Teaching K-12 teachers and students about nanoscale science through microscopy

Abstract

The National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network (NNIN) is an integrated partnership of 14 universities across the US funded by NSF to support nanoscale researchers. NNIN's education and outreach programs are large and varied and includes outreach to the K-12 community in the form of professional development workshops and school programs. Two important components of nanoscale science education are understanding size and scale and the tools used in nanoscale science and engineering (NSE). As part of our K-12 endeavors, we educate K-12 students and teachers about the tools of nanoscience by providing experiences with the Hitachi TM 3000 tabletop Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). There are three of these across the network that are used in education and outreach. This paper will discuss approaches we use to engage the K-12 community at NNIN's site at Georgia Institute of Technology to understand size and scale and the applications of a variety of microscopes to demonstrate the imaging capabilities of these to see both the micro and nano scales. We not only use the tabletop SEM but also include USB digital microscopes, a Keyence VHX- 600 Digital Microscope, and even a small lens used with smart phones. The goal of this outreach is to educate students as well as teachers about the capabilities of the various instruments and their importance at different size scales. © 2014 SPIE.