"Exploring Products - Computer Hard Drives" is a hands on activity in which visitors use floating ring magnets to store data. They learn that computer hard drives are one of the most common applications of nanotechnology.
"Exploring Materials - Memory Metal" is a hands on activity in which visitors compare the properties of a memory metal spring to an ordinary spring. They learn that the way a material behaves on the macroscale is affected by its structure on the nanoscale.
This animated lesson explores ways a special kind of metal called shape memory alloys is advancing technology--everything from robots and the Mars Rover to braces!
From ed.ted.com.
Visitors will engage in a variety of survey type questions focusing on different aspects of nanotechnology. For each question posed, they will be provided short descriptions about the possible options. They will then place their vote using a marble in the container labeled with their selection. Throughout the day the public will be able to visualize how others have answered the same question by looking at the quantity of marbles in each container. Museum staff can use the data to chart trends in public knowledge about nanotechnology.
"Exploring Nano & Society - You Decide!" is a hands-on activity in which visitors sort and prioritize cards with new nanotechnologies according to their own values and the values of others. Visitors explore how technologies and society influence each other and how people’s values shape how nanotechnologies are developed and adopted.
"Exploring Nano & Society - Space Elevator" is a open-ended conversational experience in which visitors imagine and draw what a space elevator might look like, what support systems would surround it, and what other technologies it might enable. Conversation around the space elevator lead visitors to explore how technologies and society influence each other and how people’s values shape the ways nanotechnologies are developed and adopted.
In the first part of the “Robots & People” program, visitors learn what robots and nanobots are, what they can do, and how they affect our lives. In the second part of the program, visitors imagine and draw a robot, designing it to do a particular task.
Scientist Speed Dating is a facilitated, yet informal and high-energy, social activity to encourage a large group of people to speak with one another, ask questions, and learn about specific areas of research and practice within the field of nanoscale science and engineering, as well as the related societal and ethical implications of work in this field.
Nano Around the World is a card game designed to get participants to reflect on the potential uses of nanotechnology across the globe. Players each receive three cards: a character card, a current technology card, and a future technology card. They are asked to assume the role of their character to find nanotechnologies that might benefit them. After game play there is a facilitated discussion to help players reflect on the choices they made, the difficulty in finding appropriate technologies for many of the characters, and the possible nanotechnologies that could benefit a wider array of people than current nanotechnologies do.
In this classroom activity, students learn about organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). During the activity students make OLEDs, learn how OLEDs work, and discover what devices currently use OLEDs. Students also learn about spin coating since a spin coater is used to create the OLEDs.
