The primary goal of this Nanotechnology Undergraduate Education (NUE) in Engineering program at CUNY City College entitled "NUE: Integrating Nanotechnology Education at CUNY Community Colleges", under the direction of Dr. Ilona Kretzschmar, is to integrate nanotechnology education into the curriculum of two, highly diverse 2-year Community Colleges (CC) in the City Univesity of New York (CUNY) system-Bronx and Hostos CC-and to create a pipeline of research-trained students from these CC to the City College of New York (CCNY). This proposal is designed to build on the successes of a previously-funded NUE program at CCNY by extending the results of that project to the community college classroom.
", under the direction of Dr. Ilona Kretzschmar, was to integrate nanotechnology education into the curriculum of two, highly diverse 2-year Community Colleges (CC) in the City University of New York (CUNY) system-Bronx and Hostos CC-and to create a pipeline of research-trained students from these CC to the City College of New York (CCNY). The effort built on the successes of a previously-funded NUE program at CCNY by extending the accessibility to Nanotechnology Education to the two community colleges. Outcomes: Student Impact The project has provided a learning experience to 102 undergraduate students. 33% of the students were students from underrepresented minority groups and 33% were female students. Students involved in the courses at HCC and BCC learned about nanomaterials and nanotechnology, they developed better writing skills, were able to perform literature searches, were interested in continuing a career with emphasis in nanotechnology and transferring to CUNY City College, and agreeed that Nanotechnology is the technology of the future. Course Development During the duration of the grant, the following courses were developed and implemented at Hostos Community College: Nanotechnology Workshop and CHE 299 Introduction to Nanomaterial - Independent Study Course and at Bronx Community College: CHM20 Introduction to Nanoscience Course. The BCC course has been adopted as a fulltime elective course. In addition to the course and workshop development, Nanomaterials nuggets were developed that can be used in other science and engineering lectures to generate interest in the newly developed courses. Course materials were developed such as lecture notes, experimental descriptions, study guides, homeworks, exams, and assessment tools. The Nanotechnology Workshop was taught once (Spring 2011), the Introduction to Nanoscience Course was taught twice (Spring 2011 and Fall 2011), Introduction to Nanomaterial - Independent Study Course was taught once (Spring 2012), and Nanomaterials nuggets were used in other chemistry courses. Implementation Process Overall, we found that the implementation of the nanoscience courses and the nanotechnology workshop at BCC and HCC were met with great enthusiasm of students, faculty, and the administration. It is clear from students’ interest, enrollment, and performance in the course/workshop that Nanoscience and Nanotechnology are topics of great interest to them. We also saw evidence that these educational tools can affect the transfer rate to CCNY, positively impact student performance, and also enable the strengthening of collaborations between community and senior college faculty. We also identified major barriers for transfer and implementation of senior college courses at community colleges: (1) high teaching load of community college faculty leading to difficulties in scheduling and keeping of timetables, (2) elective courses are not covered by financial aid, which leads to a limited enrollment, (3) addition of workshops to already existing courses requires close collaboration between the community college and senior college faculty.
