Nanoscience Education

Educational materials that address atomic-scale science are needed to realize the dream of better introductory science curricula. It is in the context of increased emphasis on atoms and molecules that nanotechnology can be introduced naturally.

Nanoscience itself cannot make a sufficiently strong case for its importance to change educators’ thinking, but there is almost a perfect match between nano-science and the concepts that are important to a unified atomic and molecular approach to the basic sciences. Thus, the need to include nanoscience in the curriculum helps justify the call for large-scale improvement in science education.

Our response is a collection of student activities based on the Molecular Workbench. To find out more about this you can:

• Read the paper excerpted above Nanoscience and the New Secondary Science Curriculum
• See movies that illustrate nanotechnology topics http://mw.concord.org/modeler/index.html
• Run the Molecular Workbench. Go to http://mw.concord.org and follow the directions there. You will find a whole section on nanomachines there.
• Access our database of student activities based on the Molecular Workbench, go to http://molit.concord.org
• Learn how to Adapt a Molecular Workbench Activity.