Najla Hallak, Instructional Specialist                                                                           Return to Chemistry Menu

Brooklyn Superintendence Office of High Schools, Brooklyn

Summer 2001

Synthesis and scanning Probe Microscopy of Electrically and Optically Active Liquid Crystals

Background:

Material science is one of the state of the art promising technologies mapping and shaping the future of our globe.  Nanoparticle materials display unique properties with potential applications as semiconductors, chemo sensing, fluorescence, and electro optic devices.

Objective:

To generalize for the first time a District-wide enhanced technology-based science instruction for staff development.

To create a vision of technology integration into science instruction.

To apply the principle of Tech-Based Interactive science sessions for teacher training using science experiments through “Adams Group” lab at Columbia University.

Teacher Preparation:

Prior to the Staff Development sessions, selected teachers from the various schools in The Brooklyn District of High Schools will have under gone an intensive week of training of Computer-Based Lab/ Calculator-Based lab using Texas Instruments.  Furthermore, teachers will have executed real experiments in their science subject area stemming from their August Week-Training Session.  As a result, teachers will use a multimedia tool to plan and present science lessons.

Materials:

Computers, laser printer, Internet access, molecular model kits, and a personal notebook 

Procedure:

We will start by reviewing the techniques used in material science laboratory and the scientific approach of testing and retesting to justify the hypothesized product.  Teachers will have an access to the archive and archival materials at Columbia Adams’ Group web site describing the advancement done in this field of material science.

Teachers will create a timeline for each step taken during the training of the acquired skills and implementation of this approach and record problems encountered when performing the plan.

The teachers will develop several procedures for boosting student interest, motivation, and productivity using multimedia approach instead of the traditional one.  I will provide the trainees with 3-D profile of the synthesized Liquid Crystal (Perylene) during my summer research as a protocol utilized for interpreting the downloaded images from the Adams Group web page. 

My main focus for this approach is to change the culture of the school district to adopt an enhanced technology driven curriculum.  This can be done only via teachers-students-Staff Development interaction. 

I am aware that one of the major obstacles would be the access to this state of the art technology and its availability and suitability for the high school level.  Nevertheless, teachers should be fully aware and have the chance to indulge in the quantum leaps in the field of science-technology advancement.  The most accessible way without leaving the classroom would be to use the Internet-Collaboration over the Internet that could create meaningful projects for the sciences. 

All the training will occur at the Staff Development Center in one of our high schools.  The center is equipped with a T-1 line, printers, workstations and stationary.  Teachers will spend an entire day of professional development where breakfast and lunch will be provided as well.  The web site we will use is:

http://www.cc.columbia.edu.cu/chemistry/faculty/dadams.html

After accessing the web site teachers could assess the interdisciplinary approach-taking place in this kind of laboratory performance.  They will be immersed in the chemistry, physics, math, technology, and social studies aspects of this type of research by looking at the ties among the subject areas dealt with by the synthesis of such products.

Teachers should then be able to present lessons in their field where their students could research the impact of:

·        Industrial chemistry

·        Material Science

·        Optics

·        Electronics

·        Computer science

·        Social science

·        Career-oriented studies

Extended Goals:

Teachers could use the training and the knowledge gained by attending the technology staff development sessions to mentor their students on “Intel projects”.

Overview of the Performance Standards:

S1a, S1b, S1c, S1d, S1e, S1f

S3a, S3e

S4a, S4c, S4d, S4e

S5a, S5b, S5c, S5d, S5e, S5f

S6c, S6c, S6d, S6e

S7a, S7b, S7c, S7d, S7e