(287e) Nano/bio-Systems Modeling in Undergraduate and Graduate Education Using Gaussian'03 and Materials Studio

Nanosystems Modeling is a technical elective course that serves junior/senior students in Chemical Engineering, Nanosystems Engineering, Biological sciences, Biomedical engineering, Chemistry, Biology, and Physics, and offers a graduate level course to be taken by students in Louisiana Tech's master and Ph.D. programs. The course has being designed to train students on practical application of state-of-the-art molecular modeling techniques to a variety of nanotechnology applications using the commercial Gaussian'03 and Materials Studio software. In this course various techniques are used to perform molecular simulations. Four levels of theory are covered in Nanosystems Modeling: Quantum Mechanics, Molecular Mechanics, Molecular Dynamics, and Monte Carlo methods. During the lecture part of the course the theory is introduced and the mathematics simply explained. Activities are assigned in order to extend the students knowledge of the use of the theory in practical chemical engineering applications. Final projects are then assigned containing outlined. Apart from weekly computer-based homework projects, there is a final group project which consists of particular research activity involving tasks that scan all the levels of theory presented the course, and the design of learning materials that can be easily explained to a particular audience. To successfully achieving the education tasks required for the completion of final projects, students are introduced to the National and State science, math, and technology standards. Learning kits designed by Nanosystems Modeling students and ?in vivo? demonstrations of computational research activities are being distributed to: teachers during the teacher preparation and K-12 programs currently administered at Louisiana Tech, students during the Engineer's day at Louisiana Tech, and a general audience. These educational activities have a direct impact on K-12, high school, and prospective students from small rural and town schools around LA Tech's region. In this work, the final project on the modeling of Methanol Dehydrogenase enzymes as catalysts for methanol oxidation is presented, and the challenging associated education component to explain the project to Kindergarten to 4th graders is presented. This component of the final project provides ideas for learning material that can be used by outreach groups. The GK-12 ?Teacher Fellows? program at Louisiana Tech University is an example of an outreach program that uses the designed kits to teach students about research being conducted by molecular modeling techniques.