NNIN Education Site
Nanotechnology Education Activities at UCSB
Education and outreach programs are an important part of the activities at the NNIN site at the University of California at Santa Barbara.
K–12 Events and Programs:
High School Field Trips: On October 9th, 2004, we brought 7 students and one teacher from Santa Maria High School into the educational clean room and taught them in a hands-on fashion how to pattern a silicon wafer using photolithography.
Campus-Wide: Day in Nanoscale Science and Engineering - As a partnership with Johns Hopkins University and the Center for Talented Youth, UCSB Nanotech coordinated a Day in Nanoscale Science and Engineering, that occurred on October 16th, 2004 for 120 middle-school students and 120 parents from California, Arizona and Nevada. Parents attended the following seminars: What’s so great about being small? Life at the Nanometer…, How to prepare your students for higher education, Nanotechnology on Trial: The Social & Ethical Implications of Nanotechnology, and How Crystal Structure Helps Nanotechnology.
The event involved 55 volunteers from Chemistry, Education, and Geology Departments as well as from the Los Ingenieros, Biochemistry, and LEAPS student organizations. Each participant had hands-on lab experience in one of the following subjects: Nanofabrication, Crystallography, Nanoscale properties of Light, and Surface Science. In addition, students attended demonstrations and had a creative component, where they had to make a commercial for a nanotechnology product. Commercials had to explain how the product used nanotechnology, and how using nanotechnology makes this product better than other products on the market.
A similar event was held on March 5, 2005. UCSB Nanotech collaborated with MESA (Mathematics, Science, Engineering Achievement) to coordinate 6 nanoscience and nanotechnology workshops for 1000 (primarily Hispanic) middle school and high school students in southern California, ranging from Oxnard to Santa Maria.
Chip Camp for High School Students – Students from Santa Maria High School learned photolithography and metal deposition and how to use this in wet etch and liftoff techniques. Graduate student mentors guided students in an exploration of various parameters in these processes, so that the participants could use this experience in the Santa Barbara County Science Fair.
Nanoscale Education and Applications in Technology (NEAT) After School Program - Four high school students from Dos Pueblos High School participated in the chip camp activities once per week for 3 hours/day over the course of 5 weeks. Three of the 4 students presented their experience at the Santa Barbara County Science Fair.
Apprentice Researchers Program (ARP) - ARP is an 8-week hands-on apprenticeship program for high school students, who do real reasearch with UCSB faculty under the guidance of graduate student mentors. UCSB Nanotech supported 2 ARP students in 2004 and will support 4 ARP students in 2005.
Instructional Materials for Grades 8-12 - Eleven hands-on labs and worksheets targeted toward middle- and high-school students have been developed and include teacher preparatory notes. These materials have been tested by teacher and students at the UCSB’s educational clean room.
College & University Programs
Nanofabrication Short Courses -UCSB Nanotech is offering a free, week-long nanofabrication short course August 1–5, 2005 for students from colleges in the northern Los Angeles, Ventura, and Santa Barbara Counties.
Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) - REU is a 10-week hands-on internship program for undergraduate students, who do real research with UCSB faculty under the guidance of graduate student mentors and present their work at a conference at the end of the program. Eight REU interns participated in 2003, 10 interns in 2004, and 12 interns in 2005.
For further information: www.nanotech.ucsb.edu/Education/
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