My Science Classes, went on three Field Trips this year. The last one, on Friday June 5th was to Blue Jay Point a Wake County Park. We hiked a trail, had two classes on Animal Tracks and also Pond Ecosystems. The kids looked for animal signs on the trail, looked under logs, used their nature eyes.. and had a great time in the woods. Most of my students do not get out in the woods often. We also made animal tracks with molds to take home. We then did pond dipping and found tadpoles, salamanders and a variety of invertebrates. The kids enjoyed this.
We also talked about how we can use nanotechnology to monitor the environment. My students did a project this year with a school in Singapore on Water Quality and water use. We leaned about water usage in products and then how in Singapore waste water is recycled for drinking and they really wanted to learn more about water quality and water pollution. I also used many lessons from Project Wet: http://www.projectwet.org/ . We also did a project on the Ecosystem Within Us: The Microbiome and learned lots about bacteria and our health. I think these project raised their interest in water, water quality and bacteria. I think this background helped my students come up with some of the ideas about how nanotechnology could be used in environment. The ideas they came up with are:
1. monitoring pollution using: plants, animals and hikers/people having wearable devices/monitors
2. measuring acid rain
3. measuring CO2 Levels
4. measuring fertilizers or other pollutions in the water from local sources, since the park was near houses
5. measuring water quality in the pond through seasons
6. measuring bacteria content in soil or water
Some articles we looked at:
http://www.nanowerk.com/nanotechnology-and-the-environment.php
http://www.understandingnano.com/environmental-nanotechnology.html
Although we did not use the NSTA Book: Welcome to Nanoscience: Interdisciplinary Environmental Explorations: Andrew Madden et al, I would recommend it. This book has lessons on Nanoscience in : water, mineral and bacteria science, metal transport. it had 5 investigations including: Water Pollution and Bacterial Transport in Ground Water.
I am glad I did this Background Unit on Nanotechnology, to give my students and myself a platform which to work on to start the Fellowship and learn more about nanotechnology. I teach my students science, in Grades 6, 7 and 8 so I will at least have my Grade 7 and 8 Students with some background next year to implement what lessons we develop. It will also gave me an idea of projects we can create as a Fellowship Team that fit well with the curriculum, and will engage the students and what areas students will need more background on, in order to understand Nanotechnology, its applications, wearable devices and one world one health. Students also learned about future careers and educational pathways in Nanotechnology which will help engage students to be the next generation of researchers. This unit also utilized the “extra time” we have after EOGS but before school ends in a very productive and engaging way and hopefully help me utilize my Fellowship better too.
