DNA Origami
For most middle- and high-school learners, self-assembly is a fundamentally new and counter-intuitive proposition; prior experience tells them that things are put together by assembling components into aggregates through direct manipulation. The dynamism of nature at nanoscale, combined with the change in dominance of forces relative to macroscale, represents significant challenges to the design of appropriate representations of phenomena. At the same time, secondary students generally have limited experience with the control of variables and methods of systematic design that focus on using feedback from iterative design steps to move effectively toward target products.
12/1/06