Education & Outreach

The education and training of the next generation of scientists and engineers is a vital activity in the Center. The CHM strives to provide high-quality training geared towards innovation and an enhanced base of nanomanufacturing capabilities, as well as educational materials and opportunities designed to excite and instruct K12 students, undergraduates and the public. Core strategic principles underlying the CHM Education program are:

• Repurposeable Learning Modules—the CHM’s primary curricular contribution to science education is through a planned system of relatively short, video-based, multimedia-enhanced learning modules created using Universal Design for Learning principles, enabling re-configuration and re-use for different audience types.
• Teamwork—a Nanotechnology Education Development Group successfully functions as a curriculum development team for module creation, led by the Co-Director.
• Train the Trainer—the CHM’s educational program focuses on one-week teacher workshops for learning curriculum modules and trying out nanoscience-related experiments, as well as a summer-long Research Experiences for Teachers program, rather than on direct K12 outreach to thousands of individual students.
• Networking and Dissemination—we work toward integrating and disseminating our materials and activities through important NSF-sponsored networks and consortia for nanotechnology education, through professional organizations and other networks in science education, and within the technical community college and industrial education communities.

The Center supports the development and dissemination of a system of curriculum modules on nanotechnology and nano-related science for grades 7-12 and community college learners. The Center also trains teachers in teaching this curriculum in the classroom. At the university level, the Center supports new undergraduate courses at UMass Amherst in nanotechnology and nanomanufacturing, and encourages faculty to infuse their existing undergraduate and graduate courses with new material based on the Center’s research. Through a close affiliation with UMass Amherst’s IGERT Program in Nanotechnology Innovation, the Center’s profile in the education area is expanded—many of the graduate students in the Center attend a weekly seminar on Nanotechnology From Lab To Product, featuring guest speakers from academia, government and industry. In combination with the CHM’s efforts in Diversity, the Center is involved in a 10-participant REU program, the Summer Undergraduate Research Experiences (SURE) Program in Nanotechnology.