Outreach Highlights
NanoDays: 2020
The 2020 NanoDays went REMOTE this year during the week of October 5-9, 2020! Students watched Super Small Science videos, answered questions about the videos, and received a course completion certificate. Congratulations to St. Peter’s School in Lincoln which had the highest number of students participating in the 2020 REMOTE NanoDays. Second place went to Central Valley High School in Greeley, Nebraska. These top two schools will be awarded free nanoscience kits to use in their classrooms covering topics such as Ferrofluid, NanoSand and others. We want to recognize their support of 2020 NanoDays and their wonderful work with students.
Traveling Nano Exhibit & Teacher Workshop: January 2019
Our Nano Exhibit traveled to Winnebago Schools in January 2019! They were the first school to host the exhibit and a teacher workshop January 10 was provided to support learning about nanoscience through hands-on activities, videos, and presentations.
NanoDays: 2019
The Nebraska Center for Materials and Nanoscience (NCMN) and the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) will hold Lincoln’s annual NanoDays event at Gateway Shopping Center on Saturday, March 30 from 1-4pm. The newest, most transformative realm of scientific discovery and invention is happening at the nanoscale, many times smaller than the microscopic level. To celebrate this exciting science, we invite teachers, students, and their families to be a part of a free, educational festival called NanoDays. This public event offers engaging, hands-on activities to explore the miniscule world of atoms, molecules, and nanoscale forces. Participants will get to:
- Construct their own nanomaterials!
- Investigate how ink jet printers work!
- Experiment with ways of bending light to make objects invisible!
- Chat with UNL faculty and graduate students about current nano research!
- There will also be prizes for the first 100 student attendees who visit all of the ten interactive demonstration tables, and a nanoscience education kit awarded to the elementary and middle schools with the most student attendees.
NanoDays is part of a nationwide festival of educational programs about nanoscale science and engineering sponsored by the NISE Net program and funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF).
NCMN High School Intern and REU Program Successes
The Nebraska Center for Materials and Nanoscience (NCMN) at the University of Nebraska has offered a STEM summer high school internship program for many years now. The program supports select Lincoln-area high school students, 16 years and older, who receive guidance and training in experimental and theoretical techniques in STEM labs at UNL during the summer. A few students have seen their hard work produce some successes. The results for the Siemens Competition in Math, Science, and Technology, one of the most prestigious national competitions for high school STEM research, was announced recently and two NCMN high school intern projects by Jesse Lin (Dr. Siamak Nejati advisor) and Jae Hyun Lim (Dr. Vitaly Alexandrov) were honored in the semifinals! Click here for more information.
NCMN also provides Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU’s) each summer for students. One student’s story can be seen here.
STEM Middle School Programs
Nebraska NASA Space Grant is supporting the STEM focus for underrepresented junior high students through our weekly programs to Lincoln Public Schools. Hands-on outreach activities involving materials science and technology are aligned to NASA interests such as magnetic materials, high-temperature materials, flexible electronics, smart materials, nanoscience, and energy harvesting - all strengths of Nebraska Center for Materials and Nanoscience faculty at UNL.