engineering. Four of the graduate students participated in a second hour of the seminar and created their own syllabi for teaching a similar course at the undergraduate level. Two of the graduate students are using and testing their syllabi this Spring 2005 when they teach an undergraduate course on technology and policy that is part of an NSF-funded Nanotechnology Undergraduate Education (NUE) grant.

IEG Nugget: Laboratory Manual for Nanoscale Science and Technology

The University of Wisconsin – Madison (UW) MRSEC Interdisciplinary Education Group has developed an online collection of nanotechnology experiments in the Laboratory Manual for Nanoscale Science and Technology, unique for both its content topic area and its video-based presentation format. These experiments, developed or modified by UW MRSEC personnel for educational use, are broken into steps with short text descriptions, and each step of the procedure has an accompanying video. The Laboratory Manual contents have been used in both high school and college-level laboratories and as virtual experiments when laboratory equipment was not available or a student’s disability prevented a hands-on experience. This online resource currently contains 15 experiments, 3 of which are new additions within the past year. It is available on the Internet at the following address: <http://www.mrsec.wisc.edu/edetc/nanolab/index.html>.

http://mrsec.wisc.edu/Edetc/nanolab/nickel/index.html

IEG Nugget: Materials Research Society Materials Education Symposium and Teacher Workshop

The University of Wisconsin – Madison (UW) MRSEC Interdisciplinary Education Group played an integral role in the 2004 Materials Research Society Fall Meeting. Prof. Wendy Crone co-organized Symposium PP: Communicating Materials Science: Education for the 21st Century, which involved the participation of nearly 100 middle- and high-school teachers from around the nation, including four teachers from the UW Research Experience for Teachers (RET) program. This symposium offered a series of events that highlighted how partnerships between secondary school science and mathematics teachers and practicing materials scientists can enhance the teaching and learning environment in junior highs, middle schools, and high schools. An accompanying workshop for the teachers, coordinated with the Strange Matter museum exhibition, was held at the Museum of Science in Boston. In addition to co-organizing these groundbreaking events, UW MRSEC personnel provided a workshop for the teachers on liquid crystals, a public talk on nanotechnology, and a conference presentation on our RET program.