An Exploration of the Nanoworld with LEGO Bricks

Abstract

LEGO bricks can be used for a number of demonstrations of chemical structures and properties, especially at the nanoscale level. These bricks can also be used to model instrumentation that probes these structures and properties. Detailed resources about many of these demonstrations are located on the extensive Web site “Exploring the Nanoworld with LEGO Bricks” at . This article describes the major features of the Web site, some of the site history and recent additions, and some related efforts that have had origins in this site.

Interactive 3D Model Acquisition and Tracking of Building Block Structures

“…Building block models have been used as interactive aids in STEM education, such as by modeling chemical structures or by simulating protein synthesis [5,39]. Even though building block structures can only coarsely approximate arbitrary objects, their familiarity, tangibility, and ease-of-use makes them appealing and versatile modeling tools.…”

Practical Aspects of Creating an Interdisciplinary Nanotechnology Laboratory Course for Freshmen

“…Instructors obviously teach a simplified version of the full quantum theory, but the assigned readings and prelaboratory lectures provide enough guidance for students to perform the procedure and understand their results. Useful explanations of nanoscale phenomena that are appropriate for freshmen have been published in the literature (Campbell et al, 1999;Campbell, Freidinger, Hastings, & Querns, 2002;Campbell et al, 2008;Sohlberg, 2006). These references provide instructors with some "best practices" for conveying complicated chemical and quantum mechanics theory to undergraduates.…”

Visualization without Vision – How Blind and Visually Impaired Students and Researchers Engage with Molecular Structures

“…Teke and Sozbilir recently addressed problems of symbolic representation that blind students experience when learning chemistry (Teke & Sozbilir, 2019). There is substantial literature aimed at enabling BVI individuals to participate in other aspects of chemistry not explicitly related to chemical (molecular) structure and other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields; curious readers are directed to the following recent references for examples: (a) exploring chemistry topics in the formal classroom (Smith, 1981;Stender et al, 2016;Tombaugh, 1981) and laboratory settings (Andersen, 1982;Bromfield-Lee & Oliver-Hoyo, 2007;Flair & Setzer, 1990;JCE staff, 2000;Neppel, Oliver-Hoyo, Queen, & Reed, 2005;Supalo, Mallouk, Rankel, Amorosi, & Graybill, 2008; J. T. Wood & Eddy, 1996), (b) exploring chemistry topics in informal teaching settings (Kumar et al, 2018), (c) solving puzzles (Cady, 2012) and using interlocking toy building blocks, like Legos, to learn chemistry (Campbell, Miller, Bannon, & Obermaier, 2011;Cloonan, Nichol, & Hutchinson, 2011;Geyer, 2017;Melaku, Schreck, Griffin, & Dabke, 2016;Ruddick & Parrill, 2012;Witzel, 2002), (d) threedimensionally printed puzzle pieces for representing elements, ions, compounds, or chemical equations (Singhal & Balaji, 2019), (e) a musical electrochemical cell (Cady, 2014), (f) development of a BVI-accessible thermometer (Vitoriano et al, 2016), (g) science enrichment activities at National Federation of the Blind Youth Slams and science camps Wedler et al, 2014), (h) approaches aimed at secondary school education (Supalo et al, 2016). For an excellent case study of a student with blindness successfully completing a chemistry laboratory course, see the recent report in this very Journal (Michael & Wohlers, 2019).…”