Revealing the Invisible Universe: from Nanoscope to Telescope

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This proposal was submitted in response to the MPS Internships in Public Science Education (MPS-IPSE) solicitation, NSF 02-064. The project aims to create informal science programs that appeal to public interest by highlighting scientific areas in which people are interested, and broaden the audience for science by sending programs into the community. It will concurrently provide valuable experience to undergraduate and graduate students in communicating about science with public audiences. This is a collaborative effort among the Flandrau Science Center, the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, the Arizona State Museum and the Science and Math Education Center, and the National Optical Astronomy Observatory at the University of Arizona. The project will create three modular programs for the general public and middle-school groups. The programs will highlight the use of optical and electron-beam technologies to extend human vision out to the edge of the universe, and into the atomic structure of materials. The first program, Electronic Detectives of the Future and Past, will examine the use of electron microscopy to develop new materials for the future, as well as to understand how Native Americans used materials in ancient times. The second, called Revealing the Invisible, will look at the use of infrared detectors on satellites to look both into space and back at archeological sites on Earth. The third program, Bucky and the Nanotubes, will tell the story of the accidental discovery of buckyballs during the course of basic Astronomy research, and their potentially revolutionary applications to the development of new materials. Program designs will emphasize scientific process and people, and illustrate how and why recent advances have been made. These stories of discovery will be accompanied by science demonstrations as well as slide and video imagery. Hands-on activities will accompany each program. %%% The project will develop descriptive programs about science that appeal to public interest. The programs will highlight scientific areas which appeal to the public, and are expected to broaden the audience for science. The project will concurrently provide valuable experience to undergraduate and graduate students in communicating about science with public audiences. Broad impacts of the project include participating interns and the audiences they reach. The project will train a diverse group of interns (18 undergraduates, 6 graduate students and 6 teachers over three years) in science and informal science education. The programs they develop will continue to be offered to school groups and the general public at the Science Center after the life of the grant. Some modules will also be offered at the Arizona State Museum extending the reach of science programming to a broader audience. Annual attendance at the Science Center is approximately 60,000, of which 25,000 are children in groups. Equivalent numbers at the State Museum are 50,000 and 5000. Discovery boxes will be created for teachers and museum docents to use in the classroom to complement these programs. In addition, program scripts, images and videos will be made available via the Internet for other science centers to adapt and use. The project is supported by the MPS Office of Multidisciplinary Activities (OMA). ***