9632740 Ramakrishna The integration of nano-science and technology concepts into upper -division high school and lower-division college curricula will require innovative educational approaches that will help students understand the structures and properties of matter on a scale below 100 nanometers, i.e., the nanoscale. This Interactive nano-Visualization in Science and Engineering Education (IN-VSEE) project will create a consortium of university and industry scientists, community college and high school science faculty and museum educators with a common vision of creating an interactive World Wide Web (WWW) site to develop a new educational thrust based on remote operation of advanced microscopes and nanofabrication tools coupled to powerful surface characterization methods. The centerpiece of this project is the revolutionary scanning probe microscope (SPM), which has evolved rapidly into a relatively simple,, yet powerful, technique capable of imaging and manipulating materials at resolutions down to the atomic scale. The proposed emphasis on SPM will allow students and teachers nationwide to operate and learn about nanotechnology using this Nobel-prize-winning technique. The key objective of IN-VSEE is to bring the exciting world of nanotechnology into the classroom to help inspire today's students to become tomorrow's scientists and engineers. IN-VSEE is a unique initiative that enables a science or engineering class ("operator") to select and investigate materials over the WWW. Using a "fishbowl" format, other classes ("observers") will be able to observe the operator class conducting and experiment. Operator classes will remote-control the SPM from their classroom with the SPM images broadcast over WWW in real-time. The observers will actively participate by communicating with the operator class via WWW-Chat or video conferencing. IN-VSEE will have a chain reaction effect by creating dialogue and being shared over WWW with other classrooms. This same approach will serve as a model for the national use of other instruments beside the SPM. ***
