This project establishes the Seattle Hub for Industry-driven Nanotechnology Education (SHINE) to promote nanotechnology education in the Pacific Northwest. The two main thrusts of the project are educational program improvement and faculty development. The program improvement activities are designed to create a sustainable outreach network that engages K-12 classrooms, after-school programs and informal learning events throughout the Seattle area. The program improvement activities are also intended to diversify the student population that is enrolled in the nanotechnology programs at North Seattle Community College. The faculty development activities are designed to educate high school and community college STEM instructors in nanotechnology and advanced pedagogical techniques. The project includes both formative and summative assessment plans that measure the progress of the project and its impact on students, instructors and the community. All of the materials developed during the course of the project are going to be freely disseminated via a website hosted by NACK, the NSF funded ATE national center located at Penn State University.
Enrollment in nanotechnology-related programs at two-year colleges around the country is not large, yet the demand for technicians familiar with nanotechnology is growing. Part of the reason for this disparity may be due to students’ lack of exposure to nanotechnology in high school and two-year college curricula, which itself may arise from teachers’ and instructors’ own lack of exposure as to how nanotechnology relates to STEM classes. In 2009, SHINE: Seattle’s Hub for Industry-driven Nanotechnology Education (NSF DUE Award #0903254), was established to help address this lack of preparation in nanotechnology in our region. North Seattle Community College expanded the capacity of its Nanotechnology program to undertake the promotion of nanotech education across the region—and at the same time— to enhance the success of North Seattle Community College nanotechnology students by introducing a number of innovative and effective student engagement initiatives into our program. Intellectual Merit: The SHINE project covered two ATE Project Activity areas: Program Improvement and Professional Development for Educators. Our project built significantly on work created by other NSF-funded activities, such as various nanotechnology education modules, collaborative NanoDays events, and student-engagement techniques used by the Science and Technology Center on Materials and Devices for Information Technology Research (CMDITR). Professional development for educators was offered annually through regional Train the NanoTrainer workshops. These events provided high school and community college STEM instructors with an introduction to nanotechnology and its pedagogy, hands-on practice with nanotechnology lab activities, and guidance on how to build connections with local nanotechnology stakeholders. A total of 67 educators attended these workshops and virtually every teacher attending a workshop reported that they learned about, became more aware of, and more interested in, different aspects of nanotechnology. Program Improvement activities were designed to meet two inherently related goals: (1) the development of an active nanotechnology outreach network, reaching classrooms, after-school programs and informal-learning events across the greater-Seattle area; and, (2) increased and diversified student enrollment and graduation rates within the North Seattle Community College nanotechnology program. The number of participants in direct outreach activities totaled 5,522. This number includes 1,875 students who participated in in-class or after-school NanoDemo lab activities, as well as an additional 3,647 members of the public who performed quick, informal "NanoBooth" demonstrations with SHINE students and staff, such as at annual NSF NanoDays events and at several regional science fair type events. Of the 1,875 total middle and high school students reached through the NanoDemos, 21.6% of these students were reached by performing activities through schools or programs specifically targeting underrepresented groups. Prior to 2009, the Nanotechnology program at North Seattle Community College had small but consistent student enrollment. With the introduction of SHINE’s outreach and student engagement programs, the average number of students attending introductory courses increased from a baseline average of 10.5 students to 16.0 students, an increase of 65% over baseline. A total of 16 students completed either the two-year Nanotechnology Associates of Applied Science Degree or one-year Certificate program over the duration of the project, exceeding our goal of 12 program completers. A number of ATE best-practice student engagement techniques such as college student outreach to high school youth, on- and off-campus networking opportunities, improved instrumentation for student training, and work-based experiences were supported through SHINE to increase student success in our nanotechnology program. Outreach activities in the community targeted middle and high school students, with a commitment to partnering with schools serving large numbers of students who are underrepresented in STEM professions. Broader Impacts: By nature of the model, the Train the NanoTrainer workshops have a cascading effect across the region, reaching students of trained educators for potentially years to come. In fact, in follow-up surveys administered to teachers about nine months after the 2010 and 2011 workshops, 63.6% of the 2010 cohort and 75.0% of the 2011 cohort responding reported that they had personally taught their students about nanotechnology. Futhermore, over 72% in both cohorts reported that they shared what they learned about nanotechnology with other teachers. These workshops were offered at different locations each year (Puget Sound; Central Oregon; Eastern Washington) to maximize geographical impact. All outreach, instruction and student engagement materials developed through SHINE are available via our website (www.seattlenano.org), which received 2,363 unique visitors in less than three years. Strong support for this project was shown by North Seattle Community College administrators, other educational institutions (middle and high schools, two-year and four-year), regional nanotech companies, and the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges. Ultimately, the broad partnerships and activities supported through SHINE promoted the creation of a diverse community in which interest in nanotechnology is nurtured and the education and employment paths related to nanotechnology were increasingly pursued by students in our region.
