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Introduction & Goals

The primary goal of this site is to act as a sort of "one stop shop" for the teacher that hopes to incorporate nanotechnology concepts into his or her science classroom. This nanotechnology tutorial aims to familiarize users with nanotechnology basics in an easily understood manner.

There are a lot of websites out there that cover various aspects of nanotechnology, but we've found that they can be either too overwhelming or incomplete. This site, which was written for teachers by teachers, is intended to act as a relatively comprehensive collection of available nanotechnology resources. We hope you will find this a good starting point for comprehending the fundamentals of nanoscience, the science of the incredibly small. In fact, we'd like to think that this will be the only nanotechnology page you will need to bookmark.

Although this website is primarily intended to be used as a resource for teachers and students at the secondary level, we hope that all readers- regardless of background or level of interest- will find it helpful. We hope that the use of this website and the many sites linked within it will excite you about the promises of nanotechnology.

Our Background

This website is the product of an NSF grant awarded to the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. It was written by two high school teachers while they were taking part in the university's RET (Research Experience for Teachers) program during the summer of 2006. Those teachers- Pat Levy of St. Paul Harding High School (Physical Science, Chemistry, IB Chemistry) and Doug Bullinger of Edina High School (Chemistry, Enriched Chemistry, Physics, AP Physics)- worked closely with the faculty and staff of the university's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Nanofabrication Center, and Characterization Facility in creating the content for this site.

Using This Site

The links at the left guide you through various avenues by which you can learn about nanotechnology. The first question many people have is "what is nanotechnology?" followed quickly by "what is it used for?" To answer these questions, start with Nanotechnology Applications. It provides the background necessary to understand a lot of the content on this site.

Creating Nanostructures and Seeing Nanostructures relate to the technologies used to complete the difficult tasks of synthesizing and characterizing, respectively, that which is on the nanoscale.

Nanotechnology in the Classroom is the page that teachers might find most useful. It has in it some worksheets, activities, and classroom models that can be used to convey to students what challenges are presented by working on the nanoscale and how those challenges can be met.

Review of Websites serves two purposes: it serves as a supplement to the content on this website and it can be used as a tool for students when used in conjunction with some of the classroom activities.

Review of Literature provides some texts that we found particularly useful when creating this site and might be of some interest to you.

We ask that you use Contact Us in the event that you would like to report an error on this page, make suggestions for site improvement, or commend us on a job well done.

Thanks

We would like to thank the many people that supported us during the creation of this site, not the least of whom are Dr. Beth Stadler and Dr. Doug Ernie. We've greatly appreciated working with them and learning from them. They proved incredibly supportive and we've appreciated the opportunity to work with them on this project.

We'd like to further thank the faculty and staff of both the NFC and the CharFac at the University of Minnesota for the many hours of training they invested in us so that we could speak and write intelligently about the nuances of creating and seeing nanomaterials.

We'd like to sincerely thank the NSF for providing the funds to both the REU and the RET programs at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.

Lastly, we'd like to thank the many individuals that came before us in making nanotechnology information available on the web and in texts. We reference their works with the utmost respect and in no way intend to take credit for their efforts.

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