Understanding Bacteria and Nanoscience: Tackling Invisible Germs in Our World

1. Brainstorm! Things that are too small to see:

2. Engineering to Reduce the Germs!

3. How Small Am I? Order the cards from largest to smallest Wavelength of red light Wavelength of UV light

4. MRSA

5. Introduction to Bacteria Slide 5: United Streaming video clip Life Science: Bacteria “Infectious Diseases Caused by Bacteria” http://player.discoveryeducation.com/index.cfm?guidAssetId=BD07D5B2-DAA1-476E-B59D-E6A4F5A98631&blnFromSearch=1&productcode=US

6. Highlights of Bacteria: • Smallest of free living organisms • You can squeeze a million of them on the head of a pin! • Live in our skin, intestines, nose & throat • Control every major function in our world • Cycle nutrients • Produce antibiotics • Keep us healthy • Make us sick

7. Virginia Headlines! “A county in southern Virginia closed its 21 schools on Wednesday to clean them to prevent the spread of a dangerous bacterial infection that killed a 17-year-old high school student, officials said.” (Reulters) MRSA! Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus

8. Introducing The Super BugMRSA! • Commonly found on the skin or in the nose of healthy people. • Over the years bacteria have become resistant to various antibiotics. • MRSA can be transmitted from person to person through close contact. • Skin-to-skin contact when there is a scratch or opening in the skin • Sharing contaminated personal items • Poor personal hygiene • Direct contact with contaminated environmental surfaces • Living in crowded settings

9. Are You Infected?

10. What You Can’t SeeCAN Hurt You!Like MRSA!

11. That brings us toThe science of VERY small things . . . NANOSCIENCE!

12. Engineers Look at Surface Properties • Is it smooth or rough? • Is it sticky or non-sticky?

13. What about the properties of surfaces make them harbor bacteria?

14. EXPERIMENT! Compare surfaces! Reach out and touch! • Wood • Glass • Plastic

15. Which one is easier to clean? Did you notice that the surfaces have a different properties? Which one is the roughest? Wood Plastic Glass

16. Take a Look at Why it is the Roughest. . . Wood Under a Microscope! http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/optics/intelplay/gallery/reflectedbrightfield.html 10x magnification 60x magnification Wooden Toothpick 200x magnification

17. To Stick or Not to Stick? • Materials needed: • 4 grades of sandpaper • Bee Bees • Cornstarch • Salt • Water

18. Look familiar? MRSA

19. Check Out Your Own Hair • That’s pretty small, right? • This is a nanowire wrapped around a strand of human hair.

20. Engineering Challenge! • What surface in your school is most prone to harbor bacteria? • Design a toilet that is less likely to accumulate and shelter bacteria.

21. Get to Work! • You have 3 minutes to work in a small group to design the new toilet seat • Keep in mind what we have discussed about surface properties • Don’t worry about the cost of materials • Then we will share our designs

23. Sani-Seathttp://www.cleanseats.com/toilet_seats/view/video.htmlSani-Seathttp://www.cleanseats.com/toilet_seats/view/video.html

24. What do we need to know about surfaces on the nano level? • That bacteria can be spread through touch • Different surfaces can be smooth or rough; the rougher surfaces are the more bacteria they will hold • When we design a product we need to reduce the spread of germs. • How can be do that? By using an ultra-smooth surface or by not touching the surface at all!

25. Credits • Slides 3 & 4: Refer to (PDF) What Is Nanotechnology? By Anna M. Waldron and Carl A. Batthttp://www.itsananoworld.org/; note the addition of the picture of MRSA found at http://www.righthealth.com • Slide 5: United Streaming video clip Life Science: Bacteria “Infectious Diseases Caused by Bacteria” http://player.discoveryeducation.com/index.cfm?guidAssetId=BD07D5B2-DAA1-476E-B59D-E6A4F5A98631&blnFromSearch=1&productcode=US • Slides 7: Quote taken from Reuter’s article at http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN1729913920071017 • Slide 6 & 8: data from United Streaming video clip Life Science: Bacteria “Introduction to Bacteria” (02:32) • Slide 9: http://www.animationfactory.com/en/ • Slides 14 & 15: data from NSTA 2008 Boston Conference; Foundations of Nanoscale Science: Building an Interactive Program to Foster and Assess Learning of Nanoscale Science Concepts Clara Cahill and Cesar Delgado • Slide 16: images of wooden toothpick at various magnifications http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/optics/intelplay/gallery/reflectedbrightfield.html • Slide 17 & 19: Adapted from NSTA 2008 Boston Conference; Foundations of Nanoscale Science: Building an Interactive Program to Foster and Assess Learning of Nanoscale Science Concepts Clara Cahill and Cesar Delgado • Slide 18: Refer to (PDF) What Is Nanotechnology? By Anna M. Waldron and Carl A. Batt http://www.itsananoworld.org/; note the addition of the picture of MRSA found at http://www.righthealth.com • Slide 19: Image from NSTA 2008 Boston Conference; Foundations of Nanoscale Science: Building an Interactive Program to Foster and Assess Learning of Nanoscale Science Concepts Clara Cahill and Cesar Delgado • Slides 20, 21, & 24: Adapted from NSTA 2008 Boston Conference; Foundations of Nanoscale Science: Building an Interactive Program to Foster and Assess Learning of Nanoscale Science Concepts Clara Cahill and Cesar Delgado • Slide 23:Video clip from Sani-Seat at http://www.cleanseats.com/toilet_seats/view/video.html

26. Just How Small Is “Nano”? • A football field simulates magnifying the world by 1 million times. • At this scale . . .the thickness of a hair would be the width of the field. • A red blood cell would be 10 meters. • A staph bacterium would be just 1 meter wide. • One nanometer would be just 1 mm!