NER: Nanoscale Environmental Sensors and Societal & Educational Implications for Native Americans

0508521货车Wie本提案是响应NSF 04-043，类别NER的纳米科学与工程倡议而收到的。 这项研究福尔斯“环境中的纳米尺度过程”和“纳米尺度进步的社会和教育意义”领域。“已知越来越多的水污染物会生物积累并对人类健康产生不利影响，这对环境，经济和国家安全造成了严重的担忧。 环境污染对美洲原住民的健康风险更为严重，因为他们的生活方式是狩猎和采集，而对移民工人来说，则是除草剂和杀虫剂的暴露。 该调查将使用纳米传感器进行初步研究，以了解管理持久性环境污染物的运输和传感的基本原理，并考虑环境和社会风险因素，因为它们影响美洲原住民和西班牙裔移民社会和经济基础设施。 在社会背景下的早期教育是吸引和培训未来的部落和西班牙裔科学家谁可以帮助他们的社区了解和处理环境问题的关键。 重要的是要教育少数群体社区的知识领袖，使他们能够：理解社会影响;在困难的项目上进行团队合作;与非专业人士和公众进行良好的沟通。该NER将发展对纳米级环境传感器的基本理解，并利用该研究创建一个教育模式，培训纳米科学和教学法的毕业生，与高中教师和代表性不足的学生进行交流，以激发他们对高等教育的兴趣。 少数民族社区的许多高中生没有大学的约束;该项目计划通过直接与这些学生接触来改变这一点。 该NER包括微机械加工，以制造支持长期稳定的双层脂质膜（BLM）的纳米孔，用于快速，灵敏的ISE以监测水环境;使用免疫原性分子竞争来识别不带电的有机污染物;通过用来自极端细菌的脂质改变纳米结构来稳定BLM;并采用动手合作教学法，侧重于社会环境问题所面临的美洲原住民和西班牙裔移民社会。 主要的教育特色包括与CTUIR的Nixyaawii部落特许学校和西班牙裔Mabton Jr.合作。高中纳入其科学课程的基本科学组成部分;开发学生友好和强大的手持fieldable电子包，以协助研究的教育部分，并与高中教师互动，以开发学生友好的科学课程为中心的环境和社会相关性的纳米技术。 主要的智力价值是尖端的基础和应用研究离子选择性膜瓶颈领域，使环境纳米传感器，和教育实验，以测试在社会背景下鼓励部落和西班牙裔代表性不足的群体考虑中等教育的新模式。结果将包括研究和教育模式，可以通过同行机构在吸引新一代的本科生从代表性不足的少数民族，和先进的纳米生物传感器，以更好地监测土著部落土地和农业环境的移民工作。

0508521 Van Wie This proposal was received in response to Nanoscale Science and Engineering initiative, NSF 04-043, category NER. This research falls under the areas of "Nanoscale Processes in the Environment" and "Societal and Educational Implications of Advances on the Nanoscale." Growing numbers of aqueous pollutants are known to bio-accumulate and adversely affect human health, which creates serious concerns for the environment, economics, and national security. Health risks from environmental contamination are even more serious for Native Americans, due to a hunting and gathering lifestyle, and for migrant workers, due to herbicide and pesticide exposure. This inquiry will perform preliminary studies with nanoscale sensors to understand fundamental principles governing transport and sensing of persistent environmental contaminants, and consider environmental and social risk factors as they impact Native American and Hispanic migrant society and economic infrastructure. Early education in a societal context is the key to attracting and training future Tribal and Hispanic scientists who can help their communities understand and deal with environmental concerns. It is important to educate intellectual leaders in minority communities who can: understand social implications; work in teams on difficult projects; and communicate well with non-specialists and the public. This NER will develop fundamental understanding on nanoscale environmental sensors and use the research to create an educational model that trains graduates in nanoscience and teaching pedagogy, to interface with high school teachers and underrepresented students to stimulate interest in higher education. Many high school students in minority communities are not college bound; the project plans to alter this by directly interfacing with these students. This NER includes micromachining to make nanopores that support long-term stable bilayer lipid membranes (BLMs) for fast, sensitive ISEs to monitor the aqueous environment; using immunogenic molecular competition to identify non-charged organic pollutants; stabilizing BLMs by changing nanostructure with lipids from extremophile bacteria; and employing a hands-on cooperative pedagogy focused on socio-environmental problems facing Native American and Hispanic migrant societies. Key educational features include collaborating with the Nixyaawii Tribal Charter School of the CTUIR and Hispanic Mabton Jr./Sr. High School to incorporate basic scientific components into their science curriculum; developing student friendly and robust hand-held fieldable electronic packages to assist in the educational component of the research, and interacting with the high school faculty to develop student friendly scientific curricula centered on environmental and societal relevance of nanoscale technology. Of major intellectual merit are cutting-edge basic and applied research on ion selective membrane bottleneck areas, to make environmental nanoscale sensors, and an educational experiment to test a new model in societal context for encouraging Tribal and Hispanic underrepresented groups to consider secondary education. Results will include research and educational models that can be adopted by peer institutions in attracting a new generation of undergraduates from under-represented minorities, and advanced nanoscale biosensors for better environmental monitoring of Native Tribal lands and agricultural settings where migrants work.