An item from the June newsletter of the Innovation Society (based in St.Gallen, Switzerland) announces a training course for secondary school science teachers to help them develop a teaching syllabus on nanotech:
Innovation Society introduces teachers’ training course “TEACH-NANO”
As nanotechnology is coming into our daily lives it will also conquer schools in the near future. Nanotechnology will be an important part of curricula of science classes in secondary schools, and already today teachers are approached by their students who want to know more about this new technology and its amazing applications. The increased media coverage of nanotechnology and the presence of nanoproducts in stores will add to this trend. For the creation of an interesting instruction syllabus that is oriented on the practical use of nanotechnology, teachers until now have only had limited resources at their disposal. Until now there are no nanospecific schoolbooks available. Due to the rapid development of the field many teachers have not come into contact with nanotechnologies during their initial training and therefore have a growing knowledge deficit in this area.
With the new professional training course for teachers “TEACH NANO” the Innovation Society gives interested teachers the opportunity to deepen their knowledge of nanotechnologies and provides practical input and theoretical background together with the most suitable teaching concepts. The course is tailored to the needs of the participants and comprises 2-3 blocks that will be taught during 1 or 1.5 days. Participants gain insights into technical, scientific and economic aspects, nano experiments for teachers and students and the current discussion about opportunities and risks of nanotechnologies. They also receive an comprehensive documentation package for personal update and the practical use in their own classes.
The course will be given to groups of around 20 participants and has been evaluated by secondary school teachers in May 2008.
It would be interesting to know how many of the high school teachers who attended actually teach nanotechnology courses next year.
—Jim
