Abstract:

The emerging field of nanoscience and nanotechnology is becoming more and more popular every day, this fact increase the demand for educating students in academy and high school students in order to introduce the basic concepts and ideas about nanoscience. Roco emphasized the importance of education for the future development of this field: "one of the "Grand Challenges" for nanotechnology is education, which is looming as a bottleneck for the development of the field". The teachers of todays must be aware and in sense with the scientific and technological development, which has "a fingerprint" in our lives, in the present and in the future. Lab experiments were developed for introducing the basic aspects of nanostructured materials that aim to promote teachers, and freshmen`s content knowledge with a meaningful introduction to nanoscience. During the lab activities, the participants reveal the unusual properties of materials and structures at the nanoscale. Two different lab experiments were introduced, in the first one, the participants could compare between silver and nanoparticles of silver in aqueous solutions follows by exploring the unusual applications of it for different purposes. The second lab activity focused on using natural materials for producing micro-scale liposome structures and converting it to nanoscale one by simple methods. The lab activities presented here, enabled the participants reveal the “magic” of materials when it is at the nanoscale, and the unusual applications of it. Two different student groups carried out the laboratory: a group of 20 upper-level high school students majoring in biotechnology and a group of 20 first-year college students majoring in chemistry.

Keywords:

Nanoscience, nanostructure, pre-service teachers, in-service teachers, lab activities.