October 21, 2004

NSF grant funds nano learning center

By Megan Fellman

The National Science Foundation has awarded Northwestern a five-year, $15 million grant to create the nation’s first Center for Learning and Teaching in Nanoscale Science and Engineering (NCLT).

The center, under the direction of Robert P.H. Chang, professor of materials science and engineering, will develop scientist-educators who can introduce nanoscience and nanoengineering concepts into schools and undergraduate classrooms. Additionally, it will play the key role in a national network of researchers and educators committed to ensuring that all Americans are academically prepared to participate in the new opportunities nanotechnology will offer.

Robert P.H. Chang, left, will direct the nation's first Center for Learning and Teaching in Nanoscale Science and Engineering.

The NCLT is a partnership between Northwestern, Purdue University, the University of Michigan, Argonne National Laboratories and the Universities of Illinois at Chicago and Urbana-Champaign.

Drawing on the strengths of the various partners in nanotechnology, instruction-materials development, educational assessment and student cognition, the NCLT will create modular education materials designed to integrate with existing curricula in grades 7-12 and to align with national and state science education standards. Each module will be based on topics from nanoscience and nanoengineering, selected and developed by an interdisciplinary team including scientists, engineers, education researchers and graduate students, and practicing teachers. Expanded versions of the modules will be targeted at community colleges and undergraduate institutions and will eventually serve as the core of semester-long courses in nanotechnology.

For professional development activities and curricular testing, the Midwestern lead institutions will collaborate with additional partners locally and nationally. Undergraduate course materials will be field-tested and evaluated at multiple sites, including five minority-serving institutions: Alabama A & M University, Fisk University, Hampton University, Morehouse College and the University of Texas at El Paso. Middle-school and high-school modules will be field-tested in the classrooms of award-winning science teachers across the country.

According to Chang, the center’s initial nano education modules will focus on materials science and engineering. “At the nanoscale,” Chang said, “materials science connects ideas from the biological, physical and earth sciences. Our modules will emphasize the role of nanoscale properties and structure in determining the behavior of the substances — from plastics to semiconductors to metals — that drive our technological society and the possibilities nanoscale control offers for new materials.”

Chang’s plans expand on his experience with the Materials World Modules project, an ongoing NSF-supported effort to introduce topics from materials science to students in grades 7-12. Chang says the NCLT project is “both the biggest challenge of my life and a unique opportunity to serve. We hope to reach at least one million students spread across all 50 states.”