In this activity we discussed what one in a billionth is, so students could understand nanoscale. We first discussed the numbers in billions we new such as US Budget, Age of Earth, World Population and discussed things on a small scale. I showed: The Power of 10 on YouTube for the students:
We first reviewed Scientific Notation and how it works and also we make solutions such as a 10% Solution of sugar. We made dilutions of food coloring using the lab in NanoScience Activities For Grades 6-12 by M Gail Jones et al, One in a Billion, page 19. Students were amazed they could make such a concentration of one in a billionth. We also discussed how we could not see this but how we could detect if this was correct. I think this was a great activity to review; scientific notation and scale of things, dilutions, measuring things on a small scale such as one in a billionth and what is a nanometer and what does nano mean. We also looked at the book; Cool Science Nanotechnology, p. 6-12.
