Effect of nanotechnology instructions on senior high school students

Rationale and Importance of this study

Nano vitally interrelate with our daily life, and “Nanotechnology” is the power of new industrial in 21th century which gives impetus to county industrial and competitive. Thus, education of knowing nanotechnology knowledge is a pressing matter of the moment. In Taiwan, the government has promoted “National Science and Technology Program for Nano-science and Nanotechnology” around six years and still continuing. It is expected that it can become the main program of nanotechnology in Taiwan. “Nanotechnology Human Resource Development (NHRD) Program” is a program under the main program of “National Science and Technology Program for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology”. In NHRD program, the aim is to cultivate a population as followed: (1) Leadership or implementation of nanotechnology; (2) the cognitive potential of nanotechnology, and become the manpower of industry and commercialization (Taiwan Ministry of Education, 2009). The government planned to extend the knowledge of “nanotechnology” down to K-12 grades education, and hope that the impetus to nanotechnology curriculum in senior high school in Taiwan can speed up the nanotechnology literacy of senior high school students, and promote the development of nanotechnology industry (Lu, Chang, & Sung, 2010).

In Taiwan, the senior high school nanotechnology curriculum outlines only introduce basic and little information about nanotechnology which can’t conjunct with the original teaching materials (Lu, et al., 2010). Most of the senior high school teachers only heard about some nanotechnology concept terms, but not knowing the definition about it. These teachers also have doubts about the meanings, character and function of some nano-tech article (Lu & Sung, 2010). Our goal is to educate the population and pass on the knowledge to the qualified people to meet the needs of the country. Lu and Sung (2010) not only completed the nanotechnology expert concept map of senior high school but also transformed expert concept map into declarative knowledge statement, and developed nanotechnology problem situation questionnaires. By using these senior high school nanotechnology expert concepts map, information of the declarative knowledge statements can be used to develop senior high school nanotechnology curriculum, which is an extension of senior high school student’s teaching materials. Also we can use the nanotechnology problem situation questionnaires to examine the effectiveness of their learning and refine senior high school nanotechnology curriculum in the future. As a result, cultivate more nanotechnology talents, and develop more products of nanotechnology.

Research Objective

In this research, we cooperate with senior high school teachers to design a “senior high school nanotechnology curriculum”, and then make an experimental teaching. After the teaching, we use “nanotechnology problem situation questionnaire” to examine what senior high school student have had learned in this lesson and supply the data to NHRD program and senior high school teachers for reference.

In the research, we inquire into 2 questions:

First, How to design a “senior high school nanotechnology curriculum” and make the experimental teaching?

Second, which level has senior high school student’s conceptual development of nanotechnology?