|
Topic Name: New nanoscale experiments offer to teach blind and visually impaired students a
Category: Nanocharacterization
Research persons: Greenberg and Farhoud
Location: 1101 University Avenue,Madison, WI 53706,University of Wisconsin System, United States
Details
At the root of scientific study are observations made with the eyes; yet in
nanoscience, our eyes fail us. The smallest object we can see still looms
thousands of times larger than a typical nano-sized structure. Even the most
powerful microscopes can't peer into the nanoscale directly
That's why nanoscale experiments offer such great opportunities to teach
blind and visually impaired students about science and pique their interest in
the field, says Andrew Greenberg, education and outreach coordinator for the
University of Wisconsin-Madison Nanoscale
Science and Engineering Center (NSEC) and the Institute for Chemical
Education.
"The fact is, we're all blind at the nanoscale,"
he says. "So the message to blind students is, 'This is something you can do,
this is a field you can enter. You have the ability to understand what's going
on at the nanoscale just as much as anyone else.'"
To give blind students a feel - literally -
for nanoscience and technology, Greenberg and Mohammed Farhoud, a senior
biochemistry student working with UW-Madison
Center for
Biology Educationhttp://www.wisc.edu/cbe/ (CBE) Director Dave Nelson, are
building three-dimensional models of nano-surfaces that are large enough to be
explored with the hands. Their first attempt replicates "NanoBucky," a nanoscale
version of the UW-Madison mascot, Bucky Badger, made entirely from tiny carbon
nanofiber "hairs."
Greenberg and Farhoud are presenting the work,
funded by the National Science Foundation, on March 27 at the 233rd National
Meeting of the American Chemical Society.
Created by UW-Madison chemistry professor Bob
Hamers to demonstrate a method for controlling the growth of nanomaterials, the
original NanoBucky is so tiny that approximately 9,000 of him can fit on the
head of the pin. Though Greenberg and Farhoud's plaster 3-D models are several
inches long and tens of thousands of times larger, they aim to faithfully
reproduce every last nanofiber of Bucky's being.
"We want to get across that NanoBucky is made
up of individual carbon nanofibers standing on end," says Greenberg. "If the
students' fingers were small enough, this is what a surface would feel like at
the nanoscale."
The pair is still perfecting the modeling
method, which employs an engineering tool called rapid prototyping. But
eventually, Greenberg plans to test whether the models help blind students grasp
nanoscience concepts, especially the complex ways in which data are collected to
produce 2-D images of nanoscale surfaces.
He also wonders whether 3-D models might help
sighted students - or the public, for that matter - also appreciate the
nanoscale. "A two-dimensional image is great," he says. "But if you can touch
something - everyone enjoys that."
Greenberg first conceived of the models during
a visit to the Indiana School for the Blind, where a colleague showed him 3-D
models of molecules that blind students handled to learn chemical structures.
Soon afterward, he contacted Farhoud, master of the rapid prototyping printer in
the UW's Biology New Media Center. To help professors convey difficult concepts
in the classroom, Farhoud routinely builds 3-D models from computer-generated
images of tiny things, including molecules and cellular structures.
NanoBucky, though, was on a scale all his own.
Starting with a 2-D, grey-scale picture of the nano-mascot taken with scanning
electron microscopy (SEM), Farhoud first reversed the image, making the blacks
appear white and vice versa. Next, he used the various shades of grey in the
image to confer heights on the carbon nanofibers: the blackest black was
assigned a maximum height, white got a value of zero, and the computing program
MATLAB calculated all the values in between.
Farhoud then sent these newly acquired 3-D
data into the rapid prototyper, which lays down plaster layer-by-layer to
"print" 3-D models.
Greenberg and Farhoud are confident they can
construct models from data generated by other common tools of the nanotechnology
trade, such as atomic force microscopy (AFM). In fact, AFM output has proven
easier to work with than SEM images, says Farhoud, because the data are already
3-D. They also plan to replicate other nanoscale surfaces, such as those made
from materials called block copolymers.
Besides being fun to touch and handle,
Greenberg hopes the models will encourage more blind and visually impaired
students to pursue science, technology and engineering. Because current learning
and research tools don't allow them to experience science on their own, many
blind students don't consider science an attractive career choice.
"One of the goals of our program is to build
diversity into science and engineering," he says. "We really want to open these
careers to anyone who is interested."
About researcher:
Dr.
Andrew Greenberg
REU in Nanotechnology Program Coordinator
1101 University Avenue
Madison, WI 53706
Email:
greenberg@chem.wisc.edu
Phone: 608-890-1534
Fax: 608-265-8094
Funding:
The UW-Madison NSEC, one
of 14 Nanoscale Science and Engineering Centers, and the MRSEC, one of 28
Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers, are funded through the
National Science Foundation (NSF).
The NSEC and MRSEC research programs are at the forefront of nanoscience and
technology research. The centers combined are home to over 40 faculty members
and more than 70 graduate student and post doctoral researchers from more than
10 departments and 4 colleges throughout the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
In pictures:
1.A
close-up of the 3-D, plaster model of "NanoBucky" showing the individual carbon
nanofibers that the structure is built from. Researcher Andrew Greenberg,
education and outreach coordinator for NSF's Nanoscale Science and Engineering
Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Mohammed Farhoud, a
UW-Madison senior in biochemistry, are constructing models to allow visually
impaired students to feel the nanofibers, teaching these students about
nanosurfaces and the construction of nanostructures.
2.An
enlarged, 3-D model of "NanoBucky," a nanoscale version of the University of
Wisconsin-Madison mascot Bucky Badger, is made entirely from tiny carbon
nanofiber "hairs." To create the 3-D model, Mohammed Farhoud, a UW-Madison
senior in biochemistry, converted the 2-D information contained in a scanning
electron microscopy image of the original NanoBucky into 3-D, and then used
these data to "print" the model in plaster with an engineering tool known as a
rapid prototyping printer. The 3-D version is tens of thousands of times larger
than the original NanoBucky--9,000 of which can fit on the head of a pin--but
still faithfully replicates the nanofibers composing the nano-mascot's
structure.
3.From
left, Andrew Greenberg, education and outreach coordinator for NSF's Nanoscale
Science and Engineering Center (NSEC) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison,
and Mohammed Farhoud, a UW-Madison senior in biochemistry, pose with their
enlarged, 3-D model of the nanoscale structure "NanoBucky." By giving blind and
visually impaired students a chance to explore nanoscale surfaces with their
hands, Greenberg hopes the models will help these students grasp nanoscience
concepts and entice more of them to pursue science, technology and engineering.
 
| Related research: |
A new technique for nanolithography, A reliable, reproducible method for parallel fabrication of multiple nanogap electrodes, A system for manipulating and precisely positioning individual nanowires on semiconductor wafers., Determine nanotech risks, Develop lultrasmal low-cost recipe for patterning microchips, Exchange transition phenomenon involving ambient gas and water molecules, Hidden Order Found in a Quantum Spin Liquid, How to drastically change the properties of certain materials by confining their molecules in nanospaces, Microscopic "nanolamps" -- light-emitting nanofibers about the size of a virus or the tiniest of bacteria, New Physical Phenomenon Seeing High Frequency Waves by Combining Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Shock Waves, Nozzle and Liquid Effects on the spray modes in Nanoelectrospray, Physicists have built single nanotube that makes world's smallest radio, Researchers can experiment important properties for the conversion of sunlight into electricity Using nanotechnology, Study Finds Quantum Dots Nanoparticles Can Penetrate Skin Through Minor Abrasions
|
|
