The proposal for this award was received in response to the Nanoscale Science and Engineering Education (NSEE) announcement, NSF 03-044, Nanotechnology Undergraduate Education (NUE).
Educators should look to the future when considering what to teach young people. With so much extant popular and scientific enthusiasm about nanoscience and engineering, teachers should provide courses related to nanotechnology at the undergraduate level in order to promote scientific literacy and train the next generation of scientists and engineers. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is an enabling technology in nanoscience. Not only is it capable of three-dimensional imaging of surfaces with a few nanometers of lateral resolution, the tip of the AFM force sensor can be used to detect force interactions between the tip and the sample, much like a "nanofinger". With AFM, the mechanical properties of nanostructures and molecules can be probed, and surfaces manipulated to build useful devices. The study of AFM requires use of Newton's Laws and calculus, and knowledge of elementary chemistry, electricity and magnetism, and oscillators. As such, it is a forceful means of applying knowledge that sophomores should have learned. With its largely visual displays of information (two- and three-dimensional images) and the mind-boggling size scales involved, it is easy to interest young people of all disciplines in AFM operation and applications. Senior researchers would more likely consider hiring an undergraduate for a summer if the student were already a competent AFM operator. The creation of a set of integrated instructional materials for a course on atomic force microscopy will be developed, to be made available to the nation's undergraduate institutions. The materials, organized in modular form, will consist of readings, computer lab instructions, instrument lab instructions, and software. They would enable more schools to offer a course or a module on AFM, such that the pipeline of trained and enthusiastic young scientists and engineers will increase for the coming decades of nanotechnology research and development.
