FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Aldo Leyva, 915-533-4330
Itsy Bitsy Science Event Opens at El Paso Exploreum
The El Paso Exploreum children’s museum is celebrating NanoDays™ 2015 with free mini
science displays during Kidspalooza, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday, March 28, 2015, at 300
W. San Antonio Ave.
Itsy Bitsy Science offers hands-on experiments demonstrating science at the smallest levels the scale of atoms and molecules – where common materials exhibit unusual properties. Use a
transmission electron microscope to image an object by looking at its shadow and examine
why our popular kinetic sand feels like falling water! Create "stained glass" with contact paper
and colored tissue paper and see how polarizers affect light. Nanotechnology is revolutionizing
research and development in areas such as medicine, computing, food and energy. We can
already find examples in everyday life!
In the parking lot, enjoy free crafts and activities from Kidspalooza partners: Magoffin Home
State Historic Site, Providence Children’s Hospital, Fiesta Bowling Lanes, Oasis Bowling
Lanes, El Paso Zoological Society, Paso Del Norte Center of Hope, and Fort Bliss Replica
Museum.
Admission into the Itsy Bitsy Science exhibit is free. Museum entry for the permanent exhibit
halls is discounted to $5 per person on March 28 only.
NanoDays at El Paso Exploreum is part of a nationwide festival of educational programs about
nanoscale science and engineering. The museum’s partner, TecH2O, plans additional activities
at the Learning Center on April 4, 2015. Organized by the Nanoscale Informal Science
Education Network (NISE Net), NanoDays is March 28 - April 4, 2015. This community-based
event is the largest public outreach effort in nanoscale informal science education and involves
museums, research centers, and universities from Puerto Rico to Alaska.
The Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network (NISE Net) is a national community of
researchers and informal science educators dedicated to fostering public awareness,
engagement, and understanding of nanoscale science, engineering, and technology. The
NISE Network community in the United States is led by 14 organizations, and includes
hundreds of museums and universities nationwide. NISE Net was launched in 2005 with
funding from the National Science Foundation, and received a five-year renewal in 2010.
The El Paso Exploreum offers a wide variety of interactive exhibits for all ages. The children’s
museum features 14,000-square-feet of hands-on fun in role play, science, technology,
engineering, architecture and math. El Paso Exploreum is open Tuesdays through Sundays,
excluding major holidays.
For more information about NISE Net please visit: http://www.nisenet.org or
http://www.whatisnano.org Visit the El Paso Exploreum at www.elpasoexploreum.org
This project is based on work supported by the NSF under Award Nos. ESI-05322536 and 0940143. NanoDays™ is
trademarked by North Carolina State University and used by the NISE Network with permission. NanoDays is a
nationwide festival of educational programs about nanoscale science and engineering and its potential impacts
on the future. With over 200 science museums, research centers, and university across the country participating,
this event is seriously the “biggest event for the smallest science!”
Definition of terms
Nano is the scientific term meaning one-billionth (1/1,000,000,000). It comes from a Greek word meaning “dwarf.”
A nanometer is one one-billionth of a meter. One inch equals 25.4 million nanometers. A sheet of paper is about
100,000 nanometers thick. A human hair measures roughly 50,000 to 100,000 nanometers across. Your fingernails
grow one nanometer every second. (Other units can also be divided by one billion. A single blink of an eye is
about one-billionth of a year. An eye blink is to a year what a nanometer is to a yardstick.)
Nanoscale refers to measurements of 1-100 nanometers. A virus is about 70 nm long. A cell membrane is about 9
nm thick. Ten hydrogen atoms are about 1 nm. At the nanoscale, many common materials exhibit unusual
properties, such as remarkably lower resistance to electricity, or faster chemical reactions.
Nanotechnology is the manipulation of material at the nanoscale to take advantage of these properties. This often
means working with individual molecules.
Nanoscience, nanoengineering and other such terms refer to those activities applied to the nanoscale. “Nano,”
by itself, is often used as short-hand to refer to any or all of these activities.