Implementing nanotechnology education in the high school classroom

In this work, we report on a program that aimed to expose high school students to nanotechnology. The program involved two NSF GK-12 engineering graduate fellows who developed a series of nanotechnology modules for an introductory engineering elective course in an urban public magnet high school. The fellows implemented the unit in two classrooms during the 2009-2010 school year. The unit was composed of multiple lessons that introduced students to some of the key concepts of nanotechnology, such as the relative magnitude of a nanometer, surface area to volume ratio, and nanoscale characterization. The effectiveness of the nanotechnology unit was measured by implementing a word association survey for each student. The responses from the students were categorized and tabulated by frequency. The results revealed that before the nanotechnology unit, students had perceptions about nanotechnology that were shaped by popular culture, movies, and video games. The survey given after the unit indicated a shift in the students´ conceptions of nanotechnology. The unit presented here can be used as a model for inserting a nanotechnology focused unit into a high school classroom while still meeting core curriculum standards required by state governments.