Multidisciplinary NanoScience Concentration Certificate Program at UTB: Activities and Lessons Learned
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Multidisciplinary NanoScience Concentration Certificate Program at UTB: Activities and Lessons Learned Karen S. Martirosyan University of Texas at Brownsville, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Brownsville, TX 78520, USA
ABSTRACT The development of a novel multidisciplinary Nanoscience Concentration Certificate Program (NCCP) at University of Texas at Brownsville (UTB) is reported. The NCCP intended to prepare undergraduate students to emerging nanotechnology markets, industry trends, cutting edge research and technology developments. The rationale for the NCCP is to integrate and expand nanotechnology-relevant courses within a comprehensive curriculum. The established certificate program includes the following seven new upper level undergraduate courses: (i) Introduction to Nanoscience, (ii) Engineering of Nanomaterials, (iii) Nanofabrication and Nanoelectronics, (iv) Introduction to Bio-Nanotechnology, (v) Environmental Nanotechnology, (vi) NanoOptics, (vii) Capstone Design. This program is designed to address the needs for a multidisciplinary undergraduate education at the UTB, which extends beyond traditional courses within science and engineering disciplines. The designed courses will expose students to the nanotechnology areas as part of integration of nanoscience in UTB’s undergraduate programs. To complete the NCCP and receive a Certificate in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, students must complete 12 credit-hours of NCCP courses. Our ultimate goal is to establish and maintain at UTB a practical, modular, scalable, transferrable and implementable educational STEM platform in nano-sciences, engineering and nanotechnology. The goal of this paper is to examine an instructional technique for Introduction to Nanoscience course as an example for promoting student understanding of scientific concepts and explanations by using combines teaching learning activities and research oriented strategies. *E-mail: [email protected] INTRODUCTION Nanoscience and nanotechnology plays an important role worldwide to create a new generation of materials with tailoring structures and physical-chemical properties. Thus, the control of matter and tuning their structure at the nanoscale is essential for several disciplines such as physics, chemistry, engineering, materials science, biology, computer simulation and biomedicine [1]. The US National Nanotechnology Initiative has identified the need to “develop educational resources, a skilled workforce, and the supporting infrastructure and tools needed to advance nanotechnology”, as one of its four major goals, since 2001 and invested considerable resources into developing nanotechnology education at all levels from PhD to secondary schools and public outreach [2]. The nanoscience education is critical to train scientists, engineers with well-skilled workforces to promptly progress of R&D in nanoscience and nanotechnology. Interdisciplinary curricula in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education relevant to nanoscience and nanotechnology need to be dev
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