Conference proceeding
Exploring Nanotechnology with Electrospinning: Design, Experiment, and Discover
Association for Engineering Education - Engineering Library Division Papers, p25.617.1
10 Jun 2012
Abstract
Nanotechnology is a challenging concept to teach. The length scales involved aredifficult to visualize, the products are invisible to the human eye and in most cases thefabrication and characterization of nano-scale materials are prohibitively expensive forhigh school science programs. Moreover, the inaccessibility of nanotechnology in theclassroom reduces the student’s experience to factual recall of a list of properties andadvantages of materials at the nanometer scale. This situation does nothing to alleviatethe perception that science/engineering is boring and does not engage students in theactual work patterns and discourse of practicing STEM professionals. To redress thissituation, students need not only to acquire the fundamental principles ofnanotechnology, but participate in activities designed to encourage the habitus that willmake it more likely they will pursue higher education in STEM.Electrospinning was chosen as a vehicle to explore nanofabrication because it is not onlysimple, but inexpensive. The physics, chemistry, and engineering principals used inelectrospinning are attainable for high school students and the materials used to producethe nanofibers are safe for a classroom. In this project, the students built K’Nexelectrospinning stations, and identified the process variables and material’s propertiesthat control the resulting fiber diameters. They wrote a short proposal positing theirhypothesis and a detailed experimental plan to optimize the fiber diameters and yieldusing their electrospinning station. The students implemented their experiment, troubleshot equipment failures, and collected their nanofibers. In collaboration with a localuniversity their, nanofibers were imaged using an SEM and the students analyzed thefiber diameter distributions with Image J software and a statistical package in Excel.The electrospinning activity was supported through a series of short lectures and inquiry-based activities designed to provide a working knowledge of nanotechnology in generaland the physics and chemistry employed in nanofiber production specifically.Additionally several modes of assessment were used throughout the activity. Inparticular, an attitudes inventory was administered pre and post activity to evaluatechange in perceptions about pursuing STEM careers. Summative assessments were usedto gage student’s learning and performance based assessments were used to enhancestudent’s internalization of the subject matter. The students demonstrated an improvedunderstanding of nanotechnology across the board and girls performed better than theboys on the summative assessment. As a capstone on the project the students producedposters to communicate their findings to their peers and compete in local and regionalscience fairs.This project was a joint effort between high school teachers who participated in the 2011NSF Research Experience for Teachers in Nanotechnology (RET-Nano), students in the2011 NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU), their graduate mentors andfaculty. The RET-Nano teachers and REU students/mentors worked together to developlesson plans and activities to scaffold the high school student’s learning experience. TheREU students designed, built, and tested the experimental hardware for theelectrospinning traveling kit. And the graduate mentor travelled to all of school sites todemonstrate the electrospinning equipment and talk about her research.
Metrics
1 Record Views
Details
- Title
- Exploring Nanotechnology with Electrospinning: Design, Experiment, and Discover
- Creators
- Jennifer AtchisonDanielle TadrosYury GogotsiPaul HoltWilliam StoyJoy KotsCaroline Schauer
- Publication Details
- Association for Engineering Education - Engineering Library Division Papers, p25.617.1
- Publisher
- American Society for Engineering Education-ASEE
- Resource Type
- Conference proceeding
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics; Materials Science and Engineering
- Identifiers
- 991019170569704721