(32g) Principles of Nanotechnology for Middle and High School Students

An outreach activity to teach the basic principles of nanotechnology to middle and high school students was developed and assessed. Over two hundred middle and high school students participated in the activity that consisted of a lecture, hands on activities and ? in the later stages ? video presentations. Of the six groups that participated, all of the groups showed a statistically significant increase in knowledge of nanotechnology when compared to baseline levels established using a pre-workshop assessment. However, only the last group of middle school students showed a statistically significant increase in interest in science and engineering when compared to baseline levels also established using the pre-workshop assessment. The increase in interest was attributed to several modifications made to the activity including adding video presentations, adding a hands-on activity to test commercially available fabrics and increasing the number of trained volunteers available to assist students.