High-schoolers learn about big ideas and small concepts at Teen Science Cafe for ME!

By Stuart Hedstrom 
Staff Writer

    DEXTER — A group of high school students had another opportunity to gauge their interest in the world of science with a Teen Science Cafe for ME! on the evening of April 24 at the Dexter Town Hall. Last month the students learned about design engineering, and in the second session the pupils had a cafe topic of nanotechnology.

Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom

    UP AND ATOM — University of Maine electrical engineering professor Dr. Rosemary Smith leads the attendees in the April 24 session of the Teen Science Cafe for ME! at the Dexter Town Hall through a lesson on nanotechnology. Front, from left, is Marie Hartung and Aaron Provost. Back, Mark Watson, Branson Goodine and Kiyalynn Bubar.

    The Teen Science Cafe for ME! topic and event details are carried out by the students themselves in a Youth Leadership Team, with the assistance of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) guides Clare Thomas-Pino and Alyson Saunders from the Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance. For the April 24 session the high-schoolers arranged for University of Maine electrical engineering professor Dr. Rosemary Smith to be the guest speaker.
    “We are in the nano age, it means bringing something new and revolutionary to the way we live,” Dr. Smith said at the start of her presentation. “It means the manipulation of matter at a very small scale and by doing that you can create new material and new things that function differently.”
    She said nanotechnology is important because these developments can allow for much more to be done in smaller spaces. Dr, Smith gave the example of computers, as small components hold significantly more data than older, larger-sized models. She said the integrated circuits are composed of nanoscale structures, which were later viewed through a microscope.
    “When we makes things small, normal functions don’t always apply,” Dr. Smith said. To illustrate this point, a small collection of beakers was passed around with each vial containing flecks of gold. Normally gold would sink in the various solutions, but when in small quantities the substance can float.
    The nanoscale can be found in nature, such as with the wings of a butterfly or feathers of a peacock having microscopic ridges to reflect the iridescence light. Dr. Smith said this concept can be seen on the back of a CD or DVD which also reflects different colors depending on the angle. She said products such as concrete sealers, cosmetics and food and beverage storage containers utilize nanotechnology as well.
    The Teen Science Cafe for ME! included an experiment, in which a thin strip of black paper was submerged in a Petri dish. The students then put a drop of fingernail polish onto the surface of the water and the polish spread out into a very thin film. The paper was then lifted out by one end.
    The nail polish film creates iridescent, rainbow colors on the paper with the color changing depending on the thickness of the film. “You didn’t know you could make thin films that are only hundreds of nanometers thick,” Dr. Smith told the experiment participants.
    The next Teen Science Cafe for ME! is scheduled to cover the topic of marine science and aquaculture, on Thursday, May 29 from 6-7:30 p.m. at the Thompson Free Library in Dover-Foxcroft. For more information, go to http://tsc4me.mmsa.org.

Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom

    IRIDESCENT EXPERIMENT — Teen Science Cafe for ME! participants, from left, Aaron Provost, Marie Hartung and Branson Goodine, along with STEM guide Alyson Saunders, work on an experiment during an April 24 session at the town hall in Dexter. By dipping strips of paper in water, putting on a drop of nail polish which then spreads across the surface in a thin film and taking the paper out, a pattern of light is visible on the paper with the color varying depending on the thickness.