Center for Complex Materials has outreach program
Dr. Daniel Steinberg, who wrote this account, directs the Education Outreach Program for the Princeton Center for Complex Materials, a national center of excellence in materials research supported by the National Science Foundation and Princeton University
On Dec. 12, Constance Cloonan’s third-grade class from Toll Gate Grammar School arrived at the Princeton University Materials Institute, where they had come to view the world of the very small with a scanning electron microscope.
Essential tools in materials, chemistry, physics, and biological research, electron microscopes are delicate and expensive but 10,000 times more powerful than a conventional microscope. Under ideal conditions, an electron microscope can image molecules and even single atoms.
Thanks to an ongoing outreach program undertaken at Princeton University by the Princeton Center for Complex Materials, Ms. Cloonan’s students were able to look at microscopic shells and fruit flies with each student getting a chance at the controls of the microscope.
Guided by technical specialist Jane Woodruff, students delighted in moving around the image and zooming in on various parts of the fly. "I really like looking at things up close. I could see the structure of a fruit fly and how things are attached. This made me want to be a scientist," said Tyler Osterman of Pennington.
Material Institute’s Education Director Steinberg designed the tour and presentations to fit to fit with Toll Gate’s third-grade curriculum.
During the course of an afternoon, students were encouraged to use standard optical microscopes hooked up to personal computers, in this way helping them develop an appreciation for the power of the electron microscopes. Helped by the Institute’s Soonoo Aria, one student caught a fly and placed it in the sample jar. Once in the jar, the students captured the complex movements of the fly’s wings on film. Having starred in a movie, the fly was released at the end of the program.
For a special treat, Professor David Srolovitz, director of the Princeton Materials Institute, gave the third-graders a lesson on the physics of silly putty and racquetballs. The rubber racquetballs were drenched in liquid nitrogen and then dropped 30 feet, where the once pliant balls shattered like glass. "I liked seeing the ball change and then break," said Mark Thompson of Pennington, "I got to throw it."
The students then ran down the spiral staircase and collected the pieces. The rock-hard pieces quickly warmed up in their hands and became rubbery again much to the amazement of the students. "I liked seeing how the liquid nitrogen moved, it looked like fog or smoke," said Ben Steinberg.
After an afternoon of intense scientific research it was time to head back to Toll Gate. "I thought it was interesting to see scientists working," said Alyssa Torrens.

