Journal of Materials Education Vol. 31 (5-6): 265 - 270 (2009)
DEVELOPMENT OF LECTURE/LAB MATERIALS FOR NANOTECHNOLOGY AND CHEMISTRY SESSION OF THE ASTORE PROGRAM IN KOREA Wonghil Chang1, Kyukwan Zong2 and Byoung Joon Ahn2 1
Department of Basic Medical Science, Jeonju University, Jeonju 560-759, Korea Division of Science Education, Chonbuk National University, Jeonju 561-756, Korea
[email protected]; and
[email protected]
2
ABSTRACT In order to improve the understanding of up-to-date scientific progress and advanced technology for junior and senior high school science teachers, the Advanced Science and Technology-Oriented ReEducation (ASTORE) program was developed. The 4th ASTORE workshop was held in Chonbuk National University between August 3 and 13, 2009. Some topics of the Nanotechnology (NT) and Chemistry session, which were selected for the ASTORE workshop by an analysis of the high school textbook contents and a survey concerning the ASTORE program of 100 science teachers, will be presented in this communication. NT topics selected by this process were 1) Green chemistry including microwave enhanced reactions, sonochemistry, supercritical fluids, and biodiesel; 2) Green energy: energy saving and reusable energy; 3) Synthesis of zeolite and its applications; 4) Artificial snow crystals, 5) Application of conducting polymers; 6) Properties of nano-particles, and so on. Some teaching materials for 1) Preparation of biodiesel using domestic microwave oven; 2) Green energy: hydrogen fuel vehicles and solar cell houses; 3) Microwave-assisted synthesis of VSB-5; 4) Observation of artificial snow crystals; 5) Making of functional fabrics coated with conducting polymer; and 6) Colors of nanogold particles have been described in NICE 2009. The feedback on the topics and the future direction of the workshop will be also discussed. It has been found that the ASTORE program is very helpful to the teachers who want to teach up-to-date scientific information and technology to their students. Keywords: ASTORE, teaching material, green chemistry, green energy, zeolite, conducting polymer, nanoparticle, nanotechnology
INTRODUCTION Science education curricula for high school in Korea have some problems, such as lack of learning motivation, of experimental units and
equipment, of up-to-date contents of curriculum, and of teachers' knowledge about advanced science and technology. Most of these problems come from university entrance examoriented teaching, because the university
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Wonghil Chang, Kyukwan Zong and Byoung Joon Ahn
entrance examination is very important for high school students in Korea. The students do not have sufficient time to understand the meaning of the scientific theories they learned and how the theories are applied to advanced technology. As the developments of science and technology progress very rapidly, it becomes a serious matter that the curriculum can not include those new science and technology topics at the right time, and science teachers find it difficult to catch up recent scientific information and knowledge to transfer to their students. In order to overcome this kind of situation and to solve the problems, we have developed the Advanced Science and Technology-Oriented Re-education (ASTORE) program, which is a modern science re-education program for science teachers, and an ASTORE workshop was held three times, in 2006, 2007 and 20081,2. In 2008, Chonbuk National University and Seoul National University established the Center for Bridging Advanced Science and Education (CBASE) under support of the Korean government and 500 science teachers were trained in this center. There are about 25,000 science teachers in high schools in Korea, so it will take 50 years to train all the science teachers, if we train 500 teachers every year. Thus it is needed that more universities should participate in the program. Between August 3 and 13 in 2009 the 4th ASTORE workshop was held in Chonbuk National University. The workshop program consisted mainly of nanotechnology(NT), biotechnology(BT), energy/environment technology (ET) topics, and science institute tour. Some topics of the Chemistry and NT session, which were selected by the analysis of the high school textbook contents, and a survey of 100 science teachers concerning the ASTORE program, were presented in the ASTORE workshop. The detailed program and materials explaining some physics topics has been already published3,4. Judging from the evaluation of the program by participants and providers, the ASTORE program was found to be a good recall program to re-educate science teachers about the trends of recent advanced science and technology5.
ASTORE PROGRAM The ASTORE program consists of 3 subprograms: ASTORE-B (Basic), ASTORE-A (Advanced), and ASTORE-R&E (Long-term 1to-1 Research and Education). ASTORE-A is divided into NT, BT and ET areas according to the major field of the teachers. The ASTORE-B Workshop consists of 16 subjects related to nanoscience and technology (NT), biological science and technology (BT), and environmental science and technology (ET). It takes 60 hours to complete the workshop. In order to complete the 60-hour set of courses, it takes 10 days, meaning 6 hours per day. The workshop program is mainly focused on the fields of NT, BT and ET. The program lectures are conducted by 16 professors majoring in various fields, including physics, chemistry, biology, earth science, and engineering. The program consists of six major parts: 1. Special lecture: 4 hrs 2. NT-physics: 12 hrs 3. NT-chemistry: 12 hrs 4. BT: 12 hrs 5. ET: 12 hrs 6. National research facilities tour: 8 hrs. Each session consists of four subjects, and each subject is for a 3 hour class, that consists of 1 hour lecture for basic principles and 2 hour lab experiments on the subject. Various topics are covered every year, and continuously new topics are developed by professors participating in the program. The subjects appearing in the 2008 ASTORE-B Workshop are as follows: NT-physics 1. Structural properties of nanostructures studied by using X-ray and laser4. 2. Principles and applications of accelerators4 3. Robots and their applications 4. Web 2.0 browser and principles of web search NT-chemistry 1. Microwave-assisted synthesis of nanoporous materials 2. Basic principles and applications of green
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Lecture/Lab Materials for Nanotech and Chemistry Session of the Astore Program in Korea
chemistry 3. Functional fabrics coated with conducting polymer 4. Preparation of gold and silver nanoparticles and their color change BT 1. DNA separation for single nucleotide polymorphism and bioinformatics 2. Polymerase chain reaction and single nucleotide polymorphism of Arabidopsis 3. Electrophoresis for DNA analysis 4. DNA fingerprint and genomic engineering ET 1. Gas hydrate, energy source for future 2. Chemical analysis of various rock samples 3. Understanding of El Nino/southern oscillation 4. Global warming, thermohaline circulation of oceans and SF film “The Day After Tomorrow” NT-CHEMISTRY The program has been developed by the professors of CBASE, mainly by the professors of Chonbuk National University, majoring in chemistry education. The teaching materials for the program and workshop have been also developed. Herein, two examples of the subjects in the NT-chemistry program are described in detail in order to introduce the ASTORE program and to spread our efforts to the science education community. 1. Preparation of biodiesel using a domestic microwave oven Biodiesel consists of alkyl ester derived from a biological source. Biodiesel can be used as a diesel fuel in any existing diesel engine. And biodiesel can be blended with petroleum diesel in any ratio. Biodiesel is renewable, non-toxic, biodegradable, and produces lower green house gas emissions than petroleum diesel, and thus biodiesel is an alternative to petroleum diesel. Basically preparation of biodiesel is the process of transesterification reaction. The reaction is
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described as shown below: Oil + Alcohol + Catalyst → Alkyl ester + Glycerol Biodiesel is a methyl (or ethyl) ester of long chain fatty acid produced from vegetable oil, and the catalyst for the reaction is NaOH or KOH. Usually 100 g of vegetable oil (such as palm oil, coconut oil, or soybean oil) and 10 g of methanol (or ethanol) yields 100 g of biodiesel and 10 g of glycerol in the presence of 2.5 g of KOH. The rate of reaction depends on the temperature. The time to reach a complete reaction is 4.5 hours at 80°F, 40 minutes at 120°F, respectively. Microwave irradiation increases the rate of the reaction dramatically, so the reaction is completed within 1 minute using a domestic microwave oven. When ultrasound generated by a ultrasonic cleaner (ultrasonicator) is used as an energy source, a longer reaction time is needed to completion of the reaction compared to the microwave irradiation. Thus, the use of microwave energy to the organic reaction is a nice candidate for design for energy efficiency, on the principle of green chemistry. Since vegetable oil is one of renewable feedstock, preparation of biodiesel from vegetable oil using a domestic microwave oven is a good example of green chemistry. 2. Microwave-assisted synthesis of nanoporous material VSB-5 Zeolite materials can be used as a good teaching material in a chemistry course on the structure, properties and applications of zeolites. VSB-5, which is a recently synthesized zeolite-like material, can be synthesized by using NiCl2·6H2O and H3PO4 together with bases. All reacting materials are very common in a chemistry laboratory. VSB-5 is known to have a pore size of about 0.6-0.7 nm and a specific surface area of 500 m2/g. The potential applications of VSB-5 include hydrogen storage devices, selective hydrogenation, and cyclic olefin epoxidation.
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Figure 1. Microwave-assisted synthesis of nanoporous material VSB-5
In the program, the convenient microwave technique is used in the synthesis of VSB-5 instead of long time conventional hydrothermal reaction, as shown in Figure 1.
CONCLUSION The ASTORE program has been developed to reeducate high school science teachers with upto-date science and technology since 2006. In 2008, Chonbuk National University and Seoul National University established the Center for Bridging Advanced Science and Education (CBASE) under support of the Korean government and trained 500 science teachers. ASTORE program consists of 3 sub-programs; ASTORE-B (Basic), ASTORE-A (Advanced), and ASTORE-R&E (Research and Education). Two teaching sections of the ASTORE program were discussed in detail. The program is very helpful in the science classes in high schools. Further development of the program for advanced levels is under study.
The washing process can be also simplified by using a centrifuge. After a short drying step, the participants can characterize the structure of VSB-5 by the analysis of powder XRD pattern. Therefore introductory lecture and lab activity of synthesis of VSB-5 and characterization of product are possible to finish in a 3-hour unit. Figure 2 shows evidence that each group of the NT-chemistry class synthesized VSB-5 material successfully. The participants can also extend their understanding of various crystalline structures through experimental comparison of VSB-5, MCM-41 and amorpous silica XRD patterns.
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Figure 2.
SEM image and XRD patterns of Synthesized VSB-5. (1, 2 and 3 identify each group participating in the class)
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Lecture/Lab Materials for Nanotech and Chemistry Session of the Astore Program in Korea
REFERENCES 1. S. Y. Moon, B. J. Ahn, K. H. Park, K. Zong, and W. H. Yang, “Advanced Science and Technology-Oriented Education (ASTORE) program for science teachers”, J. Science Education, Chonbuk National University 30, 105 (2005). 2. J.-K. Lee, S.-Y. Moon, K.-H. Park, and B. J. Ahn, “Development and Evaluation of Advanced Science and Technology Oriented In-service Program for Science Teachers”, J. Korean Biology Education Society 35(3), 425 (2007).
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3. S. Sawamoto et al., “Frictionless Demonstration Using Fine Plastic Beads for Teaching Mechanics”, Research on Science Education, , 32(2), 98 (2008).
科學敎育硏究
4. S.-W. Han, J.-S. Jeon, and B. J. Ahn, “Training Programs of Advanced Science for High School Physics Teachers, J. Materials Education 31, 45 (2009). 5. W. Chang and B. J. Ahn, “Advanced Science and Technology-Oriented Education (ASTORE) Program for Science Teachers in Korea”, Proceedings of the 2nd NICE Symposium, July 30-31, Taipei, Taiwan, (2007).
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