NNCI Resources for Virtual Classrooms, Kitchens, Backyards, and Beyond
The NNCI Education and Outreach team has compiled this list of resources for children and adults. It includes videos, online magazines, podcasts, and activities that can be done from home using common items.
|
Title |
Intended Audience/ |
Brief Description |
Resource Type |
Approximate Time |
NNCI Site |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
General Public - Any age |
Interviews with experts on how nanotechnology will broadly affect different aspects of our lives |
Podcast |
7-10 min each |
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|
General Public - Any age |
Children will explore the concept of size by comparing and categorizing objects, then constructing various sized structures. Beginning their understanding of big and small will be important as they develop an understanding of the nanoscale in later grades. |
Lesson |
45 min |
||
|
General Public - Any age |
Using the book, Spaghetti and Meatballs for All! by Marilyn Burns, students explore surface area and volume by using their knowledge of area, perimeter, and volume. The purpose of this lesson is to help students extend their knowledge of area, perimeter, and volume including surface area. |
Lesson |
45 min, flexible |
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|
General Public - Any age |
What's It Made Of? The YouTube show where we take normal everyday objects, put them in an electron microscope and found out WHAT THEY'RE MADE OF! |
Video |
5-10 Minutes |
||
|
General Public - Any age |
This activity develops a student's skills in measurement by using a pool noodle to measure objects. The activity encourages students to consider features that are useful when developing or using a measurement tool. |
Lesson |
35 min, flexible |
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|
General Public - Any age |
For students to understand their world they often need to use tools to gather information. Some tools will help them see parts of their surrounding world that they would otherwise miss. |
Lesson |
up to 100 min, flexible |
||
|
General Public - Any age |
This activity gives students a sense of size and scale using their classroom and their neighborhood as a frame of reference. |
Lesson |
15 min |
||
|
What's the Smallest Thing You Know? A Size and Scale Activity |
General Public - Any age |
The book What’s Smaller Than A Pygmy Shrew? by Robert E. Wells helps students see that a pygmy shrew is among the tiniest of mammals and that a ladybug is even smaller. But in the book, they will also find even smaller things that they ordinarily do not see. |
Lesson |
up to 100 min, flexible |
|
|
General Public - Any age |
The Pulse of the Planet radio series provides its listeners with a two-minute sound portrait of Planet Earth, tracking the rhythms of nature, culture and science worldwide, blending interviews with extraordinary natural sound. |
Podcast |
2 minute per episode |
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|
General Public - Any age |
Learn how nanotechnology can address some of the world's biggest challenges and improve our everyday lives. |
Videos |
2 min each |
||
|
General Public - Any age |
National Nanotechnology Initiative YouTube channel with podcasts and videos on nanotechnology |
YouTube Channel |
No time limit |
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|
General Public - Any age |
Cleanroom areas explained through tours, definitions, and lessons |
Lab tour & Lessons |
No time limit |
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|
General Public - Any age |
Explore specimens by operating a real-life microscopes focus, illumination intensity, magnification, and translation. |
Interactive Virtual Microscope |
No time limit |
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|
General Public - Any age |
Videos demonstrating a variety of short nanoscience topics |
Nanoscience Video Demos |
No time limit |
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|
General Public - Any age |
Videos, slide shows, and lessons about STEM topics |
Videos, Lessons, Powerpoint Files |
No time limit |
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|
General Public - Any age |
Activity demonstrating how a material behaves on the macroscale is affected by its structure on the nanoscale. |
Activity |
No time limit |
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|
General Public - Any age |
This experiment helps demonstrate one of the fundamental principles that makes organized structures on all scales, from molecules to nanostructures to galaxies. The process is called self-assembly. |
Activity |
Activity |
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|
General Public - Any age |
Self-guided window tour of the MNTC with audio and written descriptions. Tour takes 15 minutes. |
Lab tour |
15min |
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|
General Public - Any age |
On future technologies and how it might affect our lives in the year 2050. Featuring Tim Gornet of AMIST Core Facility |
Video |
5 min |
||
|
General Public - Any age |
The video shows the different tools and a short description of the tools all around the TNF cleanrooms and small individual labs |
Video |
30 mins |
||
|
General Public - Any age |
An interactive training video showing how to get images using the Zeiss SEM: |
Video |
34 mins |
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|
General Public - Any age |
In these videos, we invite kids (and adults) to conduct science experiments with us using supplies they can find at home. We will have two videos for each experiment. Beginner videos are aimed at Kindergarten - 5th grade audiences and advanced at 6th -12th grade. |
Video |
30 min |
||
|
General Public - Any age |
Take-out Science is a program designed to provide you with “take-out” access to our nanotechnology tools and experts during the coronavirus pandemic. Every Tuesday at noon (ET), we stream a new show in real time focused on a different theme. Dr. Holly Leddy leads exploration of each topic using a light microscope, a scanning electron microscope (SEM), and her expert colleagues. |
Video |
30 min |
||
|
Middle school on up |
User-controlled video tour of the cleanroom at Arizona State University. Has embedded videos showing how to put on bunny suit and Personal Protective Equipment. |
Lab tour |
No time limit |
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|
Middle school on up |
User-controlled video tour of the cleanroom at Arizona State University. Has embedded videos showing how to put on bunny suit and Personal Protective Equipment. |
Lab tour (for use with virtual reality headset) |
No time limit |
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|
Middle school on up |
Nanooze is a magazine that has been created to get kids excited about science and especially nanotechnology–the science of really small things. |
Online Magazine - available in Spanish |
no time limit |
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|
Middle school on up |
Links to a variety of virtual scanning, atomic force, and light microscopes as well as tutorials. |
Internet links |
15 minutes to 1 hour+ |
||
|
Introduction to Nanotechnology Using Creative Problem Solving Model |
Middle school on up |
This lesson serves as an introduction to the field of nanotechnology by discussing its real-world implications in light of economic issues and conditions. |
Lesson |
up to 100 min, flexible |
|
|
Learning Set on Size, Scale, Function and Measurement Systems |
Middle school on up |
The purpose of this lesson is to familiarize students with size, scale, and measurement by exploring size and scale through a variety of activities. |
Lesson |
90 minutes per activity |
|
|
Mixtures and Nanotechnology Classification of Mixtures and Particle Size |
Middle school on up |
Through a series of activities using images of mixtures, students will learn that the classification of mixtures depends on the size of particles that make them up and how these particles are distributed with the mixture. |
Lesson |
90 minutes |
|
|
Diagnostics for All: Teaching Relevance of Science and Engineering to Solving Societal Problems |
Middle school on up |
This a cross-disciplinary lesson connects chemistry and social and ethical issues. It is tied to a new and promising inexpensive form of diagnostics called paper diagnostics. The issue discussed focuses on HIV Aids. |
Lesson |
50 minutes, flexible |
|
|
Middle school on up |
This lesson will allow students the opportunity to read about nanotechnology. In addition, this will allow them to analyze and reflect on its implications and significance for the future. |
Lesson |
50 minutes, flexible |
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|
Middle school on up |
A connection to the nanoscale is made by having students read the How Stuff Works article "How Nanotechnology Works" and answer questions about the article. |
Lesson |
1.5 hours, flexible |
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|
Middle school on up |
At the end of this lesson, students will understand that solar energy radiates from the sun to the Earth and gets trapped within the oven. |
Lesson |
1.5 hours |
||
|
Middle school on up |
This lab helps students understand how nanoparticles may be more effective catalysts by investigating how the surface area-to-volume ratio of a substance is affected as its shape changes. |
Lesson |
1.5 hours |
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|
Middle school on up |
This lesson will review the metric system and relate the size and scale of objects to various metric units, including the very small nano-scale. |
Lesson |
1.5 hours |
||
|
Middle school on up |
This activity focuses on scale and the importance of using scale bars, for this is the most common feature when presenting nanoscale structures or nanoscale science. It connects well to the introduction of atoms and cell structures as well as advancements in technology. |
Lesson |
15 min |
||
|
Middle school on up |
How small is small? And how can nanoscale matter improve our lives? Innovation Workshop: Nanotechnology explores this cutting-edge science and engineering of nanoscale matter. |
Videos |
5-7 min each |
||
|
High school on up |
Nanotechnology: Big Things from a Tiny World provides a general overview of nanotechnology and how it is used today. |
Brochure |
No time limit |