Critical Thinking: A Multidisciplinary STEM Requirement

Deb NewberryDakota County Technical CollegeRosemount, MN

deb.newberry@dctc.edudmnewberry2001@yahoo.com

Outline

•Critical Thinking Review

•Nano Infusion Project

•Two Examples

WHAT WORKREQUIRES

OF SCHOOLS

A SCANS REPORT FORAMERICA 2000

THE SECRETARY’S COMMISSION ON ACHIEVING NECESSARY SKILLSU.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

JUNE 1991

1991

FIVE COMPETENCIES

Resources: Identifies, organizes, plans, and allocates resourcesA. Time & Selects goal-relevant activities, ranks them, allocates time, and prepares and follows schedulesB. Money & Uses or prepares budgets, makes forecasts, keeps records, and makes adjustments to meetobjectivesC. Material and Facilities & Acquires, stores, allocates, and uses materials or space efficientlyD. Human Resources & Assesses skills and distributes work accordingly, evaluates performance and providesFeedback

Interpersonal: Works with othersA. Participates as a Member of a Team & contributes to group effortB. Teaches Others New SkillsC. Serves Clients/Customers & works to satisfy customers’ expectationsD. Exercises Leadership & communicates ideas to justify position, persuades and convinces others,responsibly challenges existing procedures and policiesE. Negotiates & works toward agreements involving exchange of resources, resolves divergent interestsF. Works with Diversity & works well with men and women from diverse backgrounds

Information: Acquires and uses informationA. Acquires and Evaluates InformationB. Organizes and Maintains InformationC. Interprets and Communicates InformationD. Uses Computers to Process Information

Systems: Understands complex inter-relationshipsA. Understands Systems & knows how social, organizational, and technological systems work and operateseffectively with themB. Monitors and Corrects Performance & distinguishes trends, predicts impacts on system operations,diagnoses deviations in systems’ performance and corrects malfunctionsC. Improves or Designs Systems

Technology: Works with a variety of technologiesA. Selects Technology & chooses procedures, tools or equipment including computers and related technologiesB. Applies Technology to Task & Understands overall intent and proper procedures for setup and operation ofequipmentC. Maintains and Troubleshoots Equipment & Prevents, identifies, or solves problems with equipment,including computers and other technologies.

SCANS Report 1991

P21 2009

Business and political leaders are increasingly asking schools to integrate development of skills such as problem solving, critical thinking, and collaboration into the teaching and learning of academic subjects. Collectively these skills are often referred to as “21st century skills” or “deeper learning.”

Education for Life and Work: Developing Transferable Knowledge and Skills in the 21st Century, a new report from the National Research Council, more clearly defines these terms and lays the groundwork for policy and further research in the field.

The new report:

clarifies the meaning of “deeper learning” and “21st century skills.” Deeper learning is the process through which a person becomes capable of taking what was learned in one situation and applying it to new situations.  Through deeper learning, students develop 21st century competencies – transferable expertise within a given subject area, including both knowledge and skills.

examines links between 21st century competencies and adult outcomes. Research on links between 21st century competencies and adult outcomes has been limited so far. Cognitive competencies – those related to thinking, reasoning and memory – show consistent, positive correlations of modest size with desirable outcomes in education, work, and health. Being conscientious is also correlated with desirable outcomes. identifies instructional methods that can support students’ development of transferable knowledge and skills in a subject area. examines the Common Core State Standards in math and English language arts and NRC’s K-12 science education framework to assess how well they support deeper learning and 21st century competencies. All three documents highlight the importance of helping students understand the general principles underlying specific content, a hallmark of deeper learning.

recommends that state and federal governments establish policies and programs to support students’ acquisition of transferable knowledge and skills.

July 2012 NAS Report

Critical Thinking

The ability to apply or find and assimilate information from {perhaps} diverse areas and apply that information to understand, describe or explain observed or inferred phenomena.

Nano Infusion ProjectA Nano-Link Center Dissemination Activity

Go to nano-link.org – find project informationRegister at the websiteSign up for Nano Infusion ProjectTell us about you and number of students

STEM Foundations

Opposite attract and likes repel

It is all a matter of priority of forces and interactions

Consideration for surface area, temperature and molecular structure influences

Ref: Wellesley College

Ref: Wellesley College

two monosaccharides, glucose and fructose, are joined together. [source]Ref: chem1.com

Sucrose— ordinary table sugar. The colors show the relative negative electrical potential on an an arbitrarily-defined molecular surface. Notice that sucrose is a "double sugar" ( a disaccharide) in which two monosaccharides, glucose and fructose, are joined

together. [source]

In this image of a molecule that helps regulate calcium ion concentration in the brain, the colors depict the "hydrophobic potential"— the tendency of different parts of the molecule to attract (blue) or repel (brown) water. [source]

Forces and Interactions

Interaction Strength Effective Distance

Electrostatic 0.1 – 10 kJ/mol 0.4 – 20 nm

Van der Waals 10 – 100 kJ/mol 0.4 – 30 nm

Chemical bonding 100 – 1000 kJ/mol 0.1 – 0.2 nm

Covalent, ionic and hydrogen bonding

Van der Waals forces are a combination of Keesom, Debye and London forces

These different forces arise because of the pairing variations between induced and permanent charge {non-uniform} distributions

Two Examples:

Superhydrophobic Surfaces (Magic Sand)

Cross-Linked Polymers (Insta Snow)

BOTH:•Appropriate for multiple grade levels•Include physics, chemistry and math principles•Can be used for inquiry based learning activities•Brainstorming applications and non technical aspects

Superhydrophobicity – Let’s play

Variations, critical thinking

Physics: Interactions and priorities of cohesive and adhesive forces

Chemistry: Non-uniform charge distributions, molecular structure

Math: Calculations involving different units, surface areas and interaction strengths

Superhydrophobicity: A Comparison of Forces

Magic Sand Use rubber cement and attach a layer to paper Water drops can also pick up pepper scattered on surface

Hydrophobicity is a combination of physical structure (the bumps) and chemistry (the relative strength of “bonding” forces)

Use capillary tubes of different diameters

Use glass slides – coat with oil, soap, wax, etc and observe drops of water, oil etc. and interactions

Superhydrophobic Surface

Middle School High School College

Materials Magic sand or similar materialsPaper, glue sticksWaterTransfer pipettes or small flexible plastic cupsFood coloring (optional)Pepper

+ Petri dishesGlass slidesProtractorDifferent liquids (oil, salt water, soap, glycerin, alcohol etc.)Access to hot and cold water

+ Hot platesVideo camera

Concept(s) Different priorities of forces or interactions can result in different phenomenaCohesive and Adhesive forces

+ Interaction is dependent upon the type of liquidInequality equationsSurface tensove

+ Use liquid and temperature variations to define inequality equations for the various forces and interactions (cohesive, adhesive, vibrational etc.

Variations None + Molecular structure and attributes of the liquid, i.e., cohesive strengthTemperature dependency

+ TemperatureType and amount of dry materials on the superhydrophobic surface liquid materialsDifferent concentrations of liquids i.e. salt and water, water and soap

Questions Can you think of other examples where adding one material to another changes the properties?Can you think of possible applications for a material such as magic sand

+ What are the forces and interactions between the liquid and the surface?Does the molecular structure of the liquid impact the reaction? If so, how?

+ Using the collected data relationship between cohesive strength and temperature or different liquids. Define relative strengths of the different bonds

The Basics

Add arrows to representdifferent forces and interactions

F w-p

F w-a

F c

F g

F w-s (a)

F p-s

Change or add materials onto surface

F w-a

F c

F g

F w-s (a)

Label the forces and interactions

Write inequality equations for different situations Room temp Hi/low temp Different fluids

PolymersTwo Variations on a Theme

Cross-linked

Ringed

Ref :Multifunctional DessertsBy Nicola | Published: April 18, 2010

Ref: File:StericAcidChemStr.pnghaaskenj5991.blogspot.com

1. phospholipid bilayer (chapter 3). 2. selectively permeablecourse1.winona.edu

Cross-Linked Polymers – Let’s play

Physics: Molecular bonding strength, priorities of forces

Chemistry: Atomic and molecular structure determining interaction

Molecular Charge distribution

Critical thinking – different liquids, ratios, temperatureExperiment – Observe – Document – Ponder

Applications: Environmental clean up, medicine delivery

Each bond between atoms has a specific strength

A different atom or molecule introduced into this polymer “system” can form or break bonds dependent upon the relative strengths

Changes in bonds will result in a change in the atomic arrangement (molecular structure) and potentially change the properties of the “system”

Cross-Linked Polymer

Middle School High School CollegeMaterials Cross-Linked polymer powder

WaterPetri DishesTransfer pipettes or small flexible plastic cupsFood coloring (optional)

+ Different liquids (oil, salt water, soap, glycerin, alcohol etc.)Access to hot and cold water

+ StopwatchesVideo cameraBeakers, scalesRaman SpectrometerSEM

Concept(s) By adding water to the XL polymer the arrangement of atoms is changed therefore changing the material properties

+ Interaction is dependent upon the type of liquid and also the temperature of the liquid

+ Use liquid and temperature variations to define inequality equations for the various forces and interactions (cohesive, adhesive, vibrational etc.

Variations None + Molecular structure and attributes of the liquidTemperature dependency

+ Time of interaction, amount of dry and liquid materialsDifferent concentrations of liquids i.e. salt and water, water and soap

Questions Can you think of other examples where adding one material to another changes the properties?Can you think of possible applications for a material such as the cross-linked polymer?

+ What are the forces and interactions between the atoms/mers in the polymer and the molecules of the liquid?Does the molecular structure of the liquid impact the reaction? If so, how?

+ Using the Raman, which chemical bonds were broken with different liquidsDefine relative strengths of the different bondsDefine the charge distribution of the liquid molecules and the influence on the interaction with the cross linked polymers

Cross Link and Ring Polymers

Activity: Cross-linked Polymer

Magic Snow

Cross Linked Polymer – similar to collagen or cellulose – the “zigzag” of the polymer gives it the elastic property and the cross-linking between zigzags helps keep the structure (stiffness)

Place a small amount of the material in a Petri dish -- Feel it and observe it’s physical properties

Using a plastic transfer pipette add some water to the material

Observe what happens

Now feel the resulting material – How have the physical properties changed?

What do you think happened?

Answer: The water, a dipole molecule interacted with and affected the cross-linking bonds “releasing” the polymers – We changed the atomic arrangement and as a result changed the physical properties of the material.

Thank you!!!!