MPS Internships in Public Science Education - MPS-IPSE: Internships for Creating Presentations on Nanotechnology Topics at a Science Center

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This award to Arizona Science Center (ASC) funded by the Office of Multidisciplinary Activities of the Directorate for Mathematics and Physical Sciences provides paid Internships in Public Science Education for undergraduate students and school teachers affiliated with the Center for Solid State Science at Arizona State University (ASU). The interns from the university will work with science center staff to develop programs for the public and for school outreaches on topics in materials science, with an emphasis on nanotechnology. The ASC-ASU collaboration will create internships for three students per academic year for three years and internships for two local high school teachers per summer for two summers.%%%ASC exhibits and programs focus on science as experienced and applied by people in Arizona and is visited by over 400,000 people annually. ASU promotes research, outreach, and education in a variety of cross-discipline areas in the physical sciences. In the proposed program, student interns will work with research faculty of the Center for Solid State Science and with educators at the Science Center. They will create public demonstrations, "table-top" activities, and multimedia domed planetarium theater presentations in which important developments and concepts in materials science research are presented in an accessible way. Teacher interns who have participated in a summer program in materials science will work with researchers and educators at the two institutions during the summer to develop education programs in materials science subjects suitable for inclusion in ASC's school and after school outreach programs.The three-year project would produce 13 new programs, delivered beyond the life of the project to an estimated 160, 000 visitor's to the Center per year and to over 1200 children per year attending ASC's outreach programs in their schools. Write-ups of the presentations and the results of the project will be disseminated through publications and presentations to museum, science education, and science professionals.