BOOTSTRAPPING NANOSCIENCE AND ENGINEERING EDUCATIONAT NC A&T STATE UNIVERSITY

摘要

Nanoscience and engineering principles are being incorporated into the existing curriculum andinto new courses at North Carolina A&T State University (A&T). This is been done in aninterdisciplinary manner, in several departments across two colleges on this campus. Thisbootstrapping effort has been invigorated by a recently initiated research and educationalpartnership with the University of Illinois – Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) in an NSF NanoscaleScience and Engineering Center (NSEC) entitled “Nanoscale-Chemical-Electrical-MechanicalManufacturing Systems.” The education and outreach component of this work require theincorporation of nanoscience fundamentals and research outcomes into undergraduate andgraduate curricula, as well as exposure of K-12 students and teachers to the opportunities andchallenges in this nascent field. Educational modules introducing concepts of nanotechnologyand nanomaterials have been developed by school teachers attending NSEC summer teacherworkshops where they were exposed to cutting-edge research and facilities. These modules havebeen deployed at summer enrichment camps at A&T. Program evaluation is being done bycollaborators from the University of North Carolina – Greensboro (UNCG) and UIUC’s Collegeof Education. The paper discusses A&T’s coverage of nanoscience and engineering in multiplecourses and our experiences with these modules as well as work towards integratingnanotechnology concepts into existing courses at A&T as we enter this exciting 21st centuryresearch arena.