Microscopy Camp 2007

Check out PERSPECTIVES: POWERS OF TEN

 

We all had a marvelous time at Micrsocopy Camp 2007!

What are crystals made of? What’s the difference between salt and sugar crystals? Can we see atoms? What is the current model of atomic structure? What equipment is used to image objects at atomic resolution? How can we teach students about the particulate nature of matter? How small is nano? How is nanotechnology important to me and people close to me?
Profs. Penn (Chemistry) and Flynn (Science Education) have developed and implemented Microscopy Camp, and the above is just a small sampling of the questions they address. Microscopy Camp

Microscopy Camp 2007 (July 30 – August 3, 2007) was expanded, and funded through the Department of Education, to serve middle school and high school science teachers. Nineteen teachers from around Minnesota and Wisconsin attended MC 2007, including Per Lee, who took Prof. Penn’s Chemistry 1022 (General Chemistry II) course in 2001!

 

The demos we did were pretty sweet. Here teachers are getting ready for the soda geyser demonstration. Each teacher had a 1 L bottle of soda equipped with a cap designed to hold winter green lifesaves above the soda until countdown was complete!

Soda geysers are fun!

Teachers spent a lot of time performing their own experiments.

More experiments!

Here, a teacher is synthesizing gold nanoparticles. The red fluid in her beaker is an aqueous suspension of gold nanoparticles. The red color is due to the gold nanoparticles, which are ca. 10 nm in diameter.

This is an experiment meant to simulate how nanoparticles can be used in the treatment of cancer. Injecting the right kind of nanoparticles into cancer tissue can enable medical personnel to heat only the cancer tissue, leaving the healthy tissue undamaged.

We looked at lots of interesting stuff using a scanning electron microscope.

This is a simulation of a grain elevator explosion using lycopodium powder.

We looked at tons of interesting thing using light microscopes - bugs, sand, rocks, minerals, household chemicals, gold nanoparticles, and more!

 

Atomic-structure image of a single GOLD nanoparticle. This object is only 10 nm in diameter! How big is one nanometer? That's one billionth of one meter. This image was collected using the high-resolution transmission electron microscopy located at the Institute of Technology's Characterization Facility. To see information about the microscope, CLICK HERE!