User:Immunolin/sandbox

Wiki Summary Omni Nano is a 501(c)(3) non-profit [LINK: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-profit_organization] public benefit corporation based in Los Angeles, California, devoted to nanotechnology [LINK: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanotechnology] education. Omni Nano is dedicated to bringing nanotechnology into high school and community college classrooms, at an affordable price, in order to inspire the next generation of STEM [LINK: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STEM_fields] professionals. Omni Nano is producing grade-appropriate, high-quality, interactive, student-centered [LINK: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student_centered] educational materials to facilitate teaching the fundamental principles of nanotechnology, with special focus on the practical applications of nanotechnology to promote professional development. In addition, Omni Nano provides free nanotechnology workshops for high school science classes in the Los Angeles area, and has begun a pilot program at 32nd Street/USC Magnet School as of January 2014. Its curriculum utilizes an active learning [LINK: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_learning] approach to encourage creative discovery and student interest while supporting student accountability and engagement. Background & Mission As a highly interdisciplinary and rapidly growing STEM field, nanotechnology is forecasted to be a key growth sector, affecting millions of jobs both directly and indirectly, and producing a multi-trillion dollar (US dollar) economy within a decade [SOURCES: http://www.nnin.org/news-events/spotlights/nanotechnology-careers, & http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/global-market-for-nanotechnology-to-reach-33-trillion-by-2018-181915881.html]. Despite its growing importance, nanotechnology is only taught in select Masters and Doctorate degree programs, and is not widely taught in high schools and colleges in the United States or around the world [POSSIBLE SOURCE: http://www.scienceinschool.org/2008/issue10/nanotechnology]. As a result, when choosing a college major and a career path, students typically know very little about modern science and engineering, including the novel technologies developed, utilized, and applied in the 21st century. Omni Nano believes this education gap is largely due to a lack of properly designed grade-appropriate curricula, and its mission is to bridge this gap between the current core science curricula and the sciences and technologies of tomorrow. Omni Nano was founded in 2012 by Dr. Marco Curreli, Ph.D., who holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Southern California (USC), where he focused the entirety of his graduate work on Nanotechnology. At USC he worked as a teaching assistant [LINK: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teaching_assistant] for a variety of chemistry courses, and he later designed college-level, online-based chemistry courses for the Saylor Foundation’s [LINK: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saylor_Foundation] Free Education Initiative. During his time in industry, Dr. Curreli was the principle investigator [LINK: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principal_investigator] of several projects funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) [LINK: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Cancer_Institute] among others. Projects Discover Nanotechnology Project Omni Nano provides 45-120-minute nanotechnology workshops for high school science classrooms. In line with its charitable mission, these workshops are offered free of charge, and have so far been conducted in Los Angeles and New York. Discover Nanotechnology workshops focus on practical applications of nanotechnology and give students an eye-opening overview of nanotech innovations by explaining them using concepts from traditional high school science courses such as chemistry, physics and biology. Bridges to Nanotechnology Project The Bridges to Nanotechnology project is devoted to bringing nanotechnology into real classrooms, currently as a subset of science instruction and eventually as its own course. Beginning January 2014, Omni Nano is collaborating with premiere California high school, 32nd Street/USC Magnet School [LINK: http://32ndstreet-uscmagnet.schoolloop.com], to offer weekly lectures in two of the high school’s existing science courses, Introduction to Engineering and Food Science. Lectures provided at this ethnically and socioeconomically diverse school are based on teaching guidelines from the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) [LINK: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Next_Generation_Science_Standards] and incorporate hands-on activities to stimulate creativity and curiosity. Nanotechnology Curriculum Project Omni Nano’s curricula and educational materials are developed under its Nanotechnology Curriculum project. As a charitable organization, Omni Nano has a duty to focus on its mission instead of financial profits, and so these materials are created to be affordable without sacrificing quality. The first edition of its textbook is currently under development in alignment with the NGSS. Its curriculum is specifically designed to encourage students to study and enjoy STEM through interactive projects and concepts they can relate to their everyday lives. External Links Official website: www.omninano.org Non-profit status verification: •	Guidestar: http://www.guidestar.org/organizations/90-0926828/omni-nano.aspx •	Charity Navigator: http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.profile&ein=900926828#.UsdtGrSzSfB •	IRS Website: http://apps.irs.gov/app/eos/pub78Search.do?ein1=900926828&names=&city=&state=All...&country=US&deductibility=all&dispatchMethod=searchCharities&submitName=Search Categories Nanotechnology education, STEM education, 501c3, 501(c)(3), science curriculum, education in los angeles, framework, K-12 science, nanoscience, nanotechnology textbook.