An online video lab manual for nanoscale science and technology

CHED 113

George Lisensky1, Jacob J. Horger1, S. Michael Condren2, Anne K. Bentley3, Eric J. Voss4, Kenneth W. Lux5, Karen J. Nordell6, Wendy C. Crone5, and Arthur B. Ellis7. (1) Department of Chemistry, Beloit College, 700 College Street, Beloit, WI 53511, (2) Department of Chemistry, Christian Brothers University, 650 East Parkway South, Memphis, TN 38014, (3) Department of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1101 University Ave, Madison, WI 53706, (4) Department of Chemistry, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Edwardsville, IL 62026-1652, (5) Department of Engineering Physics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, (6) Department of Chemistry, Lawrence University, 115 S. Drew St., Appleton, WI 54912, (7) Division of Chemistry, National Science Foundation and University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Chemistry, 4201 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, VA 22230
An online Video Lab Manual (http://mrsec.wisc.edu/edetc/nanolab) has been developed to illustrate more than a dozen laboratory experiments involving nanoscale science and technology. While the original goal was to make these experiments accessible to students and teachers who were not familiar with the field, selecting the internet as a distribution medium made a non-traditional lab manual possible. Having a high quality Quicktime movie available that shows each step of the experiment means that the accompanying text can be considerably shortened and that these directions look more like a published procedure than a student manual. Since the Video Lab Manual only includes the procedure, the online portion of the experiments are useful at a variety of levels when instructors provide the context. Experiments have been refined and tested at several institutions working with the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center on Nanostructured Materials and Interfaces at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.