Nanoscience and nanotechnology up close on CNSI High School Day

By Jennifer Marcus

More than 180 Los Angeles high school students visited UCLA's California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) on April 18 for a day of workshops and scientific demonstrations designed to introduce them to the burgeoning fields of nanoscience and nanotechnology.

CNSI High School Day, held at the institute's newly opened integrated research facility, is part of the CNSI's ongoing science education and outreach program to communities and schools.

"The CNSI is not only interested in innovative research and advancing new technologies, we are also interested in fostering enthusiasm for advanced science within our local school systems," said Leonard H. Rome, the institute's interim director and senior associate dean for research at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. "The next generation of graduate students who will study nanoscience and nanotechnology are in middle and high school today."

The day's program included tours of the CNSI building and graduate student-led workshops on nanoscale science and energy generation. High school students participated in real, hands-on nanoscale imaging experiments with the aid of state-of-the-art microscopes, and had the opportunity to view images of the hepatitis C virus, a zebrafish brain in 3-D and the structure of DNA.

Students also lunched with UCLA undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral students and took a tour of the UCLA nanofabrication facility, where nanoscale devices are designed and manufactured.

"CNSI High School Day is an opportunity to stimulate interest in nanotechnology among the young people in our communities," said Sarah Tolbert, director of the CNSI's outreach program. "These programs are designed to excite the natural curiosity in our L.A.-area high school students. This is how we can start to educate the next generation to solve challenging technological problems."

The three high schools participating in the inaugural CNSI High School Day were Camino Nuevo High School (Westlake/MacArthur Park), Reseda High School (San Fernando Valley) and John Marshall High School (Los Feliz, Atwater Village, East Hollywood, northeast Koreatown, Elysian Valley and Silver Lake). A small group of students from the College of the Canyons in the Santa Clarita area also took part.

CNSI plans to host similar events throughout the year to give students from other Los Angeles-area high schools the opportunity to learn more about nanotechnology.

Since its inception, the CNSI has counted community outreach as a fundamental part of its mission. With an eye toward enriching science education in Los Angeles schools, the institute has developed an outreach program to bring nanoscience and nanotechnology to high school students through hands-on experiments.

In addition to direct outreach with students, the CNSI works with local high school teachers, instructing them in how to conduct experiments with their students; educating them on the scientific background needed to understand and explain the experiments to students; and showing how the experiments fit within the California state science standards. The outreach program provides all necessary supplies so that teachers can perform the experiments in their classrooms.