Fundamentals of microfluidics for high school students with no prior knowledge of fluid mechanics.

Vishal Tandon, Walter Peck

Department of Biomedical Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA. vt42@cornell.edu

Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) 2013

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Three microfluidics-based laboratory exercises were developed and implemented in a high school science classroom setting. The first exercise demonstrated ways in which flows are characterized, including viscosity, turbulence, shear stress, reversibility, compressibility, and hydrodynamic resistance. Students characterized flows in poly(dimethylsiloxane) microfluidic devices in the other two exercises, where they observed the mixing characteristics of laminar flows, and conservation of volumetric flow rate for incompressible flows. In surveys, the students self-reported increased knowledge of microfluidics, and an improved attitude toward science and nanotechnology.

Citation

Vishal Tandon, Walter Peck. Fundamentals of microfluidics for high school students with no prior knowledge of fluid mechanics. Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.). 2013;949:41-54