MHS TEACHES NANOSCIENCE AT MORRIS MUSEUM

On Saturdays April 2nd and 9th, students from Morristown HIgh School journeyed to the Morris Museum to teach children all about the latest discoveries in nanoscience. Led by their teacher Mariel Kolker, the students have been learning about odd yet fascinating parts of the nanoscale world. “The students have been preparing this for weeks,” says Kolker. “Moving from student to teacher is the highest form of learning .”

The students are part of a class called Nanoscale Engineering, where they learn all about how substances change their behavior when brought down to the nanoscale. Looking beyond what individuals generally know, they explored things like ferrofluids, gecko feet, or hydrophobics. All of this and more, they presented to children and their parents at the Morris Museum.

Parents as excited as their children by nanoscience

“It seemed that every time I looked, we were being swarmed, by children and parents alike”, said Jack Plunkett, sophomore at MHS. Properties of nanoscience can be found in daily life, from magnetic fluids being used in space, to water repellent clothing or shoes. Samuel Beilin, one of the students, said, ”The best part of doing this is seeing their eyes lighting up as they start sticking their hands in.” Christian Ratliff added, “Nevermind the kids, the parents were the ones who really wanted to understand what was going on,” with a smile on his face. “It seemed that they were dragging their kids over.”

Nanoscale students prepared activities to teach children at the Morris Museum months before the actual event took place. The students decided to focus on activities such as: ferrofluids, hydrophilic polymers, surface topology, measuring body parts with a nanometer ruler, interactive computer games and more. Kids were able to learn about these different topics all while experiencing it through the interactive displays. “Although our targeted range was 2 to 13 year old children, observing the parent’s reaction was fun as well.” Nanoscience student, Emilio, had said. “Our goal was to really inform and excite everyone about this lesser known topic.”

Project based learning

This is the second year for this innovative new course at Morristown High School, which was developed by Ms. Kolker through a partnership with Stevens Institute of Technology from 2011-2014. The project component is something Ms. Kolker experimented with, and is now a fixed part of the class. “One of the greatest parts of Project Based Learning like this is that the students are able to connect with the community and do meaningful work. They build career-ready skills that traditional learning does not address. They can see how their work has made a difference to others, rather than just submitting it for a grade,” said Kolker. The projects were made possible by a generous grant from the Morris Educational Foundation (MEF).