Jasti Group Hosts Steppingstone Students
For a second year in a row, Prof. Ramesh Jasti‘s group has hosted students from the Steppingstone Foundation to share with them the excitement of nanoscale research. Steppingstone is a non-profit that develops and implements programs which prepare urban schoolchildren for educational opportunities that lead to college success.
This year the students learned about nanoscale materials and how their unique properties are a function of their size. The day started with fun demonstrations of liquid nitrogen and an “explosive” Pringles can. The students then paired off to perform two separate hands-on laboratory experiments. The first lab illustrated the principle of chemical sensing. Using glow sticks, students analyzed a number of molecules to determine their anti-oxidant properties. Strong anti-oxidants would result in decreased fluorescence that visually detectable. This approach to sensing molecules is of strong interest for detection of environmental pollutants, food safety, product testing, water treatment, explosives detection an
d numerous other applications.
The second lab was designed to teach the students about the importance of polymers in modern life, particularly as they relate to material applications. The student pairs synthesized their own Nylon strands. To “up the fun factor,” they were challenged to a contest to see who could produce the longest continuous piece. With a prize of candy bars on the line, the students took the challenge seriously.
The day wrapped up with a casual pizza lunch, with the visitors asking lots of questions about not only graduate school, but college life and what being a science major is like. The graduate students had as much fun as the high school visitors, and look forward to the continued partnership of the Steppingstone Foundation and the Jasti Group.
