ICorps: Polymer Semiconductor Educational Kits

这个I-Corps项目的更广泛的影响是改善材料科学领域的实践实验室经验，并提高9-12和本科生学生/教师的STEM意识。该教育工具包弥合了理论和实际分子材料技术之间的差距。该工具包是一个交互式学习工具，专为跨学科的实验室活动，可用于物理，化学，工程和材料科学教育环境。这些工具包提供了所有必要的材料、一套完整的课程和执行培训。教师专业发展研讨会有助于将实验室活动融入教师？科学课程，同时解决国家和国际科学标准。有一个显着的市场动手实验室活动，结合当代科学实验目前正在调查和发展中的大学一级。学区和科学/工程部门可能会有兴趣购买这些工具包，使其成为具有商业影响力和重要的教育平台。该工具包是灵活的，可以扩展到包括未来的实验和专业发展。这些工具包也可以用于课外活动，如科学展览会和比赛。这个I-Corps项目涉及一个聚合物电子实验室工具包，以改善9-12和本科生的材料科学教育。三个模块的工具包和课程使用聚合物半导体提供动手调查活动集成的导电性，光发射和光捕获太阳能转换的主题。这些主题对当代材料科学研究和教育至关重要。该试剂盒包括用于评估导电胶态聚苯胺油墨的电性能的材料，用于使用聚亚苯基乙烯基构建聚合物发光二极管，以及用于使用聚苯乙烯聚合物和纳米颗粒TiO 2构建聚合物太阳能电池。最初为高中科学教室设计，开发的活动也符合新的大学本科教育的大分子，超分子和纳米级系统的课程要求，并可用于本科教学实验室。这些单元和工具包也已在专业发展培训讲习班中实施，以供培训9& #8722;该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impacts of this I-Corps project are to improve hands-on laboratory experiences in the field of materials science and to increase STEM awareness for students/instructors at the 9-12 and undergraduate levels. The educational kit bridges the gap between theoretical and practical molecular materials technologies. The kit is an interactive learning tool designed for interdisciplinary laboratory activities and can be used in physics, chemistry, engineering, and material science educational settings. The kits provide all needed materials, a fully developed curriculum, and training for implementation. Professional development workshops for instructors help to integrate the laboratory activities into instructor?s existing science curriculum while addressing national and international science standards. There is a significant market for hands-on laboratory activities that incorporate contemporary science experiments currently under investigation and development at the university level. School districts and science / engineering departments will likely be interested in acquiring the kits, making them a commercially impactful and important education platform. The kit is flexible and can be expanded upon to include future experiments and professional development. The kits can also be used and developed for extracurricular activities such as science fairs and competitions.This I-Corps project involves a polymer electronics laboratory kit to improve materials science education for 9-12 and undergraduate students. The three-module kit and curriculum use polymer semiconductors to provide hands-on inquiry activities integrating themes of electrical conductivity, light emission, and light-harvesting solar energy conversion. These themes are critical to contemporary materials science research and education. The kit includes materials to evaluate the electrical properties of conductive colloidal polyaniline inks, to construct a polymer light- emitting diode using polyphenylene vinylene, and to build a polymer solar cell using semiconductive polymers and nanoparticulate TiO2. Designed initially for high school science classrooms, the activities developed also meet new collegiate undergraduate education requirements for macromolecular, supramolecular, and nanoscale systems in the curriculum and can be used in undergraduate teaching laboratories. The modules and kit have also been implemented in professional development workshops for training 9−12 science educators to help integrate the laboratory activities into their curriculum.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.