STROBE: Light, Energy and Imaging Science (Team)

Program Description: 

Scientists and engineers at the NSF Science and Technology Center for Real-Time Functional Imaging (STROBE) are pushing boundaries in ultrafast, nanoscale imaging to address grand challenges across STEM disciplines. STROBE's work focuses on expanding our ability to visualize, manipulate, and understand materials at ever smaller scales. This STEM Workshop connects teams of 1 teacher and 5 students to STROBE scientists and their work with dynamic content and activities that support Colorado and Next Generation Science Standards in three 75-minute learning modules:

  • Everyday Nanoscale Grand Challenges: Common understanding of the nano-world and our ability to predict and understand it is limited by scale – structures and reactions happen at scales too small and fast to easily observe. How can we understand and predict effects that involve reaction too small to see? How can we use this insight to design a solution to a real-world problem? STROBE scientists at CU Boulder are leading the charge into nanoscale visualization and in this learning module we build a foundation to understand this nano-world, investigate grand challenges, and engineer solutions to address problems with STEM-based solutions.

  • ​Light, Living Systems and Solar Solutions: The capture and conversion of energy in a plant cell is startlingly efficient, extremely fast, and happens at the nanoscale.  STROBE researchers from UC Berkeley are working to understand the process of photosynthesis at the atomic level, and at ultrafast speeds, by imaging the materials involved in this fundamental process. In this module participants will learn about photosynthesis at the nanoscale, the fundamentals of solar energy collection and conversion, and how STROBE scientists’ work may improve everything from superconductors to solar cells and potentially the biomimetic light harvesting systems of the future! 

  • ​Electromagnetic Energy and Imaging Technology: Using cutting-edge technology and hands-on experiences, teams of learners will explore the principles and applications of electromagnetic energy in imaging technology across the spectrum and STEM disciplines. With opportunities to split and bend light, use lasers to send signals, experience ultraviolet and infrared imaging, and build images from binary code, this workshop reinforces core content in wave science while sharing cutting-edge science and engineering from CU Boulder and UC Irvine. 

Logistics:

  • Teams pre-register online or by phone
  • ​​Teams arrive at the site at 8:45am and depart between 2:30 and 3pm
  • Each team of 5 students will need either a teacher or an adult chaperone
  • Participants bring lunches and water bottles

Sample schedule (75-minute classes):

  • 9-9:30am: Introduction

  • 9:45-11am: Class One

  • 11-11:45am: Lunch

  • 11:45am-1pm: Class Two

  • 1-1:15pm: Break

  • 1:15-2:30pm: Class Three

  • 2:30-3pm: Wrap-Up

Register now for the May 15, 2019 STROBE Teacher + Student Team Workshop. 

For additional information, contact Hester Nadel via email or by calling 303-492-8640.