Links on Widening the Impact:
Informal, Introductory, and Industry Nanochallenges

based on Chapter 10 by P. Fraundorf and Jingyue Liu

in the large-format 678-page 36-chapter book
Nanoscale Science and Engineering Education

ISBN 978-1-58883-085-3

edited by Aldrin E. Sweeney and Sudipta Seal (American Scientific Publishers 2008)

What follows is a developing list of links to web resources for the book chapter on nanoeducation mentioned above. The focus in this chapter is on integrative, rather than specializing, aspects of the nanoeducation experience. According to Aldrin Sweeney, "The discussion provided by Fraundorf and Liu underscores...critical areas in which further NSEE research is to be expected."

1) Informal Science: Engaging consumers and students outside of school

1.1) Visceral Appreciation of Scale: On the Web, in Science Centers, and in Video Games

• Variable size-scale adventures w/some "views from asmall".
• 3D interactive "powers-of-ten" exploration.
• Notes on scaling time.
• Nanotale props from UW-Madison.
• Intro slides for a group discussion of nanoscience in everyday life.
• Splash Screen for St. Louis Science Center's Cyberville Nano.
• Notes on emergent content courses/resources.
• Biovisions visual/audio narrative about white blood cells.
• Planets and stars in scale with music.

1.2) Mediated NanoManipulation of Virtual and Real Specimens

• Noom's webquests.
• UNC's nanomanipulator at Chapel Hill.
• Nestor's telepresence microscopy pioneer site.
• Hopelab's reMission game for helping kids fight cancer in the bloodstream, lymph nodes, and spine.
• Ireland's Gaeilge nanoquest for nanoparticle forces, graphene, AFM, and eukaryotic organelles.

1.3) Regional Tales of Work and Play: Untold Stories of Long Developing Technologies

• Some notes on Missouri's nanoalliance.
• Examples of regional collaboration
• Missouri and the information age's silicon river.

2) Students as NanoDetectives in Intro Science Classes

2.1) Microscopy Trainers on the Web

• Some virtual specimens here and here for up-close examination.
• Comparing real data from nanoworld exploration to interactive models.
• Visualizations on diffraction in action.
• A more diverse set of LiveGraphics3D exploration tools.
• A nano-goniometry lab for analyzing experimental data.

2.2) Rubrics for Logging and Reporting Observations and Results

• Some rubrics for scientific interaction.
• Extreme Physics Lesson Plans - Unit 1: NanoExploration.

2.3) Bringing Intro-Text Figures to Life, with Peer Review Adventures

• A 2005 Intro Chemistry adventure at UM-StL.
• An activity for visiting high school students involving diffraction in space.
• Fleas on fleas: A web-journal for hosting peer review of empirical observation exercises

3) Nanoscale Science Practicals: The Basics, and a Passion for Group Work

3.1) Web/Lab Courses for Future NanoTech Consumers and Researchers

• Modular courses on emergent microscopy and nanoscale science practicals.
• Tools for analyzing lattice information in images
• Notes at the Danforth Plant Sciences Center on visualizing cells.
• Notes at WU School of Medicine on electron bio-microscopy.
• Notes at the Missouri Botanical Garden on scanning probe microscopes.
• Emergent content on everyday science & complex systems.

3.2) Skills for Using Basic Insights to Solve Applied as well as Fundamental Problems

• Earlier note for Physics Today.

3.3) Ethics and NanoExploration

• The cross-disciplinary ethics of analytical support
• Broader ethical and social issues in emerging technology
• Making quantitative information about risks, and uncertainties, accessible.