Nanotechnology and Human Health

Classroom Activities

Experiencing Self-Assembly

In this activity students will experience the concept of self-assembly and then write about what occurred as a way for them to summarize the process of self-assembly and the conditions that make it work. The classroom should be set up with 3-4 stations/areas that are labeled to simulate an environment. Suggested labels include Water, Sunshine, Air, and Land. You may choose to have different colored sheets of paper and markers as optional materials for students to use during the activity.

Have students go to any area of the room according to their personal preference for the label. Tell students that they are not to move to their preferred area until they hear the sound you specify, such as a bell or whistle. An option you may want to consider is to provide students with a card indicating the area they should go to in order to control the number of students at each station. Once at their stations, direct students to arrange themselves into some type of pattern or geometric shape. The arrangement you designate can be based on the topic you are covering in math at the time such as repeating patterns, 2 or 3 dimensional geometry, etc. One in their arrangements, instruct students to hold hands.

As you walk around, quickly sketch the pattern or shape each group has formed. You may choose to give this assignment to a student. In the sketch, each of their heads represents an atom or molecular structure and their arms represent the connecting bonds. Each group collective group of students represents a molecule or nanostructure. Follow up the activity with a discussion touching on points similar to: What did you do in this activity? What caused you to go to a specific section? How did you go about arranging yourselves into a pattern or shape? Did you find yourselves changing positions before you settled on a final pattern or shape?

After discussion, have students write an explanation of what they did and how it was accomplished. Make sure they understand the activity was a representation of self-assembly. Thy key points you want to make sure they include in their explanations and relate back to self-assembly are that they are the ingredients representing some element with its own specific properties, the signs represented preferred environments of the 'ingredients or elements', the sound, bell, whistle or other sound, was the driving force, and they were able to move around and change their positions until they settled on a final configuration representing weak interactions or reversible binding forces. Have student volunteers share their summaries and use them as a lead in to a more formal explanation of self-assembly of nanoparticles at the molecular level.

I Have Who Has

This is a whole group class activity that involves students reading a question from a card, another students answering the question with a response on their card and then asking a new question in a round robin fashion. The I Have Who Has Cards are included in the appendix for you to print and cut out for classroom use. A worksheet, consisting of a column of numbered terms and a column of lettered definitions, for students to complete during the activity should be developed as well. As the answers are given, students should match the correct lettered definition with the appropriate numbered term.

Math Representation Chart

For this activity students will be provided with an incomplete chart with headings for various ways to represent numbers mathematically including representations for: decimal, fraction, scientific notation, positive exponential notation, and negative exponential notation. The number will also be represented in words. The chart will have some of the cells filled in and students will be required to complete all of the remaining cells that are appropriate for that number.