Each year we re-define our project goals based on the amount of resources available and requests to partner with other organizations and universities that match our vision and mission.
2008 mission has a focus on introducing nano science curriculum into classrooms and as content for the OLPC computers to reach k-12 students.
2008 may prove to be a pivotal year for acceptance of nano science instructional materials in the classrooms of U.S. public schools due to the scheduled testing of science in grades 5, 8, 11 as regulated by the No Child Left Behind Act. Many states will be reviewing science textbooks based on test scores across the nation.
Our global goals are also experiencing a pivotal year as the content sites have been developed and volunteers can upload nanoscience materials for the OLPC computers for grades k-12.
Our third project will be launched later in 2008 as the 1st International Online competitive NanoART for KIDS show as a collaboration with Cris Orfescu, founder of NanoART 2007. More information listed below.
If you would like to participate as a volunteer or donate funding to support a project that is in development please contact
Judith.LightFeather@TNTG.org or by phone at 936-462-1139.
Outreach program volunteer participation to include nano science curriculum for K-12 at www.Curriki.org
and the One Laptop per Child content site at http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Educators#Contribute_content
We have had many requests from teachers to create a syllabus by grade level of the new instructional materials developed through the nationwide outreach programs listed on our K-12 Outreach page. Even though these classroom lessons are already assessed and approved, our teachers do not have time in their teaching syllabus to create a new course, nor look for nano science curriculum that would be grade appropriate as in-depth add-on learning modules at each grade level based the topics included in the various science textbooks. Since all of the outreach programs are developed as free resources under the www.creativecommons.org license, they can be organized to fit into the required skill levels of current science topics. It would be very helpful to the teachers in our public schools if this service could be included by the project developers, based on the national and state skill levels while they are developing the instructional materials as an extra step to help us reach more classrooms. If this approach interests your outreach team, our organization will provide our IRS designation letter to recognize your donated time as a volunteer. Visit the site and review the tools available as resources for teachers and let us know if you can upload your project curriculum for nano science. Each lesson that is posted will help our students and teachers take the step of inclusion in the classrooms, increasing the value of your project funding as expansion of outreach.
New Curriculum Development Resources for Teachers
Education Tools
Curriki is where all of us -- our community of educators, parents and students -- can work together to develop interesting, creative and effective educational materials that the global educational community can use for free.
The goal is to:
Develop curriculum through community contributors
Deliver the curriculum globally
Determine the impact by project and by individual
The initial focus is on K-12 curricula in the areas of mathematics, science, technology, reading and language arts, and languages.
Some of the Outreach programs for nanoscale science need to be adopted and developed for/by the teachers to discern the appropriate grade level for introduction into classrooms as indepth materials to expand topics now listed in current textbooks. Curriki provides open source curriculum tools to accomplish these goals.
http://www.curriki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Main/
The OLPC project is now ready for content
Teachers, Programmers and Developers can also help us provide nano science education as content in the laptops. Visit the Outreach Programs listed for K-12 that are published under the creativecommons attribution 2.5 license and qualify for inclusion under the OLPC guidelines.
Educators page: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Educators
Teachers, programmers and developers interested in volunteer opportunities:
(a) Online, open-source, wiki-textbooks, math and science projects, dictionaries, geographies, histories, social studies, health and nutrition courses, and translations into indigenous languages. These materials can be customized for a particular region or group of children or for more general use throughout the OLPC world; Go to OLPC Content wikipage: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Educators#Contribute_content
(b) Software applications not otherwise available on laptops for children that will enhance the general usefulness of laptops in every location. This could be, for example, educational games; collaborative and archiving tools; or artistic, video and graphic tools; Go to OLPC Developers Programwikipage.
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Developers_Program
(c) Other ways to participate can be found on this OLPC wikipage.
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Getting_involved_in_OLPC
All materials and peripherals developed with OLPC Foundation support must follow open source formats and standards and be available without fee for use by any child with an OLPC-provided laptop.
Support Global Education with The NanoTechnology Group Inc. project
Donate under our 501 (c) 3 designation EIN#73-3039012
All donations are tax deductable as an approved IRS designated foundation
Donated time for content development will be acknowledged by IRS with an in-kind letter from our organization at the end of the year if you report your hours and provide your contact information and a list of the instructional materials that were uploaded for the program by email to: Judith.LightFeather@TNTG.org
Extend the reach of your NSF funded projects to develop K-12 nano science curriculum by volunteering to upload the finished lessons at both of these sites for U.S. classrooms and students in developing nations.
Help us provide laptops to children in Africa!
Send your check to:
The NanoTechnology Group Inc.
7898 W. State Hwy 7
Nacogdoches, TX 75964
Designated Project: AFRICA OLPC
The OLPC project requires that participants must buy a minimum of 100 laptops to designate the destination country for shipping. Since we do not have funding, nor donations to purchase large orders for Africa is was a bit discouraging. However, this news came out today and we will wait for this laptop from India to come into production.
Now, $10 laptop for students
29 Jul, 2008, 2028 hrs IST, IANS
NEW DELHI: After displaying its prowess in developing the world's cheapest car, India is on track to rolling out the world's cheapest laptop computer that could cost as low as $10, a top official said here on Tuesday.
Minister of State for Human Resource Development D Purandeswari said research was being conducted to develop the laptop, especially for use by students, which will cost all of $10.
"Research in this direction is being already carried out at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras," she told the e-India annual summit on information and communication technologies.
The laptop, when produced, will prove to be a breakthrough device that could solve the problems of low computer literacy and e-learning not only in India, but also the world over, she added.
Earlier this year, India's Tata Group had unveiled the "Nano" that was touted as the world's cheapest car costing all of $2,500 and the announcement had grabbed global headlines.
The cheapest laptop available today is at least 10 times costlier. The "Xo" sold by the Massachusetts-based non-government organization 'One Laptop Per Child Foundation' sells for $188.
The foundation, started by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) alumnus Nicholas Negroponte, aims to supply the low cost machines to the governments of developing countries for them to source it to school children.
But the Indian government rejected the offer in 2006, calling it an experimental model.
"India must not allow itself to be used for experimentation with children in this area," the human resource ministry had stated then.
However the project was taken up by the Reliance Anil Dhirubahi Group to be implemented as a pilot in Maharashtra's Khairat village.
Under this initiative, Reliance Communications will provide net connectivity, backbone, logistics, and support to the OLPC initiative. "The initiative aims at covering over 25,000 towns, and 6,00,000 villages in the country by 2008."
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Now_10_laptop_for_students/articleshow/3303030.cms
Editors note: This new project will help us tremendously in getting laptops to children in Africa and around the world. We will be saving all donations sent in for Project Africa until this laptop is in production.
Every child deserves an opportunity to learn and the donations will reach further if we can work together for global education.
All donations accepted small or large. Be a partner in our consortium to provide education globally.
NanoART for KIDS has been launched...
View a Flash movie of the top 10 artists from the NanoArt 2007 online competition at:
All artists albums will remain online for a year. We encourage teachers to view the albums to gain an understanding of the beauty of science at the nanoscale and then read the following article.
NanoArt for Kids program opens the window
to this tiny scale of science for K-12 students
Children learn by exploring their world and will now be able to see a tiny version of our world that looks quite different with powerful microscopes to challenge their imaginations
Nacogdoches, TX – August 13, 2008 - The NanoArt K12 program has been launched by Cris Orfescu, artist and scientist from NanoArt21.org in collaboration with Judith Light Feather, artist and founder of The Nanotechnology Group Inc., which provides support to group members for the facilitation and development of innovative Nanoscale Science education globally.
The purpose of this worldwide program is to stimulate creativity and expand the visionary imaginations of our children through innovative education activities to promote a new paradigm unifying the art-science-technology intersections at the nanoscale. Size matters in all scales of science and textbook publishers have not included the nanoscale of science in their subject matter for K-12 students. Universities are now offering teachers workshops in various areas of the country to explain nano science to high school students in hopes that they will introduce new material into their classrooms.
NanoArt is a new discipline which combines art with science creating paintings and sculptures at molecular and atomic levels. Scientists use chemical or physical processes to explore the surfaces, composition and interaction of elements at the nanoscale, which can now be viewed and manipulated with powerful research tools like scanning electron (SEM) scanning tunneling (STM) and atomic force microscopes (AFM). These scientific images are then captured and further processed, using different digital techniques. Since these tools are too expensive for primary grade classrooms we will be providing weblinks to sites that the children, parents and teachers can explore.
Nano means ‘dwarf’ and a nanometer is 1 billionth of a meter which is too small to see with the human eye. This unique introduction to the K-12 students showcasing the beauty of nature at this tiny scale of science is designed to stimulate their imagination and curiosity strengthening the desire to learn more science, technology and engineering (STEM) courses as they move through the primary grades and enter high school.
Art is the perfect media for this first introduction as the visual scans naturally challenge the child to recognize patterns in the shapes they are familiar with in their everyday reality. You will soon discover when viewing the scans provided that many familiar shapes will appear within the scans that can be further developed through drawings, paintings and sculptures, which can be submitted for the NanoArt K12 online exhibition. All compositions will be grouped online by age/grade level for the viewers.
Nanoflower scan for art ‘Nano Wisdom' oil pastel painting
In preparing for this launch Light Feather developed an oil pastel painting from the nanoflower scan (shown above) that would serve as an example of an image that was reflected in the patterns. ” I could have created a flower, a bear, or a monkey as the example, but my imagination saw the owl as the predominant shape that resonated with my mind. I have titled it "Nano Wisdom" as the energy of the owl has always been noted in Native American cultures to honor wisdom and 'wisdom keepers.' In moving forward to present this science to our young children and the research that will result in new technology we will need this wisdom,“ she said.
It is our intention that the NanoArt for Kids will open the door for teachers to explore the outsource materials being created and include some of the visual elements and experiential online labs in their classrooms in the future.
You can download the PDF file of the recommended modules for exploration and the Form for submitting your child's artwork.
Send your questions to k12@nanoart21.org or Judith.LightFeather@TNTG.org
Source: The NanoTechnology Group NanoNews Division
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© 2002-2008 by The Nano Technology Group, Inc. Please share the information with the consideration of a credit line for each use.
The NanoTechnology Group Inc. is a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit organization incorporated in Texas with an international group of partners and welcomes collaboration in the United States and all countries. Supporting education projects that lead to better informed public awareness and formal and informal education in all schools. There are no membership dues, just an exchange of ideas and partner support which involves lending your skills and expertise for project development to reach these goals.