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Overview

The Education and Outreach (EO) program is an essential part of the CRISP MRSEC located at Yale and SCSU. CRISP offers activities that promote the interdisciplinary and innovative aspects of materials science to a diverse group of participants. The objective of the program is to enhance the education of future scientists, science teachers, K-12 students, parents, and the general public. Our goal is to offer interdepartmental and intercollegiate programs in modern materials science education to address the following needs:

• Improved scientific literacy of future voters and public officials
• More qualified science teachers who are well educated and socially diverse
• State-of-the-art research experiences for undergraduate students
• Increased multidisciplinary education and training for graduate students

Evaluation

CRISP EO programs have evolved based on a process of feedback and evaluation into its signature programs: MISE and MIMER. Evaluation reports are posted here.

MISE program [K-12 and the General Public]

The MRSEC Initiative for STEM Education (MISE) program is designed to enhance recruitment and retention into the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) pipeline while promoting scientific literacy for future public officials, voters and the general public. Key MISE efforts include:

• Informal K-12 education - activities and resources for K-12 programs and organizations [contact Jackie Garofano]
• Professional development workshops and curricular resources for educators More Info
• Masters degree program - graduate level courses through MS in Science Education program at SCSU; e.g. Summer 2011 offerings
• Policy initiatives - curriculum reform efforts at the K-12 [1], community college [2] and undergraduate levels [3]; development of a statewide minor in nanotechnology.
• Academic initiatives - the establishment of BS in Physics (concentration in Engineering) at SCSU, Professional MS in Applied Physics (Nanotech/Instrumentation track) at SCSU, and collaboration with the Yale Institute for Nanoscience and Quantum Engineering.

Yale has a long history in providing sponsorship and support for the very successful New Haven Science Fair. CRISP faculty, post-docs and graduate students participate on a regular basis as mentors and science fair judges. CRISP graduate student Jay Kerwin currently serves on the Steering Committee for the Fair.

Connecticut Making Stuff Outreach Coalition

Making Stuff is a nation-wide education outreach campaign about the materials that are transforming our world. We're proud to announce that CRISP is leading the Connecticut Making Stuff Outreach Coalition with the goal of providing informal public outreach events in materials science to the greater New Haven and Hartford communities. Our coalition partners include Tilde Café, the Connecticut Science Center, Amity High School, Center for Excellence in Mathematics and Science (CEMS) and Little Scientists. These events are made possible in part by a grant from NOVA, WGBH and the Materials Research Society (MRS) with major funding from the National Science Foundation. The events will culminate with a NOVA airing of a "Making Stuff" series that is scheduled for early spring 2011.

Watch MAKING STUFF with David Pogue on PBS (check local listings) A four-part series (Stronger, Smaller, Cleaner, Smarter) exploring the materials that will shape the future. Premiering January 19, 2011.

Upcoming MAKING STUFF Events

March 26: Public Lecture and Family Science Event @ Yale Making Stuff public outreach event at Yale (Davies Auditorium): public lecture Visualizing the atomic world by CRISP researcher and Yale professor, Udo Schwarz at 10a, followed by materials science/nano demonstrations and lab tours. Doors open at 9:45a. This event is FREE. Let us know you're coming by filling out this quick survey! Share this event on Facebook Family Science Event flyer to share with the community Public Lecture flyer to share with educators and students

MIMER program [Research and Professional Development]

The MRSEC Initiative for Multidisciplinary Education and Research (MIMER) program is designed to enhance the scientific knowledge and skills of science students, post-docs, educators and professionals. The main focus of the MIMER program is team-based interdisciplinary research through high-quality research experiences for students and teachers by integrating the REU and RET programs. A MIMER team assembles researchers with different backgrounds to include a faculty member, graduate students, post-docs, undergraduates (REU), high school teachers (RET), and a high school student. The collaborative and interdisciplinary nature of the MIMER team encourages synergy and fosters formation of mentoring relationships among team members. The three programs that are infused together into MIMER are:

Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU)

Research Experiences for Teachers (RET)

Research Experiences for High School Students

MIMER research teams make use of numerous state-of-the-art CRISP shared teaching/research facilities at Yale and SCSU. For instance, two of the CRISP specialized research facilities include:

• CRISP NanoCharacterization Facility
• Instructional Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) Facility

Courses developed by CRISP Faculty

CRISP faculty have developed and offered a wide range of new courses impacting undergraduates, graduate students and educators. Most of these courses have used CRISP facilities. Examples include:

• Courses for educators in the Masters in Science Education at SCSU, e.g. "Integrated Science Experience: Interdisciplinary Research in Nanotechnology and Microscopy with Interdisciplinary Applications"
• Professional science Masters program courses at SCSU, e.g. "Optics and Electron Optics for Modern Microscopy" and "Nanofabrication using Molecular Beam Epitaxy". The latter course made use of the CRISP Teaching MBE Facility.
• Undergraduate courses for non-majors, e.g. "Science of Nanostructures" (SCSU), "Chemistry, Energy, and the Environment" (Yale) and "The Technological World" (Yale)
• Graduate courses relating to surfaces and interfaces, e.g., "Surface and Interface Forces" (Yale)
• A course module "From Surface to Interface: The Synthesis and Properties of a Crystalline Oxide Silicon Interface" that has been used in undergraduate and graduate courses at both SCSU and Yale.

During the MRSEC grant period, the Materials Science Laboratory for Undergraduates in the Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science Department at Yale received received a major overhaul that included replacing most of the original equipment.

CRISP website for educators

CRISP EO has developed a website particularly for local educators and STEM professionals. The goal of this website is to provide educational resources to local area educators, with particular focus on New Haven, through various outlets: professional development, educational and curricular resources and a forum.

• CRISP Resources for Interdisciplinary Science Educators and Professionals.

Upcoming Outreach Events

CRISP will be the lead organizer on some activities where others are organized by partner organizers. For more information about any individual activity or to volunteer contact CRISP EO.

CURRENT / UPCOMING EVENTS

• June 06 - August 01: CRISP REU program
• July 05 - August 01: CRISP RET program and high school student fellowship program
• July 20: 2nd annual CRISP Summer Research Symposium at Yale

MENTORING OPPORTUNITIES

• CRISP is very involved in the New Haven Science Fair (NHSF). Volunteer science mentors are the key to the success of the NHSF program; many mentors have been in the program for more than five years. If you are interested in being a mentor for this year's Fair, you may submit an online application at the NHSF website.

• A time-flexible opportunity to significantly impact New Haven area students. Connecticut Career Choices (CCC) is looking for student mentors for their online Moodle courses to high school students to get them engaged in STEM. The rough time commitment is an average of 1-2 hours per week reading forums and posting responses, with occasional opportunities for more face to face contact at meetings. Please review the mentor guide and mentor application. In most cases, CCC provides stipends as compensation for participation. Please submit mentor application to Jackie Garofano.

ANNUAL EVENTS

• New Haven Science Fair judging and mentoring of middle school and high school students participating in the NHSF.

• CT Student Innovation Expo at the CT Convention Center in Hartford.

Past Events

Below are a list of recent events, please click on the Past Events header link above to see our complete list.

March 26: MAKING STUFF Public Lecture at Yale Udo Schwarz gave a public lecture on scanning probe microscopy entitled "visualizing the atomic world" to kick off the CRISP Family Science Event. Photos

March 26: MAKING STUFF Family Science Event at Yale post-docs Divine Kumah and Matthew Marshall, with grad students Jason Forster (Cao) and Matt Herdeich (Altman). At the end of the event, Fred Walker, Udo Schwarz, Mike Rooks and Matt Herdeich led participants on tours through the MBE lab and labs in Malone (YINQE), UHV and SPM. Photos

March 26: MAKING STUFF Children's program at Yale Little Scientists hosted the Children's program during CRISP's Family Science Event. Over 50 children (ages 4 - 12 years old) participated in the program. Photos

March 24-25: Bio21 Institute at SCSU SCSU hosted 180 students, teachers, and staff over the course of two days for the final Bio21 group meetings of the academic year. Participants from four high schools (including one from New Haven) came together to learn a little more about this year’s challenge of biomimicry. CC Broadbridge spoke to students about the connections between the sciences of biology and physics. Students also toured the CRISP NanoCharacterization facility.

March 16: CMOC Symposium at Yale 20th annual CMOC symposium was held at Yale. Xiao Sun (TP Ma) received the Best Oral Paper Award. A tour of CRISP facilities were led by Yaron Segal joined by Fred Walker who showed visitors the MBE facility and Mike Rooks who showed the microscopy equipment in the YINQE lab.