Group: Hands-On & TPD

1. Group: Hands-On & TPD March 30, 2005 SRI Nano Meeting

2. Outline • Ideal practices and resources • Problems, needs, gaps • Core Research Questions • Grand Challenges

3. Ideal Practices & Resources • Authentic, transparent tasks • Layer of bubbles • Koolaid diluation • Lego AFM • Pouring tea exhibit • Use of stories and narratives • Mystery of the sick puppy (Problem-based learning) • Goal-based scenarios • Movie scripts • Using simulations and online modeling • Virtual AFM • Molecular Workbench

4. Problems, Needs, Gaps • Interactions and behaviors are difficult concepts to understand (e.g., tunneling, quibits, thermal noise, quantum effects, emergent behaviors) • Behaviors are different at nano and macro scales - learner intuitions are misleading • Tension between reality and fiction - trying not to feed the hype; Keeping media informed of actual science. • New forms of assessment will be needed

5. Research Questions • When is authenticity important for learning? • How does context change experience? • When is authenticity important? • Are there clusters of ideas and examples that deepen understanding? • What leads to better understanding: demonstrating individual concepts or incorporating them into one realistic example?

6. Research Questions, cont’d • How do you measure impact in light of hawthorn-like effects? • What are the everyday concepts and intuitions (e.g., stickiness, smelliness) that can be leveraged for nano understanding? What’s the developmental sequence? How do you assess this? • What examples of nanoscience can be used to support cognitive conflict? • How critical is hands-on experience in learning? (e.g., AFM time)

7. Research Questions, cont’d • How should a lab infrastructure be organized to support this? • Authenticity and context: Learning from pre-recorded vs. live? • What types of activities/performance-based assessments for learners in nano? • What aspects of lab experience is key to capture/preserve/replicate in virtual experiments? • How do you elicit and make explicit conceptions of nano in kids? • What tools/simulations/computational tools?

8. Grand Challenges • Understanding the ethical, social, technical, educational context of nanoscience • Establishing quality control and criteria for good nano educational learning experiences • When and how to teach nanoscience? • At what levels and depths? Within or across disciplines? How much theory? How much hands-on? • New tools to communicate in field of nanoscience? • Identifying the developmental sequence of concepts to learn in nanoscience

9. Grand Challenges, cont’d • Balancing the physical and virtual experiences, knowing when and how they work? • What do remove from the curricula to make room for nano? • How to integrate and embed compelling assessments into new nano experiences? • How to prepare and support teachers to enact nano materials?

10. Possible Solutions ? • Using open source repositories for nano curricula? • Infrastructure for leveraging museum and industry laboratory instruments in larger network of co-labs? • Annual meetings of nano-education? • Nano apprenticeships for underserved youth? For new and experienced teachers?