Our journey started with the vision of creating a powerful outreach tool by making the San Diego Nanotechnology Infrastructure’s (SDNI) Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) remotely accessible, allowing students and teachers control of basic functions, such as zooming and focusing from their own classes. A proprietary software was created by our staff and with the help of Zeiss (the SEM manufacturer) to enable the safe and secure operation of the SEM via internet-driven commands. After SDNI joined the RAIN network in 2018, our outreach efforts have taken off. We project having reached over 2,000 students in 2019.
Our strategic approach to SEM access is part of a larger vision: Bring sustainable nanotechnology content to the current NGSS-aligned K-12 science curricula, and community college programs across California by 2025. This vision has been successful when approaching schools, school districts, and county offices of education administrators and science specialists, who have so far been proactive in introducing us to their schools and teachers and confirm their interest and endorsement of nanotechnology contents for integration to the science curricula. We also approach teachers directly and word of mouth from teachers to colleagues has been a good catalyst for outreach expansion.
Following RAIN sessions, we provide teachers with nanotechnology lab activities that are executable in a K-12 (low resource) environment. We anticipate creating lessons based on these activities and extend the content to additional curriculum that can address related phenomena. We are aiming to reach all the school districts in Southern California (from Santa Barbara to San Diego) by the end of June 2020. We would like to eventually bring successful case studies to the California Department of Education in support of making nanotechnology content mandatory for all official educational resources.
In closing, I would like to state that the fascination of the students when looking at matter at the nanoscale has confirmed that RAIN can be one of the most powerful engagement tools ever made accessible to the K-12 student population. RAIN sessions provide students with such a unique knowledge tool.
I would like to thank the following for all their help in making this program possible: Dr. Bernd Fruhberger, Dr. Ryan Nicholl, Phil Rios, Ms. KD Derr, Ms. Lesli Horowitz, Ms. Patricia Beller, Marquez Balingit, Almira Decena, Natalie Toon and the entire RAIN Network. We could not have started this program without you.
[Photos by CBS8.com. Click here for more information.]
