Listed below are lesson plans that you can use in your high school classroom or science club. Click on the lab title to a .pdf version with all the details, including a complete supplies list.
- Modeling tissue engineering via nanotechnology (PowerPoint) - This lesson will teach students how to transform a clay model into a 3D model of vascular tissue.
- What is a nanometer? - This lesson will introduce students to the idea of a nanometer and give them a feel for the relative sizes of nanometer objects.
- Electrospun nanofibers - This lesson will show students the effects of voltage, solution concentration, distance, and time on the creation of nanofibers, and how to operate a metering pump.
- Superhydrophobicity and superhydrophilicity (Nanograss) - This lesson will show students how "nanowhiskers" on the surface of nanograss makes the material hydrophobic.
- Nanofibers on your clothes - This lesson will illustrate the usefulness of nanotechnology as it applies to making clothing more water resistant, yet lighter.
- Measuring magnetic field strengths using ferrofluids - This lesson will help students directly visualize magnetic fields and allow them to calculate the inverse square relationship between field strength and distance from a magnet.
- Rheology and nanoscale suspension behavior - This lesson will teach students how to model the use of a nano-sized "smart material" using larger, more familiar compounds.
- Wavelength and resolution - This lesson will introduce students to the idea of resolution, as well as equipment and techniques used to indirectly “see” features smaller than the resolution of our eyes.
- Measuring the visible to understand the invisible - This lesson focuses on physical property measurements, including volume, circumference, and area, and gives the students practice in graphing and interpreting graphs.
- Introduction to sun protection - This lesson will build on the idea of opacity and nanotechnology to test a student's pre-conceived notions about how the way a material looks relates to how well it will block light (specifically, UV radiation).
- Measuring the large and the small (Laser pointer) - This lesson will teach students to measure small objects (e.g. width of a human hair) using light waves.
- Does size matter? - This lesson will teach students about the importance of surface area and how it affects chemical and physical processes.
- Molecular modeling - This lesson uses a popular chemical modeling software package, Spartan, to visualize bonding, and measure bond lengths and bond angles.
- Gold nanoparticle biosensors - This lesson will explain how nanotechnology can be used in common, everyday sensors, such as home pregancy tests.
- Experiments in nanotechonology: Ferrofluids - This lesson will introduce students to ferrofluids as well as allow the students to visualize magnetic fields
- Mystery fluids - This lesson will test the students' observation and description skills by having them compare various solutions.