Developing a Polymer Semiconductor Education Kit and Curriculum for High School Science Classrooms

摘要

The development of a new science outreach program is described that uses a polymer semiconductor kit geared towards high school science classrooms. The kit is focused around educating students about polymeric semiconductors and contains materials and curriculum for three educational modules: a conductive polyaniline nano?ber module, a light-emitting diode module using poly(p- phenylene vinylene) (MEH-PPV), and a polymer solar cell using MEH-PPV and TiO2. A previous educational outreach program called “Juice from Juice” whose curriculum and activities explore the science and application of nanomaterials and molecules for low-cost solar cells inspired efforts to develop the polymer science outreach program. Key to the success of these programs is a methodology involving close collaboration between university research centers and high school science teachers both during development and implementation stages of the program.