Success of Co-Founders of Nanotechnology Club

Taylan Erol, Önder Erin founders of Nanotechnology Club and their project team achieved to take 4.185,00 € fund for their project titled by “Expanding Horizons in Nanotechnology” from Ministry of European Union Affairs, Youth in Action Program. Taylan Erol, Önder Erin and their project team are the first student group in Sabancı University that have ever achieved to take fund for a social project at undergraduate level, also Nanotechnology Club is the first student club that has ever succeeded to carry out a funded project.

Project Members:

Taylan Erol

Önder Erin

Kıvanç Başkaya

Simge Temel

Ayşe Ecem Bezer

Pınar Bozkurt

Summary of the project is given below:

The project will be held in Istanbul, Tuzla. It will be a youth attempt under the theme of “Informing the Youth”. By informing the young generation on nanotechnology, it is aimed to attract attention on this new research and application field and to broaden the horizons of these young people. To attain this aim, researchers and authorized people on nanotechnology will be conducting the project.

An important objective is to enable students to gain a firsthand knowledge via tours and experiments in Sabanci University Nanotechnology Application and Research Center (SUNUM) carried out by project members. Students will be provided proper sources and activities for their questions with the introduction seminars, workshops, translation of nanoyou.eu in Turkish, project website and Facebook group. By the help of these sources, activities and opportunity of learning by observation, the goal is to raise a basic awareness on the topic of Nanotechnology.

The duration of the project will be 90 days. The introduction seminar will be given to 1500 11thgrade high school students. As for the SUNUM tour, experiment observation, workshop, Nano-Supermarket exhibitions and nanotechnology related film displays; there will be a group of 150students chosen out of the whole 1500 taking part in these activities. Students with obstacles and limited opportunities will constitute the majority in this group.

Summing up the activities mentioned above; introduction seminars that will be held in high schools, SUNUM laboratory tours, learning through experiment observation, workshop, Nano-Supermarket exhibition images and film displays, translation of nanoyou.eu in Turkish, project web-site, a facebook group will be organized and they will be a sufficient source of answers to the questions of the students.

Another objective is to add a European dimension to the introduction of the field by comparing, contrasting and debating on the method of Nanotechnology education that is applied in Europe with students at the same age.

All of the high schools in Tuzla district will be chosen to participate without making any selection upon any criteria. A determined number of disabled students will be selected from each school. The rest of the students will be selected by their teachers according to their enthusiasm and interest to the topic and most of them (at least the half) will be those with limited opportunities. Learning by

research with the project given to them, learning by observing with the experiments carried out by project members, learning by witnessing with the laboratory tours, learning by debating with the workshop will be the methods used in the project.