A collaboration between The Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) and the Integrated Science (IS) program run by the Center for Communication and Educational Technology (CCET) at The University of Alabama has been developing a computer game based approach to teaching Periodic Table concepts and facts to middle school students. The game is broken into seven different sections. There are three information centers, which are each paired with a game, and there is a “Dream Room” which provides an incentive for students to master the subject matter of the game. The three information centers focus on learning the elements, their positions in the periodic table, and trends in physical and chemical properties. The games then test the students' knowledge of the concepts and facts in the information centers. The game is currently in a late beta version and can be accessed over the web at http://www.mint.ua.edu/periodictable.

Preliminary results from a large evaluation exercise shows that classes that use the computer games improved significantly more on tests of subject matter than a control group.

UNC Charlotte is a young and growing research university. Most of the Ph.D. programs on our campus have been designed to be interdisciplinary. This strategic choice was made for both economic and pedagogical reasons. At the heart of the drive for interdisciplinary degree programs is the recognition that a lack of educational diversity at the Ph.D. level is limiting for new graduates in today's research and discovery landscape. This need for educational diversity is even more acute in the sciences. We need more chemists that know more physics, and we need more physicists that know more biology, and we need more engineers that understand matter at a molecular scale.

To this end, faculty in the departments of chemistry, optical sciences, mechanical engineering, and electrical engineering have designed and are implementing a new interdisciplinary Ph.D. degree in “Nanoscale Science”. Research involving nanoscale materials and phenomena requires an educational perspective far broader than traditional academic disciplines currently offer. The question is how to deliver a broad graduate education that enables each student to reach an expertise required for the Ph.D. This is the question that has driven our pedagogical development of this Nanoscale science program.

The overall structure of this program will be described and compared to other current efforts in Nanoscale graduate education throughout the United States. Various novel features will be discussed, with the hope for critical feedback and discussion. Details of the educational opportunities we have designed and the method of assessment we will employ will be presented.

As part of a Nanotechnology Undergraduate Education program funded by NSF, a team of faculty at Michigan Technological University has developed a suite of educational and research experiences intended to introduce undergraduate students to the exciting prospects and challenges of nanoscale science and engineering. Although open to all students, the program was designed in particular for engineering students whose curricula have relatively little flexibility. Engineering students at Michigan Tech follow a common first-year curriculum, and as is true at most engineering colleges, their courses of study are highly structured. In order to bring introductory nanotechnology content to both engineering and non-engineering majors, activities were developed to fit into or to modestly supplement existing curricular frameworks. The program seeks to introduce students to three foundational aspects of work at the nanoscale: the underlying scientific principles, possible scientific and engineering applications, and the societal implications of implementation of nanotechnology. A web site (http://nano.mtu.edu/) was developed as a central focal point for nano-related research activities at Michigan Tech. This paper presents additional background and discusses the challenges related to the project, a brief overview of the educational activities, a more in-depth description of those activities deemed to be the most successful, and a description of some lessons learned.

It seems that a day cannot pass without reading a headline in the popular press or scientific magazines extolling the potential of nanotechnology and nanoscience. The excitement is justifiable and the new generation of researchers and workers in this discipline will need a whole new range of skills and vocabulary to understand and progress this exciting field and for it to reach its full potential. In higher education and research establishments around the world most nanoscience or nanotechnology courses and textbooks, that have been developed, have been done so by engineering or physics departments and approach the subject from that perspective. The interdisciplinary nature of nanoscience, however, also includes chemists, which until recently have had to rely on these courses and books to gain an insight into this rapidly developing field. This has changed in the last year, or so, with exciting new books being published by chemists and aimed at chemistry students of all levels, In addition, chemistry departments around the world, are beginning to develop nanochemistry classes, particularly at the graduate level. Presented here is the structure and content of a new graduate elective that has been offered at the Middle Eastern Technical University (METU) in Ankara, Turkey. This course was offered for the first time in spring 2006 and is designed primarily to introduce and equip chemistry graduate students with some of the skills and tools needed to contribute to the growing nano related research interests that are burgeoning on campus, in the country and in the world. The design of the course, the textbook used, comments from the students, etc are discussed.

Recent collaborations with science and engineering faculty in major research universities have dramatically increased and strengthened research and educational opportunities in nanoscience and nanotechnology at Ball State University. The three-year Center for Computational Nanoscience (CCN) project involved eleven co-principal investigators from three disciplines (physics, chemistry, electrical engineering) and five universities, including Ball State University, University of Notre Dame, Ohio University, Purdue University, and Valparaiso University. Funded by the Indiana 21st Century Research and Technology Fund, this $1.5 million project focused on theoretical and computational investigations of the electrical and optical properties of quantum dots and included partial support for software development for the Purdue NanoHub, a web-based software repository. The effects of this collaborative project (and previous contacts) on nanoscience education and research at the undergraduate and master's levels in the Department of Physics & Astronomy at Ball State University have been extensive and are described in this paper. University and community impacts include an enhanced awareness of nanoscience and nanotechnology.

One-dimensional (1D) nano-materials have attracted a plenty of attention due to their novel structures and properties. Our group has carried out researches on synthesis, structure and property of 1D nano-materials, which are introduced in this paper. First, size effects on the crystal structure of Ag nanowires and on Young's modulus in [0001] oriented ZnO nanowires, respectively, have been revealed and modeled. The former is concerning the systemic energy of an individual Ag nanowire. The latter is caused by the surface stiffening effect arising from surface relaxation induced bond length contractions in the ZnO nanowires. Second, structures of 1D helical nano-materials including SWCNT (single-walled carbon nanotube), B-DNA and MWCNT (mutli-walled carbon nanotube) have been studied. It is shown that there is strong orientation dependence of diffraction intensities from SWCNT and B-DNA, which can even result in certain layer lines missing in their diffraction patterns. Also, it is demonstrated that high-resolution transmission electron microscope (TEM) images of sidewall regions of MWCNTs are not structural ones and from the interference of the {0002} and the {1011} diffraction waves. Third, arrays of four types of 1D heterojunctions have been synthesized. Among these 1D heterojunctions, the interfacial structures of the Ni/MWCNT/a-CNT(amorphous carbon nanotube) heterojunctions show that multiple outer walls in the MWCNTs can simultaneously participate in electrical transport. The electrical properties of the Ni/MWCNT/a-CNT and the Ag/a-CNT heterojunctions have been measured. As a result, it is found that the contacts between the Ag nanowires and the a-CNTs are ohmic ones with universal significance, and that each Ni/MWCNT/ a-CNT contains two diodes connected in series face-to-face. Moreover, most of the diodes have the most nearly ideal characteristics of Schottky contacts, indicated by quantitative analysis with the thermionic emission theory. Last, our group has developed a novel technique for rapidly producing large-area highly-oriented Si nanowire arrays on Si wafers by scratching the Si surface with metal nanoparticles near room temperature in HF solution. By this method, Si nanowires with desirable axial crystallographic directions, desirable doping characteristics and remarkable antireflection property can be readily obtained. The Si nanowire arrays have the potential applicability as an antireflective layer for photovoltaic devices and optical detectors. Furthermore, a combination of this method and the nanosphere lithography has been developed to fabricate large-scale Si and Si1−xGex quantum dot arrays with controllable height, diameter and center-to-center distance.

This work reports on the evolution of nanoscience, nanoengineering and nanotechnology (NSET) education in the Engineering Department at the Colorado State University – Pueblo (CSU-Pueblo) from 2002 to 2006. It includes both, undergraduate and graduate courses with NSET topics as well as a review of undergraduate and graduate research projects.

Continuing advances in human ability to manipulate matter at the atomic and molecular levels (i.e. nanoscale science and technology) offer a range of previously unimagined possibilities for scientific discovery and technological application. Paralleling these scientific advances is the increasing realization that a number of associated ethical, environmental, economic, legal and social implications also need to be explored [1]. Additionally, prominent commentators such as Mihail Roco [2] of the U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative (www.nano.gov) have argued that “education and training [in scientific concepts at the nanoscale] must be introduced at all levels, from kindergarten to continuing education, from scientists to non-technical audiences that may decide the use of technology and its funding” (p. 1248).

The paper below is structured in three inter-related sections. The first section provides a brief report on science education research conducted in the third year of an initial 3-year National Science Foundation funded Research Experiences for Undergraduates program in nanoscience and nanotechnology at the University of Central Florida. Participating undergraduate students and research faculty were asked to respond to a survey -adapted from Bainbridge [3]- that attempted to measure their attitudes to a variety of social and ethical issues currently associated with nanoscale science and engineering research. Selected findings are presented, and implications for the future of K-16 science education, undergraduate engineering education and Science-Technology-Society (STS) studies also are briefly discussed.

Consideration of social and ethical issues associated with nanotechnology research will generate several implications for general scientific literacy and public science education policy. Some of these implications are addressed in the second section. Given the extent to which these new technologies are expected to impact all aspects of human experience, public scientific literacy regarding nanotechnology becomes an issue of considerable importance. Here, the onus falls on science educators at the K-12 and university levels to become knowledgeable about nanoscale science and engineering research, and to share their pedagogical expertise with nanotechnology researchers. This section of the presentation will focus on the “social and ethical issues in science” K-12 standards already present in national documents such as the U.S. National Science Education Standards, the American Association for the Advancement of Science's Project 2061 Benchmarks for Scientific Literacy, and the British National Curriculum. Specific examples from current research in nanoscale science and engineering are used to demonstrate how various nanoscale science/engineering concepts may usefully be incorporated into the K-12 science curriculum.

The third section of the paper provides an overview of selected international efforts in K-16 nanoscale science and engineering education, and briefly discusses various instructional approaches and techniques that are likely to be useful for other science and engineering educators. Examples are used from a forthcoming book on nanoscale science and engineering education for which the author is a co-editor.

Because a great deal of nanoscience and nanotechnology relies on crystalline nanometer sized or nanometer structured materials, crystallographers have to provide their specific contributions to the National Nanotechnology Initiative. Here we review two open access internet-based crystallographic databases, the Crystallography Open Database (COD) and the Nano-Crystallography Database (NCD), that store information in the Crystallographic Information File (CIF) format. Having more than ten thousand crystallographic data sets available on the internet in a standardized format allows for many kinds of internet-based crystallographic calculations and visualizations. Examples for this that are dealt with in this paper are interactive crystal structure visualizations in three dimensions (3D) and calculations of theoretical lattice-fringe fingerprint plots for the identification of unknown nanocrystals from their atomic-resolution transmission electron microscopy images.

Materials in reduced dimensions demonstrate size dependence and may exhibit properties different from the bulk. Nanomaterials are a fundamentally and entirely new class of materials with remarkable electrical, optical, and mechanical properties, thus offering unique applications. With a 9.7% increase in FY 2004-05 investments and an expected worldwide labor force shortage, education and training has become a key component of the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI). The slow response by the academic community to develop nanotechnology curriculum is evidenced by the small number of Universities offering fundamental undergraduate level courses in nanoscience and nanotechnology. There is a strong need to develop coercive undergraduate curriculum to equip the future engineers, scientists, and researchers charged with commercializing nanotechnology applications. We are in the process of developing and implementing some core courses and laboratory modules, which can easily adapt to either a major or minor in nanotechnology, nano-biotechnology, or nanoscience programs. The course modules are being developed by a multi-disciplinary team consisting of faculty in Physics, Agricultural and Biological Engineering, Materials Engineering, and Molecular Biology at Universities in the US, Europe, and the Consortium of South East European Network on Nanoscience and Technology (COSENT). The joint effort specifically addresses a sector of nanobiotechnology emphasizing applications in agricultural and biological systems through hands-on modules and experimental kits. Selected course and laboratory modules are being developed to be affordable, flexible, accessible, and appealing to a diverse student population from across basics sciences, life sciences, agriculture, and engineering departments. Internet ready, multimedia intensive curriculum and assessment modules will include self-directed individualized learning modules as well as team-based components capitalizing on collaborative learning to address complex problems and tasks. The capital cost and site sensitivity of much of the equipment used within nanoscience courses often limits its distribution to large research centers, despite the need for it in many disperse educational programs. The creation of this seamless integration will promote and encourage an international exchange of students and ideas within interdisciplinary research. We will present our unique approach to delivery of education and training at all levels employing converging technologies to an international audience and receive feedback to enhance the effectiveness of the program to better educate the task force of tomorrow.

This article explores issues and challenges in the field of education in nanoscience and technology with special emphasis with respect to India, where an expanding programme of research in nano science and technology is in place. The article does not concentrate on actual curricula that are needed in nano science and technology education course. Rather it focuses on the desirability of nanoscience and technology education at different levels of education and future prospect of students venturing into this within the economic and cultural milieu of India. We argue that care is needed in developing the education programme in India. However, the risk is worth taking as the education on nanoscience and technology can bridge the man power gap not only in this area of technology but also related technologies of hardware and micro electronics for which the country is a promising destination at global level. This will also unlock the demographical advantage that India will enjoy in the next five decades.

A workforce educated at the two-year degree and four-year degree level in nanotechnology, nanofabrication, and nano-scale characterization is required to grow and sustain nanotechnology manufacturing, and R&D. Pennsylvania has addressed this need with the creation of the Nanofabrication Manufacturing Technology (NMT) Partnership, a state-wide collaborative involving Penn State University, Pennsylvania College of Technology, all of the community colleges in PA, the 14 universities of the state-system, PA state government, the National Science Foundation, and PA industry. This partnership is based on sharing the expertise and facilities at Penn State's University Park campus with partner colleges and universities across the state. With this state-wide approach, the NMT Partner educational institutions can offer two-year degrees in nanotechnology and four-year degrees in biology, physics, and chemistry, with a concentration in nanotechnology, across PA. With the Partnership approach, participating institutions are also able to offer three-day Nanotech Camps for secondary school students, three-day nanotechnology workshops for secondary school teachers, and a variety of tools and materials for introducing nanotechnology into the secondary school classroom.

A team of faculty at Northern Arizona University (a predominantly undergraduate institution) have joined forces to develop a cross-disciplinary course for sophomore level science students in nanotechnology and the associated instrumentation with an overarching theme centered around carbon nanotubes. Research laboratories with various analytical capabilities were utilized from the Departments of Biology, Chemistry, and Physics and Astronomy. Specifically, the techniques that were used included scanning electron microscopy, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance, and micro-sensor technology. The course content, the student activities and the initial experience in developing and team-teaching the course are described.

Nanoscience: an area that promises new understanding of nature with the aid of rapid progress of nanotechnology. Nanotechnology: the use of nanoscience to build new technologies that will change the world. Nanoscience and Nanotechnology have captured the attention of the public, government, and corporations. How they will influence our lives depend on how we prepare ourselves, and our successors. Here we present a brief outline of the efforts being taken at Osaka University since 2004, in order to prepare our future scientists, engineers, and leaders in the rapidly flourishing trans-/multi-disciplinary field of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology.

One of the inherent challenges of teaching any emerging technology like nanotechnology, is the fact that its core competencies flux in the new disciplines' early stages. Nanotechnology presents an additional challenge in that its underpinnings cross multiple traditional disciplinary boundaries. We have designed a course that aims to address some of these challenges through a handful of structural features: team-based learning; a “reverse of the learning pyramid” approach; team-teaching; embedded information literacy techniques; and application-centered content. Our course is organized around four applications that are in their developmental stages: gold nanoshells for cancer treatment; molecular manufacturing; tissue engineering of a vital organ; and a microfluidic glucose sensor. These applications provide natural contexts for learning biology at the cellular level, the molecular level, the organ level and the biological systems level, respectively. They also provide natural contexts to introduce ideas of scientific uncertainty in emerging fields. In this paper, we will present the design features of our sophomore-level course Nanotechnology, biology, ethics and society and some preliminary results.

Work has been underway at JMU in the Department of Chemistry through an NSF-NUE grant to develop an evolutionary approach to curriculum development across the undergraduate chemistry curriculum. Preliminary assessment data suggests that there exists a profound misunderstanding amongst graduating chemistry majors about basic aspects of nanotechnology as revealed by the NAI. Specifically, there are misconceptions about the sizes of and forces acting on the molecular-scale which is fundamental to any deep understanding of nanometer-scale phenomena. This is particularly alarming since senior-level undergraduate students majoring in chemistry should have a clearer understanding of molecular interactions than other STEM disciplines. A more careful, coordinated and sustained approach to teaching nanometer-scale phenomena must be undertaken in order to address these misconceptions and better prepare students the future workforce in nanoscience and nanotechnology.

This paper reviews salient features of the European initiatives to promote education in the field of nanosciences and nanotechnologies. Not only funding issues but also inherent cultural specificities are taken into account to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the European model to take up the challenge of the global economy. Multidisciplinarity and mobility of researchers appear to be key to foster excellence, whereas a reappraisal of curricula is necessary.

This paper presents a pilot project for a “bottom-up” approach to reform of undergraduate engineering education in nanotechnology, supported by a planning grant from the National Science Foundation (Engineering Education and Centers, Award #0431970). A core principle is to have individuals from different disciplines be the ones not only to build concise modules, but also to share them with content developers in other disciplines under a common organized framework. This bottom-up approach is an efficient way of introducing new content in existing curricula, and is especially helpful in university environments that may have no comprehensive “experts” in nanotechnology per se. Having individuals work together to develop bottom-up pieces from their own specialized fields provides a mechanism not only for curriculum enhancement but also for faculty professional development. In this work, pilot modules are developed as new content infused into existing courses in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and materials engineering at San José State University. Topics span different aspects of nanoscale materials, phenomena, devices, and manufacturing, and the content is structured in a framework such that components may be packaged as modular entities. We present pilot work accomplished in this work-in-progress, with emphasis on how lessons learned can be applied to expandability and sustainability of this bottom-up approach.

Our experiences in research on nanoscience and technology using various microscopies to observe materials synthesis reactions and to measure local (∼ 0.1-100 nm scale) structure and composition variations in solids provide some very useful examples to introduce students to important concepts of the field. The fundamental concept to illustrate is the nanometer length scale, of course, but other concepts such as mass and energy flows at the nanometer level and their effects on materials properties are at least as important, but more difficult to bring to students in a challenging but understandable way. We are using dynamic in situ or animated microscopy experiments in several material systems to teach these concepts. These experimental research results provide a useful basis for student computer modeling experiments, to give them direct participation in nanoscale materials research at an appropriate level. We are also exploring student group participation in live (interactive) electron microscopy experience via remote access into a suitably equipped computer visualization classroom.

A series of laboratory modules were developed to introduce atomic force microscope (AFM) applications into undergraduate physics courses. The goal is to elucidate fundamental physics concepts at the nanoscale that will complement existing investigations at the macroscale, and to expose students to advanced instrumentation at an early level. The experiments allow students to experience the full range of scanning probe modes available, which include contact, intermittent contact, lateral force, and magnetic force microscopy as well as force distance spectroscopy. The course levels span the range from freshman introductory to advanced senior level and allow students to experience AFM applications at successive levels of complexity.