Innovations in Nanoscience Education at Kenyon College

A program to enhance the teaching of nanoscience concepts in multiple pedagogical contexts at Kenyon College, Gambier, OH, is described. In an introductory physics laboratory course, students use a Veeco model CP-II scanning probe microscope to image an optical diffraction grating. The results of a survey of student reaction to their experience are reported as is faculty assessment of the exercise. Use of the CP-II by senior-level physics students in an advanced laboratory course is also detailed. A novel first-year seminar course in nanoscience concepts is described, including an experiment on self-assembled monolayers. Since quantum mechanics governs physics on the nanoscale, education about quantum mechanics needs to be included as a topic in nanoscience education. Hence, progress on efforts to produce an inexpensive source of entangled photons, so that students can directly confront quantum logic in the laboratory, is reported. Finally, the results of a summer outreach program for high school science teachers on nanoscience topics are presented.