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Introduction
The teaching and spreading of new technologies is not an easy task and Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (N&N) are, by no means, no exception; N&N deal with highly complex phenomena, seasoned with a dense and very specific terminology, usually in English. It is mandatory to promote activities that, far from losing conceptual rigorousness, let students and teachers to develop the skills to be able to remain critical in face of the future usages of N&N in daily life.
One of the main particularities of teaching N&N is the challenge that sprouts from multidisciplinary (physics, biology, chemistry, engineering…), as it nourishes from concepts that break the (imaginary) limits between disciplines.
Nanoinventum is a scientific co-creation project, based on disciplines in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics – STE(A)M – aiming to introduce nanotechnology in primary school. The main objective is to create a model for a nanorobot, based on the knowledge of different scientific topics, such as nanotechnology, matter, atoms and molecules, adapted to the curriculum. The project uses strategies like co-creation, design thinking and concept maps.
The project aims, on the one hand, to involve students in the co-creation of research materials, thus introducing them to a new technology for the future, and, on the other hand, to work together as a team, assimilating research and development work, which is increasingly based on multidisciplinarity, which favours interaction with other team members and the public. The pedagogical approach of the project works with different areas of the curriculum, through didactic demonstration activities that attract the interest of students and develop their competences through reasoning, deduction, play and key roles.
The project deals with a series of successive activities that are based on a didactic progression map and educational resources, with the aim of obtaining an artefact based on a NANOROBOT that is able to develop an application for the future. Participants must submit a drawing or a model made with recycled materials with brief explanations of their proposals.
Phases of the project
The project is divided in a series of consecutive steps:
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1) Teacher Training
Teachers will participate in a formative session, where the key points of the project will be thoroughly discussed. Theoretical and practical contents will be provided, so as to be straightforwardly implemented in the classroom. So as to correctly deploy the activities, didactic charts will be created in the shape of progression maps in order to provide teachers with suitable tools to explain N&N concepts. These charts will include the basic notions to understand the atom, the molecule, the properties of matter, the influence of shape and size, etc.
2) Nanoexplora Kit
The final goal is for the students to create a N&N-based project. To do this, a didactic toolbox called NANOEXPLORA will be used. The toolbox holds the materials to perform nine different experiments that exemplify the key points of the present project: What is nanotechnology, what is a nanorobot, what are nanomaterials, atoms and molecules and so on. The webpage of the project will be used as a backup and support platform where dissemination materials will be published.
3) Visit of the Nanoexpert
During different days, a range of activities about N&N will be performed and models of the final projects will be manufactured by the students. A divulgator and expert about N&N will accompany the students in a fascinating journey across the Nano world, showing them a selected variety of real projects to exemplify the interdisciplinary and disrupting extent of this discipline. The third phase will be completed with a co-creation workshop that will bring birth to the projects designed by the students.
Multidisciplinary teams of 4 students will be created and each member of the team will hold a specific function. The roles are as follows:
- Team leader (preferably a girl): it coordinates the team and presents the results to the audience. She describes the problem and its main characteristics and exposes the solution proposed by the team.
- Production manager: the production manager designs the model and picks up the correct materials to bring the project to life.
- Research manager: the research manager describes and analyses the problem to be solved and chooses the correct scientific tools to do so.
- Communication manager: the communication manager is in charge of the redaction of a document that summarizes the characteristics of the project itself. Publication of results and evaluation.
4) Proposal and Evaluation
Each team will present a final project to be assessed and evaluated by Nano experts. The finalists will record a video explaining their proposal. These videos will be published in our YouTube channel.
5) Scientific Contest (Fair)
The project manager will present the results and the final models. The finalists will be selected, having in mind the following items: scientific proposal quality, innovation degree and communication and design.
Conclusions
NANOINVENTUM tackles the goal of changing the vision that primary school students have about science. After the whole process, they consider that science is something natural and challenging. The project succeeds in waking up interest about science and technology and STEAM disciplines (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics), improving their skills and chances of success in the academic and professional spheres and boosting their will to participate, innovate and create by means of artistic activities.
The project highly underlines the key role of girls, historically underrepresented in these kinds of disciplines. A whole variety of didactic strategies are deployed, as could be team working, Design Thinking (an innovative methodology) and progression maps. The project deploys a series of consecutive activities based on a didactic chart that underlines the evolution of the project and on educative resources that point towards the manufacturing of a “Nano invention”, designed to fulfil a specific function in the future. The project holds to a set of main guidelines: Education, Divulgation, Ethics, Science and Arts.
NANOINVENTUM encourages personal and team-based initiative, originality and creativity to respond to problems, develops the paramount “learning to learn” skill, putting into practice experimental experiences, observations and research that let students to get closer to the world of science, mind storming together and team working, always with a multidisciplinary scope. Besides, NANOINVENTUM promotes:
- The ability to think in a logical and independent way, to solve conflicts and to acquire the necessary resources to tackle daily life challenges.
- The processing of daily life knowledge so as to give it a new significance.
- Opportunities to develop scientific careers and to promote interests.
- The engagement of young girls in the path of science and technology.
- Team working. Two minds are more than the sum of their individual potentialities.
- Experimentation as a key component of knowledge.
- The fact that we must deal with real problems and find solutions together. Doing so, we learn how to apply our creativity step by step to real life, which becomes a key skill for the future.
- The demystification of the Pygmalion effect, where sciences are regarded as difficult but necessary for the development of professional careers.
From a didactic point of view, the project promotes the introduction of scientific-technological concepts by means of the so-called “progression maps”; that is, charts where concepts are introduced in a consecutive and progressive way and in a pre-established logical order. From a scholar point of view, the introduction of concepts will benefit from gamification: game and interpersonal interactions to facilitate the assimilation of concepts.
About the author
Jordi works at the University of Barcelona and has a degree (1999) and a PhD in Chemistry. A Senior Materials Engineer, Jordi holds a Postgraduate Degree in Scientific Communication. Since 2014, Jordi is involved in outreach and education projects, such as NanoEduca, NanoInventum or Festival 10ALAMENOS9. Jordi is a Scientix Ambassador since 2023.
Tags: design thinking, hands-on science, multidisciplinary, NANOINVENTUM, nanoscience, Nanotechnology, primary school, STEAM, STEM careers, teamwork
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