Promoting Nanotechnology among Middle School Students: Development and Implementation of Lesson Plans

Abstract Hands-on experience on nanotechnology was offered to the seventh grade students at West Fargo STEM Middle School using grade appropriate teaching modules developed in collaboration with subject teachers from West Fargo Public Schools. The content of the modules complemented course contents in science and mathematics in the seventh grade class. Eighty six students from the school participated in this year long program. Pre-and post-surveys were conducted and additional information on students' perspective on various issues were collected to evaluate the effectiveness of the program. The results indicate that hands-on activities help in stimulating students' interest in technologies. The authors believe that these programs can be emulated by others in promoting engineering education and research. The pre-and post-survey data also indicate that the students do not have enough information to decide their career paths and there is a need for additional outreach activities on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and careers among the students