Print   

Video of our 2009 Nanodays event!

Lashell Duplessis 5th grade, 10 years old

Basic facts about the NanoDays event

Dates: Saturday, April 4^th, 2009

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 NSU-HBCU Research and Infrastructure for Science and Engineering (RISE), Jefferson Laboratory, The Science and Technology Center -Materials and Devices for Information Technology Research (STC-MDITR),and The Network for Computational Nanotechnology (NCN)

Lashell Duplessis 5th grade, 10 years old

 Two little girls exploring the ferrofluid activity!

Young girls making the 3-Dimentional Bucky Ball Structure!

Pacen Joyce 8 years old

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 a Saturday, April 4th, 2009 for visitors of all ages. This event featured the NISE-Kit hands-on activities in addition to extra activities. The “Scavenger hunt” was an 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 the majority of visitors participated. Giveaways included NanoDays T-shirts, maze pens, Buckyballs and tattoos 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. A six episodes movie about different topics of nanotechnology shown in the museum’s planetarium was one of the best highlights of the event. The introduction of nanotechnology-related video games and interactive multimedia content was proven successful since it drew children and parents in numbers. 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 children after the visit.

Abby Wilkerson, 5 years old.

Brother and sister making their own liquid crystal sensors!

Over 400 people attended the event and over 32 faculty, staff, students, educators and volunteers from Norfolk State University, the Museum, Jefferson Laboratory and local schools participated in this event. Parents reported having as much fun as their kids and acknowledged that they learned a great deal about Nanotechnology by the end of the event. Visitors expressed their support and encouragement of the event as exemplified in the overwhelming positive feedback. Some parents and their children came early to the event and volunteered to help and assist because they enjoyed the last year’s Nanodays event. The surveys collected at the end showed an overall very successful outreach event.

Type of Event:

Program-NISE KIT

 NANODAYS PHOTOS SET 1

Ashley and Lane and the cousins!

What was exciting about this NanoDays event?

It was a family atmosphere; families participated in the activities and competed diligently to correctly answer the scavenger hunt activity and secure the highly coveted “NanoDays T-shirt”!
Children have a blast interacting with volunteers, guessing answers and asking more questions about the activities. The parents found the activities engaging and triggered conversations not only about the nanotechnology but also about courses and classes offered at our university and what are the different jobs opportunities with degrees in Material Science and Nanotechnology.

 Hanshol Lee 7years old.

The testimonial videos of the children taken after the event were very encouraging and showed how successful the event was as the children expressed that they have learned many concepts about nanotechnology and promised to attend the event next year and recommend it to their friends.
Visitors expressed their appreciation, support and positive feedback at the end of the event, below are samples of they said:

"Very educational and fun at the same time"
"Fun, engaging, age appropriate"
"Presentation"
"Everything"
"Hands-on"
"Interesting facts"
"Great for all ages"
"Interesting"
"Interactive"
"They were fun"
"Size Wheel"
"Creative ideas for kids"
"I thoroughly enjoyed the presentations, because I learned something new from them all."
"Indentify nano objects of different sizes"
"Engaged the children"
"Bubbles in green fluid (alka seltzer reaction)"

Lily Shinn 5 years old.

"The balloon thingy"
"The ferrofluid display"
"It was fun"
"The liquid crystals"
"She enjoyed the pickle presentation of waking up the molecules"
"The hands on things"
"The hands on experimentation"
"Interactive and friendly"
"Presentations of the fly"
"I like the science exhibits at the tables they were very exciting"
"Come again"

DeAndre Fulgham

"Great Job!"
"Really enjoyed it"
"Great job- Come again"
"This was very interesting and will recommend to others"
"This is an extremely conscious event that illuminates and raises the awareness of the attendees about science in their everyday lives; however, this program would be most beneficial to schools without science programs and at community centers with little resources. This was a great place to start, because the Portsmouth demographics show a high minority population and high drop-out rate for high school students."
"Very good for kids and adults"
"It was fun"
"I liked the crystals and the magnets too"
"It was cool"

Luisa Black 12 years old.

We worked with our University’s Communications and Media Relations Office and drafted and sent out a press release on our NanoDays event. The press release was sent to local schools, community centers and libraries.
Visitors complimented us for 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 NSU-HBCU Research and Infrastructure for Science and Engineering (RISE), Science and Technology Center -Materials and Devices for Information Technology Research (STC-MDITR) and 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! Giveaways also included maze pens, buckyballs and tattoos

 NANODAYS PHOTOS SET 2

What worked well with your events?

The activities were a combination from the NISE-KIT and extra activities chosen as complimentary to the NISE-KIT activities. As last year, the NISE-KIT activities were very successful. But the addition of extra activities such stations with microscopes and portable TEM and computer nanotechnology interactive games and knowledge were proven “must-have” activities.
We learned from last year to start planning for our NanoDays months earlier. The volunteers rehearsed the activities in advance and tweaked how to make presentations appealing, fun, engaging and interactive. This resulted in a well-orchestrated performance.
The number of visitors that attended- more than 400 people- on a sunny and beautiful weekend -was a great testimony of 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

What wasn't as successful?

We do not think that there are unsuccessful activities, but it is worthy to point out that younger children cannot comprehend some nanotechnology concepts and we think that there is a need to design simple activities with clear and simple learning outcomes.

Young girl zooming in on tiny specimen

What would you do differently next year?

•  Request corporate sponsors to fund larger quantities of T-shirts and giveaway prizes.
•  Think about extra activities to engage the very young children: 3-5 years old.

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:
• “Scavenger hunt” as an incentive to participate in the activities, read the posters, and answer questions
• Learn, Play and Discover: Nanotechnology interactive games and knowledge multimedia
• Magic Sand/ Nano Surfaces
• Balloon Nanotubes
• Self-Assembly Experiment
• Surface Tension
• Small Bridge for Heavy Load
• Sense what you can’t see!
• Measure with Nanoruler
• How small is small?
• Size wheel
• Explore the Microscopic World
• Color changing solutions and pressure principle
• Gave away T-shirts and maze pens 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
8. Carbon Structures
• We took video footage of the event as well as video interviews of the children at the end of the event.

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

We took video footage of the event as well as video interviews of the children  after the visit.

Ms. Beth Smak explaining why the magic sand does not mix with water!

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, and Ms. Adele Binning (Science Museum of Minnesota) for providing NonoDays Kit materials.
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!

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!

• Ms. Beth Smak (Staff, Chemistry), NSU:  for the excellent support planning the event, reviewing activities, providing materials needed for some activities and for recommending some chemistry majors as volunteers. Thank you very much for all you have done! 

• 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.

• Mr. Lorenzo Parker, Chemistry Student, NSU: helped in preparing for the event, moving materials to the museum and analyzing the evaluation data of visitors about nanoDays event.

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

•  Taina Matos (PhD Mat. Sc & Eng St., CMR) and Diana Adebambo (Student, chemistry, NSU): Exploring Reactions

• Prabakan Ravichandran (PhD Materials Science Student, CMR): Exploring Forces

• Mohammed Mayy (PhD Mat. Sc. Student, CMR) and Amanda Webb (undergraduate Student, NSU): Exploring Liquid Crystals

• Jean Krail (Retired Professor of Chemistry, NSU): Exploring Ferrofluid

• Thuong Nguyen (PhD Materials Science Student, CMR and Nigel Barner (Student, Chemistry, NSU): Exploring Measurements

• Chanel King (PhD Materials Science Student, CMR): Scanning Electron Microscope

• Brittney Nobles (Student, Chemistry): Buckyballs

• Christyne Matyseck (Educator, Children’s Museum of Virginia, Portsmouth): Nanotechnology Video – Six 30 min Episodes

 

The following people staffed the extra hands-on activities:

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

• Mrs. Beth Smak (Staff, Chemistry):  Magic Sand/ Nano Surfaces

• Rahul Bhure (Ph.D. Student, NSU): Self-Assembly Experiment

• LaTonya Waller (MS Materials Science Student, CMR): How Small is Small?!

• Lenore Teevan (Teacher, Rosemont Middle School):  measure it in nm

• Lenore Teevan (Teacher, Rosemont Middle School):  Size Wheel

• Lauren Thomas (Student, MS Optical Engineering) and Lorenzo Parker sophomore, Chemistry Balloon Nanotubes

• Amy Wilkerson (Laboratory and Research Manager Applied Research Center (ARC), JLab) and Brandt Robertson (Lab Specialist for the College of William and Mary) : Explore the Microscopic World

•  Rajini Konda (MS Materials Science Student, CMR): Sense what you can’t see!

• Carla McKiney (Student, NSU) and Crystal Artis (Student, Chemistry, NSU): Surface Tension

• John Kitur (MS Materials Science Student, CMR): Small Bridge for Heavy Load

• Alexander Gavrilenko (Ph.D. Student, NSU): Learn, Play and Discover: Nanotechnology interactive games and knowledge multimedia

The following people provided support before and during the event:

• Felicia Hall (Student, Chemistry, NSU) and Luisa Black (8^th grade): who were responsible for the greeting visitors and distributing materials and nametags as well as taking pictures of the eve

• Ms. Jennifer West and Esonija Shavon Fulgham:  for manning the prizes booth and checking visitors answer sheets.

• 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 maze pens.

• Misti Goodson (NSU), Communications & Media Relations Manager: for advertising the NanoDays event to all media outlets and newspapers.

• 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

NanoDays 2009 Volunteers with the exception of Dr. Alan Rowe and Ms. Beth Smak!

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

• The Children’s Museum of Virginia in Portsmouth, which hosted the NanoDays for the second year.  The relationship with the museum began with NanoDays and this new collaboration, will continue as NSU and the museum will continue to collaborate in joint projects and outreach events.

• The NSU-HBCU Research and Infrastructure for Science and Engineering (RISE) for partially providing funds for the T-shirts and maze pens.

• The NNCO-National Nanotechnology Coordination Office in Arlington VA- For the second year the NNCO offered us a good quantity of booklets “Nanotechnology Big Things from a tiny world” booklets for free.

• Jefferson Laboratory participated in our NanoDays event by for providing two volunteers who showed visitors small specimen using high- resolution microscopes and top-table Scanning Transmission Microscope.

• The Science and Technology Center -Materials and Devices for Information Technology Research (STC-MDITR), led by the University of Washington for partially providing funds for the T-shirts.

• The Network for Computational Nanotechnology (NCN), led by Purdue University for partially providing funds for the T-shirts.

 Marketing:

The event was advertised on:

• www.nsu.edu/hbcurise/events.html,
• The Children’s Museum of VA website,
• PilotOnline Calendar,
• Portseventsva.com and kidspriorityone.org
  
• Military Families activity coordinator
  
• Home Educators Association of Virginia and Virginia Homeschooler 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,
• 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 first 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

Children and their parents gathering around Dr. Rowe who is explaining how to make a “pickle” glow

Additional information about audience:  The audience was diverse ethnically and socially.

Young man holding a section of carbon nanotube he made from balloons!

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 and interacting with volunteers and having a good time.

Young man posing with a giant Bucky Ball structure and holding a small Bucky Ball he just won answering Nanodays scavenger Hunt Questions!