NanoEarth Hosts Explore Physical Sciences Camp Students


The National Center for Earth and Environmental Science (NanoEarth) hosted 48 rising 11th and 12th graders for the annual summer Virginia Tech (VT) College of Science’s Explore Physical Sciences Camp. Students arrived from eight different states, including Virginia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland, Missouri, Louisiana, and New Jersey. NanoEarth hosted students for a nanoscience day during their weeklong on-site camp.
Students met with four highly specialized Nanoscale Characterization and Fabrication Laboratory (NCFL) instrument specialists and three Virginia Tech students. NCFL staff who assisted in demos included Hongyu Wang, Ph.D., Steve McCartney, Weinan Leng, Ph.D, and Jarret Wright, Ph.D.
In the four labs, students learned about the nano scale, why nanoscience and nanotechnology research is important, and what kind of instruments are used for this specified research. The labs included tours and demos with the Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM), Focused Ion Beam (FIB), Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), and the XPS: Scanning Photoelectron Spectrometer Microprobe.






In the fifth rotation, students learned how the nano scale applies at a level that can be seen. The NISE NanoDays Kits were led by VT Materials Science and Engineering graduate student Anugrahaprada Mukundan, VT Geosciences graduate student Eleni Ziu, and VT Nanomedicine Junior Madeline White. Students completed interactive demos including heat transfer, ferrofluid, kinetic sand, and nano fabrics. Ziu and White aided in photography and day of organization for the event.

