Fizzy Nano Challenge

Build Materials (For each team)

Required Materials

• Clear cups
• Antacid tablets or Vitamin C tablets (any type of tablet that produces fizz)
• Water
• Envelope (for crushing tablet)

Design Challenge

You are a team of engineers given the challenge of conducting an experiment using whole and crushed fizzy tablets to document how they behave when introduced to water.

Criteria

• Must use “fizzy” tablets.

Constraints

• Use only the materials provided.

1. Break class into teams of 3-4.
2. Hand out the Fizzy Nano worksheet.
3. Discuss the topics in the Background Concepts Section. To introduce the lesson, consider asking the students whether they think that the size of a material such as the active ingredient in sunblock impacts how it performs.
4. Review the Engineering Design Process, Design Challenge, Criteria, Constraints and Materials.
5. Instruct students to consider their challenge, and as a team decide what impact crushing the antacid tablets will have on how they behave in water. They should document a hypotheses of what they think might happen differently when water is added to a whole tablet versus a crushed tablet.
6. Announce the amount of time they have to complete the challenge (1 hour recommended).
7. Use a timer or an on-line stopwatch (count down feature) to ensure you keep on time. (www.online-stopwatch.com/full-screen-stopwatch). Give students regular “time checks” so they stay on task. If they are struggling, ask questions that will lead them to a solution quicker.
8. Provide each team with their materials.
9. Instruct teams to crush one tablet, place it in the cup and add 5 oz./150ml of water. Students should observe what happens and compare their hypotheses to the actual results.
10. Next, instruct teams to place one whole tablet in the cup and add 5 oz./150ml of water. Students should observe what happens and compare their hypotheses to the actual results.
11. As a class, discuss the student reflection questions.
12. For more content on the topic, see the “Digging Deeper” section.

Student Reflection (engineering notebook)

1. How accurate was your hypothesis compared to what happened?
2. What surprised you about what you saw?
3. What other hypotheses were developed by other student teams?
4. What do you think might have happened if you used a larger whole tablet instead? What about if you were able to crush the tablet into a powder?
5. Did you think that working as a team made this project easier or harder? Why?
6. Give an example of how surface area impacts another material.

The lesson can be done in as little as 1 class period for older students. However, to help students from feeling rushed and to ensure student success (especially for younger students), split the lesson into two periods giving students more time to brainstorm, test ideas and finalize their design. Conduct the testing and debrief in the next class period.

What is Nanotechnology?

Imagine being able to observe the motion of a red blood cell as it moves through your vein. What would it be like to observe the sodium and chlorine atoms as they get close enough to actually transfer electrons and form a salt crystal or observe the vibration of molecules as the temperature rises in a pan of water? Because of tools or ‘scopes’ that have been developed and improved over the last few decades we can observe situations like many of the examples at the start of this paragraph. This ability to observe, measure and even manipulate materials at the molecular or atomic scale is called nanotechnology or nanoscience. If we have a nano “something” we have one billionth of that something. Scientists and engineers apply the nano prefix to many “somethings” including meters (length), seconds (time), liters (volume) and grams (mass) to represent what is understandably a very small quantity. Most often nano is applied to the length scale and we measure and talk about nanometers (nm). Individual atoms are smaller than 1 nm in diameter, with it taking about 10 hydrogen atoms in a row to create a line 1 nm in length. Other atoms are larger than hydrogen but still have diameters less than a nanometer. A typical virus is about 100 nm in diameter and a bacterium is about 1000 nm head to tail. The tools that have allowed us to observe the previously invisible world of the nanoscale are the Atomic Force Microscope and the Scanning Electron Microscope.

How Big is Small?

It can be hard to visualize how small things are at the nanoscale. The following exercise can help you visualize how “big” small can be! Consider a bowling ball, a billiard ball, a tennis ball, a golf ball, a marble, and a pea. Think about the relative size of these items.

Scanning Electron Microscope

The scanning electron microscope is a special type of electron microscope that creates images of a sample surface by scanning it with a high energy beam of electrons in a raster scan pattern. In a raster scan, an image is cut up into a sequence of (usually horizontal) strips known as “scan lines.” The electrons interact with the atoms that make up the sample and produce signals that provide data about the surface’s shape, composition, and even whether it can conduct electricity. Many images taken with scanning electron microscopes may be viewed at www.dartmouth.edu/~emlab/gallery

• Constraints: Limitations with material, time, size of team, etc.
• Criteria: Conditions that the design must satisfy like its overall size, etc.
• Engineers: Inventors and problem-solvers of the world. Twenty-five major specialties are recognized in engineering (see infographic).
• Engineering Design Process: Process engineers use to solve problems. 
• Engineering Habits of Mind (EHM): Six unique ways that engineers think.
• Hypothesis: A prediction or educated guess that can be tested and can be used to guide further study.
• Iteration: Test & redesign is one iteration. Repeat (multiple iterations).
• Nanoscale Properties: Different in many cases from the properties of materials observed in other scales. Consider, for example, the melting point of metals. Nanoparticles often exhibit a lower melting point than the corresponding metals in bulk, and these melting points depend on size.
• Nanotechnology: Ability to observe, measure and even manipulate materials at the molecular or atomic scale.
• Prototype: A working model of the solution to be tested.
• Scanning Electron Microscope: Special type of electron microscope that creates images of a sample surface by scanning it with a high energy beam of electrons in a raster scan pattern.
• Surface Area: The measure of how much exposed area an object has. It is expressed in square units

Internet Connections

• National Nanotechnology Initiative

Recommended Reading

• Nanotechnology For Dummies (ISBN: 978-0470891919)
• Science at the Nanoscale: An Introductory Textbook (ISBN: 978-9814241038)

Writing Activity

Write an essay or a paragraph about how advances through nanotechnology have changed how materials are waterproofed.

Alignment to Curriculum Frameworks

Note: Lesson plans in this series are aligned to one or more of the following sets of standards:  

• U.S. Science Education Standards (http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=4962)
• U.S. Next Generation Science Standards (http://www.nextgenscience.org/) 
• International Technology Education Association’s Standards for Technological Literacy (http://www.iteea.org/TAA/PDFs/xstnd.pdf)
• U.S. National Council of Teachers of Mathematics’ Principles and Standards for School Mathematics (http://www.nctm.org/standards/content.aspx?id=16909)
• U.S. Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (http://www.corestandards.org/Math)
• Computer Science Teachers Association K-12 Computer Science Standards (http://csta.acm.org/Curriculum/sub/K12Standards.html)

National Science Education Standards Grades K-4 (ages 4-9)

CONTENT STANDARD A: Science as Inquiry

As a result of activities, all students should develop

• Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry 
• Understanding about scientific inquiry 

CONTENT STANDARD B: Physical Science

As a result of the activities, all students should develop an understanding of

• Properties of objects and materials 

CONTENT STANDARD E: Science and Technology 

As a result of activities, all students should develop

• Understanding about science and technology 

CONTENT STANDARD F: Science in Personal and Social Perspectives

As a result of activities, all students should develop understanding of

• Science and technology in local challenges 

CONTENT STANDARD G: History and Nature of Science

As a result of activities, all students should develop understanding of

• Science as a human endeavor 

National Science Education Standards Grades 5-8 (ages 10-14)

CONTENT STANDARD A: Science as Inquiry

As a result of activities, all students should develop

• Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry 
• Understandings about scientific inquiry 

CONTENT STANDARD B: Physical Science

As a result of their activities, all students should develop an understanding of

• Properties and changes of properties in matter 

CONTENT STANDARD E: Science and Technology

As a result of activities in grades 5-8, all students should develop

• Understandings about science and technology 

CONTENT STANDARD F: Science in Personal and Social Perspectives

As a result of activities, all students should develop understanding of

• Personal health 
• Risks and benefits 
• Science and technology in society 

National Science Education Standards Grades 5-8 (ages 10-14)

CONTENT STANDARD G: History and Nature of Science

As a result of activities, all students should develop understanding of

• Science as a human endeavor 
• Nature of science 
• History of science 

National Science Education Standards Grades 9-12 (ages 14-18)

CONTENT STANDARD A: Science as Inquiry

As a result of activities, all students should develop

• Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry 
• Understandings about scientific inquiry 

CONTENT STANDARD B: Physical Science 

As a result of their activities, all students should develop understanding of

• Structure and properties of matter 
• Chemical reactions 

CONTENT STANDARD E: Science and Technology

As a result of activities, all students should develop

• Understandings about science and technology 

CONTENT STANDARD F: Science in Personal and Social Perspectives

As a result of activities, all students should develop understanding of

• Science and technology in local, national, and global challenges 

CONTENT STANDARD G: History and Nature of Science

As a result of activities, all students should develop understanding of

• Science as a human endeavor 
• Nature of scientific knowledge 
• Historical perspectives 

Next Generation Science Standards – Grades 2-5 (Ages 7-11)

• 2-PS1-2.  Analyze data obtained from testing different materials to determine which materials have the properties that are best suited for an intended purpose.

Next Generation Science Standards – Grades 6-8 (Ages 11-14)

Matter and its Interactions

• MS-PS1-2.   Analyze and interpret data on the properties of substances before and after the substances interact to determine if a chemical reaction has occurred. 

Standards for Technological Literacy – All Ages

The Nature of Technology

• Standard 1: Students will develop an understanding of the characteristics and scope of technology.
• Standard 2: Students will develop an understanding of the core concepts of technology.
• Standard 3: Students will develop an understanding of the relationships among technologies and the connections between technology and other fields of study.

Technology and Society

• Standard 5: Students will develop an understanding of the effects of technology on the environment.
• Standard 6: Students will develop an understanding of the role of society in the development and use of technology.

Design

• Standard 10: Students will develop an understanding of the role of troubleshooting, research and development, invention and innovation, and experimentation in problem solving.

Abilities for a Technological World

• Standard 13: Students will develop abilities to assess the impact of products and systems.

Surface Area Challenge

Research Phase

Read the materials provided to you by your teacher.

Hypothesis

As a team, decide what if anything you think might happen differently when water is added to a whole antiacid tablet or when water is added to a crushed or crumbled up antacid tablet.  In the box below, write a sentence or two describing your team’s hypothesis.

Test

Now, test your hypothesis!  Place one whole tablet in one of the two cups provided to you, and crush another tablet inside an envelope to help contain the crumbled parts.  You may also simply crack the whole tablet into ten to fifteen smaller pieces if you like.  Drop the crumbled tablet into the second cup.  Then add about 5 oz. or 150 ml of water to each one.

Observation and Results

Observe and discuss what happened — if anything — and compare the results with your team’s hypothesis.

Presentation and Reflection Phase
Present your original hypothesis and experiment observations to the class, and listen to the presentations of the other teams.  Then complete the reflection sheet.

Reflection

Complete the reflection questions below:

1. How accurate was your hypothesis compared to what happened?

2. What surprised you about what you saw?

3. What other hypotheses were developed by other student teams?

4. What do you think might have happened if you used a larger whole tablet instead? What about if you were able to crush the tablet into a powder?

5. Did you think that working as a team made this project easier or harder? Why?

6. Give an example of how surface area impacts another material.