Getting A Feel For Scale

The Nanoscale |
| It is easy to say that the prefix nano stands for 10-9 and that a nanometer is 1 billionth of a meter. But it is hard to both imagine and get a real perspective of just how small the nanoscale really is. |

Examples of Objects by Scale
| This page shows a series of objects listed in order by size (meters) in orders of magnitude or powers of ten. This should give you some feel for how common objects can be ordered by their size.
| Objects by Scale Page
| Practice Worksheet Exercise
| Following is a worksheet Scale of Objects Activity on a web page and as a Word document.
|  | Web Page |  | Word Document | Answer Key

Number Line Activity (For Teachers)
| In this activity, students arrange pictures of objects along a "number line" or along a set of power of ten markers. In the original version, the power of ten markers were to be strung along a string strung across the classroom. This slightly different version is set up to allow students to work in lab groups to perform the same exercise.
| Number Line Power of Ten Markers These are exponential markers from 101m to 10-10 m. You can print these out onto some card stock, cut them out, and paste them three to the 11 inch side of another piece of card stock. Leave space between each three so more than one of the answer cards can be placed there. The card stock can be laminiated and the four pages then taped together. A strip of velcro can be attached along the bottom of the four pages. You can make several sets so that groups of students can use them.
|  | Web Page | Word Document |
| In order to facilatate making the four pages, you can create them by printing out the 4 Word documents below. Make sure you set the Word PageSetup to landscape with 0.5 inch margins all around.
| Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4
| Answer Cards of Objects
| These are the answer cards of objects that need to be placed along the orders of ten number line created above. Again, these can be printed out onto card stock, laminated, cut up, and placed in a small box along to be used with the number line above. Each card can have a piece of velcro attached to to back so students can place them along the number line above.
|  | Page 1: #1-12 | Web Page | Word Document |
|  | Page 2: #13-24 | Web Page | Word Document |
| Student Directions
| This worksheet tells students how to run the activity and gives them a list of the 24 answers. This worksheet tells students to hang the answers along a string using clothespins. This can be easilly modified to have groups of students place the cards on the number lines created above.
|  | Web Page | Word Document |
| Answer Key | Web Page | Word Document |

Taken from Nanosense: the basic sense behind nanoscience
| The Nanosense site includes an extensive collection of materials in the area of nanotechnology.