This screen shot is from Proteins, Designing Beta Peptides, where a necklace represents different amino acid molecules that make up the primary structure of a protein.
Today’s Science for Tomorrow’s Scientists (TSTS) was initiated in 2006 with the support of the UW–Madison Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center (NSEC). It is an interactive website that introduces students to current chemistry and engineering research topics through fun and interactive tutorials. It was developed by Caroline Pharr, a former UW–Madison graduate student, who included development and evaluation of TSTS as part of her Ph.D. research.
In TSTS the research topics are presented at two levels: one for students in grades 5–8 and one for students in grades 9–12. The information presented conforms to the National Science Education Standards, which aids teachers in incorporating the material into their curricula.
The goal of TSTS is to educate students about cutting-edge research, to show the social implications of research, and to give students a more positive attitude about science and engineering. TSTS is housed on the ChemEd Digital Library (a Pathway project of NSF’s National Science Digital Library); access it at http://www.chemeddl.org/resources/TSTS/. You will find these TSTS topics:
- Astrochemistry (Organic Chemistry): work done by the McMahon research group
- Catalysis (Inorganic Chemistry): work done by the Stahl research group
- Proteins, Designing Beta Peptides (Biochemistry): work done by the Gellman research group
Support for the initial construction of TSTS was provided by the UW-Madison NSEC