Christiansburg Library STEM Club Explores Hands-On Nano Activities
The Christiansburg Library hosted The National Center for Earth and Environmental Nanotechnology Infrastructure (NanoEarth) for their November Homeschool Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Club meeting. The group meets once a month to learn and participate in fun and interactive activities! After a two-year hiatus due to pandemic restrictions, the Montgomery-Floyd Regional Library and NanoEarth have partnered together again. NanoEarth’s Diversity and Outreach Coordinator, Sylvianne Velasquez, and Virginia Tech medicinal chemistry and biochemistry student, Amiya Jenkins, helped elementary and middle school students discover nanotechnology properties. Students rotated through five hands-on stations, learning how properties on the nanoscale changes the macroscale. They explored these properties as water beaded on water resistant fabric, heated nitinol springs moved back to their original state, ferrofluid magnetized and demagnetized, kinetic sand changed shape, and nano sand stayed dry while submerged in water. To continue their learning, students took home VT College of Science drawstring bags, MIT.nano coloring sheets, and the Cornell NanoScale Facility (CNF) Nanooze magazine.
