The National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network is an integrated geographically-diverse partnership of 14 university-based laboratories supported by the National Science Foundation. Part of our mission is to provide education and outreach to a wide audience through a variety of methods. Our goal is to develop a nano-literate population which is ready for this new technology as consumers and as part of the workforce. Over the past several years, we have developed a set of demonstrations and hands-on activities that we use with school groups, open houses, and community programs. These materials come from a variety of sources including the NNIN and other nano-education groups such as Nanoscale Science and Engineering Centers and Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers. We have compiled a set of 15 of these demonstrations into a user-friendly NNIN Outreach Demonstration Guide (http://www.nnin.org/nnin_k12teachers.html). The activities typically come from larger educational lessons designed for secondary science students. However, with large groups attending short duration events we wanted to use the excitement of these lessons in a demonstration or hands-on activity. Thus, we compiled our favorites into the Guide which span the breadth of nanoscale research and engineering, are easy to do, and require low-cost materials. The Guide provides helpful hints on doing these demonstrations, a list of materials needed, and the resource to find the full lesson that the demonstration is based on. These activities can be performed in a variety of settings including the K-12 classroom and many are tied to concepts taught in the science curriculum. Presented below are three of our 15 activities from the NNIN Demonstration Guide. The full Guide contains demonstrations on: hydrophobic properties, smart memory alloys, ferrofluids, size and scale, nanoproducts, liquid crystals, bunny suits, forces at the nanoscale, self assembly, encapsulation, edible chips, surface effects, allotropes of carbon, tools of nanoscale science and engineering, and thin films.
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