Each year we re-define our project goals based on the amount of resources available and requests to partner with other organizations and universities that match our vision and mission.
Our 2009 mission has a focus on introducing nano science curriculum into classrooms and as content for the OLPC computers to reach k-12 students.
We have also launched a NanoArt for K-12 online exhibit.
Scroll down to the bottom for all updates on this project.
2009 may prove to be a pivotal year for acceptance of nano science instructional materials in the classrooms of U.S. public schools due to the new administration's goal of improving education.
Our global goals are also experiencing a pivotal year as the content sites have been developed and volunteers can upload nanoscience materials for the OLPC computers for grades k-12.
If you would like to participate as a volunteer or donate funding to support a project that is in development please contact
Judith.LightFeather@TNTG.org or by phone at 936-462-1139.
Outreach program volunteer participation to include nano science curriculum for K-12 at www.Curriki.org
and the One Laptop per Child content site at http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Educators#Contribute_content
We have had many requests from teachers to create a syllabus by grade level of the new instructional materials developed through the nationwide outreach programs listed on our K-12 Outreach page. Even though these classroom lessons are already assessed and approved, our teachers do not have time in their teaching syllabus to create a new course, nor look for nano science curriculum that would be grade appropriate as in-depth add-on learning modules at each grade level based the topics included in the various science textbooks. Since all of the outreach programs are developed as free resources under the www.creativecommons.org license, they can be organized to fit into the required skill levels of current science topics.
It would be very helpful to the teachers in our public schools if this service could be included by the project developers, based on the national and state skill levels while they are developing the instructional materials as an extra step to help us reach more classrooms. If this approach interests your outreach team, our organization will provide our IRS designation letter to recognize your donated time as a volunteer. Visit the site and review the tools available as resources for teachers and let us know if you can upload your project curriculum for nano science. Each lesson that is posted will help our students and teachers take the step of inclusion in the classrooms, increasing the value of your project funding as expansion of outreach.
New Curriculum Development Resources for Teachers
Education Tools
Curriki is designed to accommodate our community of educators, parents and students to work together to develop interesting, creative and effective educational materials that the global educational community can use for free.
The goal is to:
Develop curriculum through community contributors
Deliver the curriculum globally
Determine the impact by project and by individual
The initial focus is on K-12 curricula in the areas of mathematics, science, technology, reading and language arts, and languages.
Some of the Outreach programs for nanoscale science need to be adopted and developed for the teachers to discern the appropriate grade level for introduction into classrooms as indepth materials to expand topics now listed in current textbooks. Curriki provides open source curriculum tools to accomplish these goals.
http://www.curriki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Main/
The OLPC project is now ready for content
Teachers, Programmers and Developers can also help us provide nano science education as content in the laptops. Visit the Outreach Programs listed for K-12 that are published under the creativecommons attribution 2.5 license and qualify for inclusion under the OLPC guidelines.
Educators page: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Educators
Teachers, programmers and developers interested in volunteer opportunities:
(a) Online, open-source, wiki-textbooks, math and science projects, dictionaries, geographies, histories, social studies, health and nutrition courses, and translations into indigenous languages. These materials can be customized for a particular region or group of children or for more general use throughout the OLPC world; Go to OLPC Content wikipage: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Educators#Contribute_content
(b) Software applications not otherwise available on laptops for children that will enhance the general usefulness of laptops in every location. This could be, for example, educational games; collaborative and archiving tools; or artistic, video and graphic tools; Go to OLPC Developers Programwikipage.
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Developers_Program
(c) Other ways to participate can be found on this OLPC wikipage.
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Getting_involved_in_OLPC
All materials and peripherals developed with OLPC Foundation support must follow open source formats and standards and be available without fee for use by any child with an OLPC-provided laptop.
Support Global Education with The NanoTechnology Group Inc. project
Donate under our 501 (c) 3 designation EIN#73-3039012
All donations are tax deductable as an approved IRS designated foundation
Donated time for content development will be acknowledged by IRS with an in-kind letter from our organization at the end of the year if you report your hours and provide your contact information and a list of the instructional materials that were uploaded for the program by email to: Judith.LightFeather@TNTG.org
Extend the reach of your NSF funded projects to develop K-12 nano science curriculum by volunteering to upload the finished lessons at both of these sites for U.S. classrooms and students in developing nations.
Global
Rice-African partnership is open-education blockbuster
SUMMARY:
Houston-based Rice University and Cape Town, South Africa-based Shuttleworth Foundation today announced plans to jointly develop one of the world's largest, most comprehensive sets of free online teaching materials for primary and secondary school children. Using their open-education projects -- Rice's Connexions and the Shuttleworth's Siyavula -- the organizations will work to transform South African primary and secondary education with a bold initiative based on open-access educational content, open-source software, and online educator communities.
Read entire article at Resources-Global Outreach
NanoART for KIDS has been launched...
The first two paintings have been posted. The students are from Kindergarten and Grade 5.
http://nanoart21.org/nanoart2006/index.php?cat=15
Click on the painting to open for larger view and click again and more information from the student.
We encourage teachers to view the albums to gain an understanding of the beauty of science at the nanoscale and then read the following article.
NanoArt for Kids program opens the window
to this tiny scale of science for K-12 students
Children learn by exploring their world and will now be able to see a tiny version of our world that looks quite different with powerful microscopes to challenge their imaginations
Nacogdoches, TX – August 13, 2008 - The NanoArt K12 program has been launched by Cris Orfescu, artist and scientist from NanoArt21.org in collaboration with Judith Light Feather, artist and founder of The Nanotechnology Group Inc., which provides support to group members for the facilitation and development of innovative Nanoscale Science education globally.
The purpose of this worldwide program is to stimulate creativity and expand the visionary imaginations of our children through innovative education activities to promote a new paradigm unifying the art-science-technology intersections at the nanoscale. Size matters in all scales of science and textbook publishers have not included the nanoscale of science in their subject matter for K-12 students. Universities are now offering teachers workshops in various areas of the country to explain nano science to high school students in hopes that they will introduce new material into their classrooms.
NanoArt is a new discipline which combines art with science creating paintings and sculptures at molecular and atomic levels. Scientists use chemical or physical processes to explore the surfaces, composition and interaction of elements at the nanoscale, which can now be viewed and manipulated with powerful research tools like scanning electron (SEM) scanning tunneling (STM) and atomic force microscopes (AFM). These scientific images are then captured and further processed, using different digital techniques. Since these tools are too expensive for primary grade classrooms we will be providing weblinks to sites that the children, parents and teachers can explore.
Nano means ‘dwarf’ and a nanometer is 1 billionth of a meter which is too small to see with the human eye. This unique introduction to the K-12 students showcasing the beauty of nature at this tiny scale of science is designed to stimulate their imagination and curiosity strengthening the desire to learn more science, technology and engineering (STEM) courses as they move through the primary grades and enter high school.
Art is the perfect media for this first introduction as the visual scans naturally challenge the child to recognize patterns in the shapes they are familiar with in their everyday reality. You will soon discover when viewing the scans provided that many familiar shapes will appear within the scans that can be further developed through drawings, paintings and sculptures, which can be submitted for the NanoArt K12 online exhibition. All compositions will be grouped online by age/grade level for the viewers.
Nanoflower scan for art ‘Nano Wisdom' oil pastel painting
In preparing for this launch Light Feather developed an oil pastel painting from the nanoflower scan (shown above) that would serve as an example of an image that was reflected in the patterns. ” I could have created a flower, a bear, or a monkey as the example, but my imagination saw the owl as the predominant shape that resonated with my mind. I have titled it "Nano Wisdom" as the energy of the owl has always been noted in Native American cultures to honor wisdom and 'wisdom keepers.' In moving forward to present this science to our young children and the research that will result in new technology we will need this wisdom,“ she said.
It is our intention that the NanoArt for Kids will open the door for teachers to explore the outsource materials being created and include some of the visual elements and experiential online labs in their classrooms in the future.
You can download the PDF file of the recommended modules for exploration and the Form for submitting your child's artwork.
New scans have been released and can be used for this project.
Send your questions to k12@nanoart21.org or Judith.LightFeather@TNTG.org
Source: The NanoTechnology Group NanoNews Division
Notes for teachers:
A teacher in New Hampshire wrote and asked for ideas for her 4th grade art class regarding the NanoArt project. The textbooks include a section for light and shadow in art and she wanted to know how to apply it for the nano art exhibit. I sent her the following response and hope it may help other art teachers as well. Please note that we have not set any deadlines for submission so that you can include this project in the Spring 2009.
The Powers of Ten Microscope is the first place I would take students so they could understand the 'size matters' issue.
They can pause the Powers of Ten microscope and go back and forth between the sizes when you get down to the nanoscale and smaller. Watch for the leaf on the tree and then you can pause it at 100 nanometers which shows the DNA and next is the neucleosome of the DNA which is 1 nanometer.
Experience Microscopy:
Visitors can adjust the focus, contrast, and magnification of microscopic creatures viewed at thousands of times their actual size.
Go to Powers of Ten Interactive Java Tutorials for Teachers and Students from Florida State University
http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/java/scienceopticsu/powersof10/index.html
Teachers Interactive Lesson Plans
The teachers interactive lessons are at this link and they do cover light and shadow at this small scale.
http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/optics/activities/teachers/index.html
Photo Galleries to Explore
This section show a list of all the photo galleries that you can access. They have so many topics you can explore for the children, even Ice Cream and Hamburgers and french fries.
http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/micro/gallery.html
This section is the Interactive Microscopes
Interactive Java Tutorials
Welcome to the Molecular Expressions Virtual Microscopy website. We invite you to visit the interactive Java-powered virtual microscopes that we have constructed. These virtual microscopes explore specimen focus, illumination intensity, magnification, and translation---operating essentially in a manner that is identical to real-life microscopes.
http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/virtual/virtual.html
This section is for light and Color:
Light and Color
Light is a complex phenomenon that is classically explained with a simple model based on rays and wavefronts. The Molecular Expressions Microscopy Primer explores many of the aspects of visible light starting with an introduction to electromagnetic radiation and continuing through to human vision and the perception of color. Each section outlined below is an independent treatise on a limited aspect of light and color. We hope you enjoy your visit and find the answers to your questions.
http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/lightandcolor/index.html
This last one on the above page may be of interest to your students.
Light and Color Java Tutorials - Difficult concepts in the physics of light and the science of optics are much easier to understand with the aid of interactive tutorials that demonstrate various aspects of the principles involved. Check out these cool Java tutorial-applets that explore a wide range of concepts in light, color, and optics.
Each section of this site is set up for teachers and it is all virtual, you don't need to download anything except JAVA if your computers do not have it. The site will automatically download the JAVA tools.
If you are an art or science teacher and would like more ideas on how to introduce nanoscale science through art, please download the PDF file of the recommended modules for exploration or contact
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© 2002-2008 by The Nano Technology Group, Inc. Please share the information with the consideration of a credit line for each use.
The NanoTechnology Group Inc. is a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit organization incorporated in Texas with an international group of partners and welcomes collaboration in the United States and all countries. Supporting education projects that lead to better informed public awareness and formal and informal education in all schools. There are no membership dues, just an exchange of ideas and partner support which involves lending your skills and expertise for project development to reach these goals.