When we first scheduled our Discover Nanotechnology workshops at The Science Academy STEM Magnet, we only planned to visit one classroom – but by the time the big day arrived, 8 classrooms were eager to participate! To accommodate the ~300 students, we presented today’s workshop in the auditorium of the North Hollywood high school for highly gifted students. It then came as no surprise that the students had so many questions, we almost ran passed the school bell.

The host teacher is looking forward to working with Omni Nano to establish a nanotechnology class at The STEM Magnet within the next few years. We are happy to help introduce her students to the fascinating world of nanotechnology. First, future students’ interest is piqued during our workshops. Then, all they need to do is enroll and log into their LAUSD Schoology account to access the full course.

Our sponsor, SoCalGas, is leading the way with its commitment to become the cleanest natural gas utility in North America. By supporting Omni Nano’s innovative STEM education initiatives in the San Fernando Valley, SoCalGas is planting the seed to ensure a robust pipeline of future STEM professionals. Their representatives even helped us out with the presentation – talk about doing double duty!

The post The Science Academy STEM Magnet Discovers Nanotechnology first appeared on Omni Nano.

It’s no secret that schoolchildren love giveaways and prizes. (Don’t we all?) Our super-hydrophobic cloths are no exception – in fact, they’re usually the most popular part of our Discover Nanotechnology workshops! (We commonly hear feedback like, “My favorite part about the workshop was the super-hydrophobic surfaces!”) Best of all, when students can experience nanotechnology in the palm of their hands, they become fascinated with STEM.

Think about it: imagine spilling a drop of water onto a cotton cloth. What happens next?  We all expect the cotton to soak up the droplet, right? Wrong! A special nanotechnology-enabled coating causes the droplet to simply bead on the surface of the cloth, rather than being absorbed into it. Crazy cool!

But it doesn’t stop there; as one workshop attendee noted, the possibilities are endless: “The best part of today’s workshops was learning how nanotechnology has made surfaces ranging from concrete to paper hydrophobic.”

Our sponsors are making the difference for STEM education! Special thanks to Go Graphics & Printing Co. for printing, UltraTech International for coating, and Hitachi and SoCalGas for sponsoring these fun yet vital “freebies.”

The post New Student Giveaways Have Arrived! first appeared on Omni Nano.

Friday afternoons in North Hollywood are ripe with opportunities to learn, thanks to the weekly Seminar Hour at The Science Academy STEM Magnet. During today’s seminar, Omni Nano presented our Discover Nanotechnology workshop to 70 AP Environmental Science students. It was wonderful to be surrounded by youth who are so passionate about cleaning up our environment and rescuing our planet. The inspired group of students asked insightful questions about how they can use nanotechnology and other cutting-edge STEM technologies to improve the world around them.

Don’t take our word for it – here’s what students had to say:

• “I appreciated was how engaging the lecture was. The speaker took questions often and his explanations were top-notch. Even at the back of the classroom I could hear his voice loud and clear.”
• “I liked how cloaking technology may eventually be able to hide things. I just found cloaking cool.”
• “I liked the actual nanotechnology which was brought into the lecture. It’s an amazing thing to see a piece of revolutionary technology at work in front of you. What amazed me even further is that we got to take some of this technology home with us to show to our friends and family.”
• “I liked the whole workshop.”
• “I loved the fact that nanotechnology is able to be used for diverse applications from cleaning up lakes to killing cancer cells. The explanations were well thought out and was very natural. The workshop highlighted the importance and usefulness of new materials, etc.”
• “I loved the presenter’s slides about becoming a nanotechnologist. It was cool talking with a real nanotechnologist!”
• “I really enjoyed the videos about how nanotechnology works. For me, and especially for things as minuscule as nanotechnology, it is often difficult to visualize how these things would work, but the informational videos greatly helped with that issue.”
• “I think that it was absolutely great and inspiring to all students considering ANY field of STEM as their career and astonished those who may have not have been as interested in a STEM career.”
• “My favorite thing about today’s workshop was seeing how one man utilized nanotechnology in order to clean up a polluted wetland near his hometown.”
• “The speaker and his workshop were very interesting and captivated my attention.”
• “The workshop positively influenced my education and helped me view another way that I can improve Earth’s current status. I would have very much liked more scientific details, especially about the chemical compounds and their methods of action.”

The post STEM Academy Students Love Learning Nano first appeared on Omni Nano.

This sponsorship will allow 200 high school students in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles (LAUSD Districts 3 and 6) to take Nanotechnology AB in the 2019-20 academic year. Many neighborhoods in these district are underprivileged and underrepresented, helping us fulfill our mission to provide advanced STEM education to all students.

SoCalGas recently announced its vision to become the cleanest natural gas utility in North America. As they shift toward more renewable sources of energy, the technologies they utilize will shift and thus the skills of their workforce must keep in step.

Are you an LAUSD student or teacher interested in learning nanotechnology? Contact us today to request our curriculum in your classroom!

The post SoCalGas Expands Partnership with Omni Nano first appeared on Omni Nano.

Today’s workshops at Arleta High School set not one but two records! Not only did the day include our 230th workshop, but it was also our largest day of workshops on record. About two dozen science classes attended four theater-sized workshops, allowing us to inspire over 1,000 students all in one day. Wow!

A number of science teachers approached our educators after the workshop, expressing their interest in teaching a full course in nanotechnology. They were pleasantly surprised by a demonstration of our curriculum and materials, and we anticipate that several of their classrooms will be learning nanotechnology this coming fall semester.

We are grateful to our sponsor, SoCalGas, which recently announced its vision to become the cleanest natural gas utility in North America. Their future workforce will need to know about clean technologies that may not have even been invented yet. Some of the thousand students they helped us inspire today may become future SoCalGas employees, innovating and utilizing these new technologies.

Take a look at these great student testimonials:

• “Everything was so cool. There was nothing I didn’t like!”
• “I am not really into science, but this actually caught my attention. Just keep doing what you are doing!”
• “I didn’t have a favorite part because everything was amazing.”
• “I got to learn that there is a way to clean the world’s water so everyone can have clean drinking water and so the population of fish does not decrease.”
• “I learned that we need nanotechnology in the future and it is very important for society.”
• “I like the fact that were videos that went along with the presentation. It kept me focused on the topic. In addition, the presenter explained everything thoroughly, which helped me to better understand the topic.”
• “I liked how they showed where nanotechnology can be used and how it could change the world.”
• “I liked how this workshop showed us how close we are to better technology in the near future.”
• “I liked the mini videos that were shown because it gave me a clear visual of what the topic was about.”
• “I want to learn more about how you can spray a spray and it will help you not get your stuff dirty! They threw a bucket of mud at two guys and one of them was clean and the other one got dirty. How did they do that? What did they put?”
• “It was amazing seeing all the different examples of how nanotechnology can improve all our lives, ranging from automotive coatings to the total cleaning of nature’s lakes.”
• “My favorite part about the workshop was the information provided and how it can change the future. The invisibility cloak was very interesting!”
• “My favorite part was when I found out that nanotechnology is helping to cure cancer. It has so much potential for medical advancement.”
• “My favorite thing about today’s workshop was that I got a better understanding of nanotechnology. I like to learn about new ideas especially ones that can make a difference in our everyday lives. I also liked that discussed the part of everyone having access to clean water through nanotechnology.”
• “My favorite thing about today’s workshop was the nanotechnology in medication for breast cancer that it can help detect and kill the tumor.”
• “My favorite thing from the workshop is the explanation of how nanotechnology and its new innovated creations help benefit our lives and how we do certain tasks. For instance, the super-hydrophobic spray helps items and object to not be stained on the surface and such. I loved it and found everything very interesting.”
• “Nanotechnology is a little confusing, but it was so interesting I want to see this presentation again.”
• “Nanotechnology made me think about another option for my future career. Nanotechnology sounded very interesting in the presentation. It made me wonder about how would our future lives be with nanotechnology.”
• “They gave a clear introduction to this type of STEM field that gave me a clear understanding and had the audience engaged with their study subjects.”

The post Setting Records at Arleta High School first appeared on Omni Nano.

It was a pleasure to present Discover Nanotechnology workshops to two chemistry classes today at Cleveland High School. The students who attended the afternoon presentation, who are enrolled in a bilingual chemistry class, were especially curious and lively. They were fascinated by the demonstration of super-hydrophobic, water-repellent cloth samples, and many asked insightful questions. Check out some great student quotes below!

Thanks to sponsorship from SoCalGas, we inspired another 70 students today. We are proud to partner with SoCalGas, which recently announced its vision to become the cleanest natural gas utility in North America. As their future workforce will be more multilingual and will utilize clean new technologies that may not have even been invented yet, SoCalGas understands the importance of inspiring a diverse body of students with high-quality STEM education.

Check out some of the students’ feedback:

• “I learned something very new!”
• “I like how you showed how nanotechnology could change the world. We learned how we will make our world better.”
• “I liked learning about how nanotechnologies were actually in items we use every single day.”
• “My favorite part was learning about nanotechnology in general, because I didn’t know anything about it before the workshop.”
• “My favorite thing is that with nanotechnology we can clean the dirty water.”
• “I just wish we had more time!”

The post Cleveland High School Chemistry Classes Get Inspired in Nano first appeared on Omni Nano.

Omni Nano volunteers have been busy preparing new super-hydrophobic cloth samples, one of our popular workshop giveaways for students. Although the tiles look like typical pieces of cotton cloth, they are actually super water-resistant. Instead of soaking into the material, water beads up on their surface, unable to penetrate. No wonder they’re such a beloved part of our workshops!

Thank you so much to all of our sponsors! We couldn’t have done this without the support of recurring sponsors SoCalGas, Northrop Grumman, and Hitachi. Many thanks to Go Graphics & Printing for the usual amazing printing work. Last but not least, a billion thanks to UltraTech for applying the “magic” nanotech coating that brings it all together!

The post Busy Preparing our High-Tech Student Giveaways first appeared on Omni Nano.

Thanks to our continued partnership with SoCalGas, Omni Nano will bring more STEM education to students of the San Fernando Valley. We are proud to be one of the few STEM guest speakers servicing Valley-area high schools, thanks to support from SoCalGas. As this is our third time partnering with SoCalGas, we can already anticipate that the superhydrophobic cloth samples (featuring SoCalGas’s logo) will be a student favorite, sparking a long-time interest in nanotechnology/STEM. Thank you for sponsoring Omni Nano!

The post SoCalGas Continues to Support STEM Education first appeared on Omni Nano.

Omni Nano is excited to share the progress we have made presenting our Discover Nanotechnology workshops with High School students in the greater Los Angeles area. From innercity Los Angeles, San Fernando to San Gabriel Valley, Santa Clarita to the South Bay, we have presented over 200 workshops to over 7,000+ inquisitive minds.

We are so grateful to be on the forefront of bringing nanotechnology education to students everywhere and to the support of our many partners who help us make an impact on future world changers. These partners have included:

• Southern California Edison (4-year sponsor)
• Northrop Grumman Corporation (4-year sponsor)
• Ultratech International (4-year sponsor)
• SoCalGas (2-year sponsor)
• Hitachi
• Deloitte
• Freeport-McMoRan
• Bank of the West (2-year sponsor)
• Time Warner Cable
• Nanotronics

To find out how to get involved and partner with us, click here.

The post Impressive Impact – 7,000+ Students, Just the Beginning! first appeared on Omni Nano.

Thanks to the sponsorship of SoCalGas, Omni Nano presented 5 workshops at Lakeview Charter School to about 100 students. We received some fantastic feedback from some of the students:

• “What I learned is nanotechnology is manipulation of matter on atomic and molecular scales.”
• “My favorite thing was understanding the importance of nanotechnology and how MUCH it really could change lives for the better.”
• “Loved the workshop and especially how the presenter presented it.”
• “It was a new experience in which I wished I could learn more in depth about.”

“The collaborative efforts of school administrators and our sponsors, makes all the difference in bringing our cutting edge curriculum to the classroom and to these enthusiastic students!” exclaimed Executive Director, Dr. Curreli.

The post Lakeview Charter High – NanoTech Enthusiasm first appeared on Omni Nano.