New pedagogical experiment leading to awareness in nanosciences and nanotechnologies for young generations at secondary school

In order to prepare the future of science and technology of information and communication, and due to the huge evolution of the associated techniques during the last fifty years, it is more and more important to attract good students and researchers in this field. It is well known that during the last fifteen years, a strong decrease of interest of the young pupils for exact sciences is observed in the major part of Europe, following the same trend that North America encountered several years ago. A way to invert this trend consists in educating young generations in nanotechnology and nanosciences. The peculiar environment in Grenoble with the presence of world-class research centers and an education oriented center of micro- and nanoelectronics allowed building adapted programs thanks to a strong collaboration between these centers and the secondary school administration. During the last three years, the so-called Nano@school project enabled dozens of classes a year to follow an original curriculum benefiting from this exceptional environment. This paper deals with this experiment. After a description of the project, some analysis and evaluation are presented.