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Basic facts about the NanoDays event

Dates: Saturday, March 29^th, 2008

Location: Children’s Museum of Virginia, Portsmouth, Virginia

Contact person: Dr. M. Bahoura

Title: Research Associate Professor

Department: Center for Materials Research

Organization: Norfolk State University

Support:  The National Science Foundation, The Network for Computational Nanotechnology (NCN), The NNCO-National Nanotechnology Coordination Office

 Two little girls exploring the ferrofluid activity

Description:

Our NanoDays event was organized by the Center for Materials Research at Norfolk State University and hosted by the Children’s Museum of Virginia in Portsmouth, Virginia on Saturday, March 29^th, 2008 for visitors of all ages. This event featured the NISE-Kit hands-on activities in addition to extra activities such as “Sizewheel”,  “How small is small?!”, “measure it in nm”, “Nanotechnology Mitten Challenge”, “Explore the Microscopic World” and “Color changing solutions and pressure principle”. We also added “What is your Nano IQ?” and “Find word (Nanotechnology) Puzzle”. The “Scavenger hunt” activities were used as incentive to participate in the activities, read the posters, and find answers to Nano questions. This proved to be a very successful activity, in which more than 90% of visitors participated. Giveaways included NanoDays T-shirts, buckyballs and Nanorulers as prizes for successful answers of the scavenger hunt. Booklets of “Nanotechnology Big Things from a tiny world” were given to visitors as an introduction to Nanotechnology.  We displayed numerous Nanotechnology-related posters throughout the museum as well as many Nanotechnology books, reports and magazines. We took several photos and video footage of the event as well as video interviews of the parents and their children before and after the visit.

 Young man making his own liquid crystal sensor!

Over 700 people attended the event and over 25 faculty, staff, students, educators and volunteers from Norfolk State University and the Museum participated in this event. Parents reported having as much fun and interactions as their children and acknowledged that they learned a great deal about Nanotechnology at the end of the event. We received very positive and encouraging feedback from the parents and the children, as some of them drove for hours to attend the event.

Type of Event:

Program-NISE KIT

NANODAYS EVENT PREPARATION

What was exciting about this NanoDays event?

The enthusiasm of the visitors was fantastic. Adults gathered at the activities to participate and had a blast. Families participated in the activities and worked on scavenger hunts together. So you see families competing to correctly answer the scavenger hunt activity!

All Visitors seemed to be very interested in most of the activities and engaged in conversations not only about the nanotechnology but also about what it takes to be scientist and how to get the children engaged in science. Parents and their children expressed their appreciation, support and positive feedback at the end of the event during the post-event video interviews, below are samples of they said:

• “Keep up what you are doing”,

• "I loved it.",

• "It is very important to see women in science. All the colors [posters] were wonderful.",

• "Everyone was wonderful with the children and very helpful. I hope this happens again.",

•  "I loved it! It was very exciting and fun!",

• "Entire cast and crew did a wonderful job.",

• "Do this again.", "It was very good and scientific.",

• "It was the best thing ever."

• "The presenters were friendly and really knowledgeable",

•  "My daughter really enjoyed them.",

• "They [presenters] were able to get the children involved in asking them questions and helping them come up with answers.",

•  “As an adult, I learned a lot about nanotechnology”,

•  "I learned a lot about nanos.",

• "All the different ages of the instructors-especially girls and women.",

•  “We want to come to your next event”, the liquid crystals! This was awesome!",

•  “The presenters were engaging, the concepts were simple and the logistics for the event were outstanding! I enjoyed the event and will come and bring the children for the next one! Thank you so much!”,

• “The event was worth the four hours’ drive!”

We worked with our University’s Communications & Media Relations Office and sent out a press release on our NanoDays event. The press release resulted in a 10 minute interview of Dr. M. Bahoura (Research Associate Professor, CMR, NSU) and Ms. Christyne Matyseck (Educator, Children’s Museum of Virginia) on a local TV station WAVY-TV-10’s “The Bottom Line” Program, March 7, 2008.

We received many compliments from visitors about the uniform look, engaging colors and design of the materials displayed. The NanoDays Style Guide from NanoDays Planning Guide was helpful in the design of all the giveaways, event logo, press release, surveys, Photo Consent and Release, hands-on activities’ posters, the Nanotechnology posters, and the extra activities posters and especially the design of the NanoDays T-shirts. The T-shirts were given as prizes, courtesy of the NSF Network for Computational Nanotechnology (NCN), for those who returned the event survey and who successfully answered all the questions about the hands-on activities. These T-shirts were so successful that visitors wanted to buy them! Some of our volunteers gave away their own NanoDays T-shirts to visitors! The buckyballs from NISE-KIT and the home-made Nanorulers were given as prizes after the depletion of the NanoDays T-shirts. 

 NANODAYS PHOTOS SET 1

What worked well with your events?

The most popular activities from the NISE-KIT were “exploring ferrofluid”, “exploring reactions” and “exploring liquid crystals” and from the extra activities were the “scavenger hunt”, “Color changing solutions and pressure principle”, “Sizewheel”, “How small is small?!”, “measure it in nm”,  “Nanotechnology Mitten Challenge” and “Explore the Microscopic World”.

We started planning for the event months earlier. We rehearsed the activities in advance and tweaked how to make presentations appealing, fun, engaging and interactive. This preparation helped a lot in seeing a smooth flow and excitement from visitors to see more!

The volunteers worked hard before, during and after the event. The event looked like a well orchestrated symphony: where every volunteer tried her/his best to make the event successful.

There were more than 700 people that attended the event on a raining and cold weekend. This was a great testimony of an effective advertising.

The analysis of our NanoDays surveys, averaged over the number of participants are shown below:

Strongly agree:          4

Agree:                       3

Disagree:                   2

Strongly disagree:       1

NANODAYS PHOTOS SET 2

What wasn't as successful?

Everything went over very well and we do not think that there are unsuccessful activities, but it is worthy to point out some difficulties or suggestions for improvement:

• The weather that day was cold and raining and might prevented some people from coming to the museum.
• We ran out of T-shirts and Buckyballs early despite the fact that we gave them only to those who returned the evaluation form and had all correct answers for the questionnaire about each Nanodays activity.
• The event was advertised as 11 am to 3:00 pm, but lot of people showed up at the end of the event. We could not carry on the activities much longer because the volunteers hadn’t eaten and were tired.
• “Exploring solutions” experiment was good but bottle 5 and 6 smelled the same and it was difficult to distinguish the two by the smell!

Young man showing his NanoDays T-shirts that he worked hard in getting!

What would you do differently next year?

• Check the weather of the event and be sure that it is not a cold or raining day, although this is very difficult, due to the fact that for advertising purposes the date must be selected in great advance
• Request corporate sponsors to fund larger quantities of T-shirts and giveaway prizes
• Provide onsite food for volunteers (museum has already committed to do so)
• Think about activities to engage the very young ones: 3-5 years old

NANODAYS PHOTOS SET 3

What changes did you make to what NISE provided to fit your institution?

For each NISE-KIT activity we created a simple and concise poster to explain the activity using colorful pictures and diagrams.

In addition to the hands-on-activities of the NISE-kit we added the following activities:

•  “Color changing solutions and pressure principle”

•  “Sizewheel”

• “How small is small?!”

•  “measure it in nm”

• “Nanotechnology Mitten Challenge”

• “Explore the Microscopic World”

• Activity “What is your Nano IQ?”

• Activity  “Find word (Nanotechnology) Puzzle”

•  “Scavenger hunt” as an incentive to participate in the activities, read the posters, and answer questions

• Gave away T-shirts, buckyballs and Nanorulers as prizes for successful answers of the scavenger hunt

• Giveaway: “Nanotechnology Big Things from a tiny world”  booklets, quantity  400

• We displayed: many nanotechnology posters:

1.      The Scale of things

2.      nanoscience potential

3.      Nanotechnology applications and products I

4.      Nanotechnology applications and products II

5.      Images from the Nanoworld

6.      Nanotechnology size comparisons

7.      International System of Units (SI) and Fast Facts

 Also, we displayed many Nanotechnology books, reports and magazines.

We took video footage of the event as well as video interviews of the parents and their children before and after the visit

Brothers assembling the Buckyball, while mom filling out survey form

Tell us if there is anything that the NISE network could have done to make your NanoDays more of a success:

We are grateful to the NISE Network and especially to Ms. Karen Pollard, NanoDays Project Lead, for sending the kit on time. The materials were great. We added a 30 by 20 inch table poster for each activity to help visitors see from a distance what activity is there and to inform them about the principle in the nutshell. We also covered the tables with colorful tablecloths.  

Thank you very much for your assistance and support and keep it up!

NANODAYS PHOTOS SET 4

Who else in your institution helped organize and participated in this event?: Please include Name, Title, and Event

I wanted to thank, all the volunteers , very much for making the event so successful beyond expectation.

• Ms. Christyne Matyseck, Educator, Children’s Museum of Virginia, Portsmouth: was very helpful in planning the event, providing all resources needed at the museum, advertising the event, and keeping the extra activities simple. She worked very hard behind the scenes!
• Dr. Alan Rowe, Professor, Chemistry, NSU: for his guidance before the event and for taking time to meet with the volunteers to test the experiments and give advice on how to make them more appealing to the younger children! Also thank you for the great experiments you brought to the event!
• Dr. Suely Black, Chemistry Professor, CMR, NSU:  secured the funding for the T-shirts, manned the prizes booth and provided all needed support and encouragement before and during the event.

The following people staffed the NISE-KIT hands-on activities:

• Mrs. Beth Smak (Staff, Chemistry): Exploring Reactions

• Mohammed Mayy (MS Materials Science Student, CMR): Exploring Forces

• Tanya David (MS Mat. Sc. Student, CMR): Exploring Liquid Crystals

• Taina Matos and Alex Gavrilenko (PhD Mat. Sc & Eng St., CMR): Exploring Solutions

• Tracee Weaver (PhD Mat. Sc & Eng Student, CMR) and Dr. Patricia Mead (Professor, Engineering): Exploring Ferrofluid- Dr. Mead thank you so much for letting us use your video camera!

• Chanel King (MS Materials Science Student, CMR): Exploring Measurements

The following people staffed the extra hands-on activities:

• Dr. Alan Rowe (Department Chairperson, Chemistry): color changing solutions and pressure principle

•  Lauren Thomas (MS Optical Engineering Student, Engineering) and Dr. Patricia Mead (Professor, Engineering): “Sizewheel”

• Starre Williams (MS Materials Science Student, CMR): “How Small is Small?!”

• Bruce Williams (High School Student):  “measure it in nm”

• Dwayne Bobb (Student, MS Optical Engineering): “Nanotechnology Mitten Challenge”

• Rajini Konda (MS Materials Science Student, CMR): “Explore the Microscopic World”

The following people provided support before and during the event:

• Lorenzo Parker (Freshman, Chemistry): who was responsible for the greeting table down stairs and giving visitors surveys, questions sheets, booklets and nametags. He also helped in activities before the event.

• Eric Robinson, Lawrence Douglas and Rudy Vargas (MS Materials Science Students, CMR):  helped during the event and taking care of the prizes booth.

• Dr. Black’s children: Luisa and Paulo (7th and 9^th grades) both worked hard in taking pictures and helping when needed.

• Mr. William King (Chanel’s husband) who was there to help from the beginning of the event, and took care of the activity “measure it in nm” in the beginning.

• Tanya David’s Mom who was taking pictures and helping when needed.

• Shirleigh Wood ( CMR office administrator): for processing the NCN fund paper work and ordering the poster boarder and supplies 

•  Heather Medina (CMR office administrator): for the paper work ordering the NanoDays T-shirts and for volunteering time to go pick and drop off the microscopes at Jefferson Laboratory

• Misti Goodson (NSU), Communications & Media Relations Manager: for advertising the NanoDays event to all media outlets and newspapers and for taking time to go with Dr. Bahoura to the Wavy-TV 10’s Bottom Line Interview to advertise for the NanoDays event

• Stevalynn Adams (NSU), Marketing Design & Communications Manager: for proof reading countless printed materials and making sure they adhere to University Standards and Guidelines

• Sharon Hoggard (NSU), Acting Executive Director: for her support and encouragement and making sure that the job is done on a timely matter

 

Who did you collaborate with from outside your institution? (Please note if this relationship began with NanoDays): Please include Name, Institution, Title, and Event

• Amy Wilkerson at Jefferson Laboratory for providing us with the microscopes and samples used for the activity “Explore the Microscopic World”. This activity was so popular and visitors were waiting their turn to see the micro world!
• The Network for Computational Nanotechnology (NCN), led by Purdue University for providing funds for the T-shirts.
• The NNCO-National Nanotechnology Coordination Office in Arlington VA- They gave us free, 400 booklets “Nanotechnology Big Things from a tiny world booklets” along with more than 40 other related Nanotechnology publications.
• Children’s Museum of Virginia, which was contacted while NSU searched for an appropriate venue for this event. This new collaboration, afforded by NanoDays, will continue as NSU and the museum will submit a proposal for NSF-ISE program.

 Marketing:

The event was advertised on:

• Invited TV interview of Dr. M. Bahoura and Ms. Christyne Matyseck on WAVY-TV-10’s The Bottom Line to advertise for NanoDays event- Friday, March 7, 2008
• www.nsu.edu/hbcurise/events.html,
• The Children’s Museum of VA website,
• PilotOnline Calendar,
• Home Educators Association of Virginia Newsletter,
• The Tidewater Association of Chemistry Teachers Newsletter,
• Press releases were sent to local newspapers,
• Fliers were available in the Children’s Museum of VA Lobby and passed out to guests at the Tidewater Builders Association Home and Garden Show,
• NSU SpartanConnection online at www.nsu.edu/spartanconnection
• NSU Spartan E-Daily to all NSU campus
• Local schools

Tell us about your audience

General Public

This event was held during the second Saturday of Spring break, so many people were visiting the Museum for something to do, while others attended specifically for the Nano activities. 

NanoDays Audiences

 Young kid listening to Dr. Rowe while dad filling out survey form and helping in scavenger hunt activity

Additional information about audience: We didn’t have separate numbers for military admissions or our Museum Members so we took an estimate and added it to the General Admission numbers.

Dr. Rowe engaging the whole family and showing his “magical” color changing solutions!

General comments about audience: Everyone loved it!  Children and adults of all ages were participating in the Kit activities and the Scavenger Hunt, and all were reading the Posters.