The NanoSense Project

1. The NanoSense Project Challenges and opportunities Patti Schank, Tina Stanford, Anders Rosenquist, Alyssa Wise SRI International

2. Team Anders Rosenquist (learning scientist) Tina Stanford (Co-PI, chem) Patti Schank (PI) Alyssa Wise (intern) Vera Michalchik (internal eval) Ellen Mandinach (external eval) Maureen Scharberg (chem, SJSU) Nora Sabelli (advisor, workshop)

3. Goals • Work with scientists and educators to create and disseminate high school units that • Promote learning of basic science concepts that account for nanoscale phenomena • Help students visualize underlying principles that govern the behavior of particles on the nanoscale • Situated in single discipline (chemistry) • Making explicit ties to other disciplines • Mapped to core concepts and standards

4. Timeline • Develop, test, refine materials (2004-2007) • Define learning goals and core concepts • Gather, validate, organize content • Design and generate assessments, activities • Classroom test and refine materials • Disseminate widely (2007-2008) • Teacher workshops at San Jose State University, conferences • Online http://nanosense.org

5. Curricular Units • Introduction to Nanoscience (tested, available) • 1-2 weeks, 1 day; Size and scale, unique properties, tools of the nanosciences, applications • Clear sunscreen (in development/testing) • 1 week, 1 day; How light interacts with matter • Nanofiltration (in development/testing) • 1 day; How size, charge, and shape become important factors in filtration • Planned for development in 2006-2007 • Quantum dots, carbon nanotubes, clean energy

6. Clear Sunscreen • Large ZnO particles • Block UV light • Scatter visible light • Appear white • Nanosized ZnO particles • Block UV light • So small compared to the wavelength of visible light that they don’t scatter it • Appear clear Nanoscale ZnO sunscreen is clear “Traditional” ZnO sunscreen is white Zinc oxide nanoparticles Sources: http://www.apt powders.com/images/zno/im_zinc_oxide_particles.jpg http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s1165709.htm http://www.4girls.gov/body/sunscreen.jpg

7. Design Challenges • Three main challenges we faced: • Defining the curriculum for a new and evolving area of scientific study • Situating an interdisciplinary science within a classroom that focuses on one discipline • Developing support materials for content that is novel for teachers(and often not fully understood by scientists)

8. Challenge 1: Defining the Curriculum • Identifying core concepts and finding accessible topics and applications to illustrate them • Many (e.g., quantum mechanics) are difficult • Finding reliable, verifiable information • 9 contradictory explanations about ZnO sunscreens • Different fields use different terminology or same terminology in different ways • How to organize materials • Underlying themes? Topically based on applications? Based on traditional science disciplines?

9. Addressing Challenge 1 • Identify and develop units based on nanoscience topics that focus on: • Readily available deep scientific expertise from scientists and engineers working in the particular area • Defined gaps in conventional instructional materials/core science or technology concepts • Specific applications that are highly engaging/interesting to students • Opportunities for innovative instructional materials/educational technology

10. Example • Clear Suncreen • Addresses clear gaps • Solid state interactions w/light not taught in chemistry • Unified EM spectrum not taught in physics • Engaging topic for students • Opportunity for animations of scattering mechanism • Expertise evolving

11. Challenge 2: Situating the Science • Fit into a classroom that focuses on 1 discipline • What other science concepts have students been exposed to? In what other courses will they see the same or related concepts? • Our partner teachers want to use the curricular materials in many different classes • AP chemistry, regular chemistry, biology, physics, and interdisciplinary science • All these disciplines use different terminologies and focus on different aspects of phenomena • How to help teachers figure out where the curricula fits with what they currently teach

12. Addressing Challenge 2 • Explicitly connect to standards and core science topics in traditional science disciplines • E.g., atomic energy levels, scattering of light by matter • Provide teachers with many ways to use the materials • E.g., provide alignment charts that show how they are related to standards and standard topics in different subject areas • Provide many options to incorporate materials • E.g., incorporate into regularly taught units (as a real life example), 1-day or multi-day modules

13. Challenge 3: Prof. Development • Nanoscience is a multidisciplinary field • Draws on concepts from fields outside of teachers’ primary area of expertise • The novelty of the content combined with its newness as a field raised pedagogical demands • Teachers were not able to know all the answers to student (and their own) questions • Traditional chemistry and physics concepts are not always applicable at the nanoscale level • Some questions may go beyond the boundary of our current understanding as a scientific community

14. Addressing Challenge 3 • Support teachers by providing more and deeper background content • Help teachers move from an expert “content-delivery” mode to model the scientist in action • Recast teaching challenges as opportunities to model the scientific process and provided concrete strategies for how to do so • Our materials include explicit reference to: • The development of “nanoscience” as a field • The advantages and limitations of models to explain scientific phenomena

15. Answering the Framing Questions • What nano topics should guide the development of classroom materials? • Example: Clear Suncreen • Expertise evolving • Solid state interactions w/light not taught in chemistry, unified EM spectrum not taught in physics • Engaging, authentic application • Animation of scattering mechanism

16. Framing Questions (Cont.) • What learning goals should guide the development of classroom materials? • Connect to core science topics they know about • Deal with deep science, not superficial overview • Deal with process of science explicitly • What areas of secondary (grades 7-12) science support the integration of nano concepts? • Big question! Physical science, physics, integrated science, chemistry, biology…. • Advancing Nanoscience Education Workshop participants from diverse areas identified core nanoscience concepts

17. Framing Questions (Cont.) • 8 core nanoscience concepts identified in the Advancing Nanoscience Education workshop: • Scale • Energy • Quantum principles and probability • Relation between structure and properties • Surface phenomena • Unique properties at the nanoscale • Self-assembly • Control of fabrication

18. Framing Questions (Cont.) • How can instructional technology enrich nano classroom resources? • Expert and student-generated animations • Clear Sunscreen: scattering mechanism • Energy: mechanism of breaking water down in an energy-efficient way (nano-enhanced hydrogen production) • Multiscale modeling (“GenScope” for nanoscience) • Show how properties change as the size scale changes • Help students move between models, embrace complexity • Probeware • Clear Sunscreen: colorimeter to test percent absorption or transmission • Energy: conductivity testing