Educational Significance of Nanoscience–Nanotechnology: Primary School Teachers’ and Students’ Voices after a Training Program
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Theoretical Background
2.1. The Model of Educational Reconstruction
2.2. Educational Significance of NST: A Review of the Literature
3. Materials and Methods
3.1. The Context of the Study
3.2. Participants
3.3. Data Collection
3.4. Data Coding
4. Results
4.1. Innovative Content Relevant to Everyday Life
“It is valuable to teach nanotechnology in schools. First of all, nanotechnology is a part of our life. We can bring into the classroom nanotechnology applications, being useful in everyday life and familiarize students with them. Working in the classroom regarding a topic that is evident in real life is very important.”
4.2. Future Career
“For example, I saw that there are 300,000 nanotechnology companies. Since I can realize what these companies can do, I think that a lot of other companies will shift their interest towards NST. In other words, it is not bad for Greeks to start involving in this kind of work.”
“This is the future of our students. In recent years, computer science has attracted students’ interest for studying at the university because we thought that it was a good prospect. We started teaching computer science both in and out of schools from early stages. I think that nanotechnology is something similar and we have to start teaching it in schools because it is an excellent prospect.”
4.3. Relevance of NST Content to the School Science Curriculum
“If we introduced a unit about nanotechnology in 6th grade, students could be aware that nanotechnology already exists and be familiarized with some concepts. Then in secondary schools it would be easier to expand their knowledge.”
“First of all, the primary school science book includes some pictures that depict an optical microscope. When my colleagues see this picture, they turn the page considering that it is just a picture, underestimating it. After the training program in nanotechnology, I realized that, that picture was very important at this part of the book, the optical microscope should be taught into the classroom as well as, other NST concepts could be incorporated to this specific part such as the electron microscope.”
“I admit that I don’t teach physics in school. [...] All we learned was interesting. However, I would prefer the training program focus on the concepts that we already teach in primary schools, because I could apply that knowledge into the classroom immediately… I consider that in the way that our curriculum is structured today, as well as due to the existing deficiencies, nanotechnology is not so necessary in primary schools.”
5. Discussion
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Content | Intended Learning Outcomes | |
---|---|---|
Teachers Should Be Able to: | Students Should Be Able to: | |
Size and Scale/observation tools | (a) define the nanoscale by its size range, the landmark objects that includes, the tools that render the objects visible (b) acknowledge that electron microscopes can be used for viewing nanoscale objects | (a) classify various sizes objects into the macro, micro and nanoworld based on a qualitative criterion i.e., the observation tool that render each world accessible (naked eye, optical microscope, electron microscope), (b) order macro, micro and nanoworld objects based on a qualitative criterion: “which object is part of the other or fits into the other?” |
Lotus effect | understand the super hydrophobic and self-cleaning property of the lotus leaf and the importance of the surface contact area | (a) explain the lotus effect using the concept of leaf’s nanostructure and the trapped air in the interstitial spaces between the nanostructures (b) recognize commercial products that mimic the lotus effect |
Gecko effect | understand the strong adhesion property of the gecko lizard and the importance of the surface contact area | - |
Water nano-filters | realize the size-exclusion effect used in water purification systems | explain the filtration mechanism relating the size of the nanostructure to the size of the objects that excludes |
Models | (a) Understand that models represent properties of macroscale, microscale and nanoscale objects (b) Realize that models can be used to obtain information about inaccessible targets | (a) create models in order to explain phenomena e.g., the lotus effect (b) recognize epistemological aspects of models i.e., the nature and role of models (e.g., the models are representations, the models focus on specific aspects of the objects) |
Categories | Criteria |
---|---|
Innovative content relevant to everyday life |
|
Future career |
|
Relevance of NST content to school science curriculum |
|
Categories | Teachers (21 UM) | Students (20 UM) | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Frequency | Percentage (%) | Frequency | Percentage (%) | |
Innovative content relevant to everyday life | 13 | 61.90 | 17 | 85.00 |
Future career | 3 | 14.29 | 3 | 15.00 |
Relevance of NST content to the school science curriculum | 5 | 23.81 | 0 | 0.00 |
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Spyrtou, A.; Manou, L.; Peikos, G. Educational Significance of Nanoscience–Nanotechnology: Primary School Teachers’ and Students’ Voices after a Training Program. Educ. Sci. 2021, 11, 724. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci11110724
Spyrtou A, Manou L, Peikos G. Educational Significance of Nanoscience–Nanotechnology: Primary School Teachers’ and Students’ Voices after a Training Program. Education Sciences. 2021; 11(11):724. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci11110724
Chicago/Turabian StyleSpyrtou, Anna, Leonidas Manou, and Giorgos Peikos. 2021. "Educational Significance of Nanoscience–Nanotechnology: Primary School Teachers’ and Students’ Voices after a Training Program" Education Sciences 11, no. 11: 724. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci11110724
APA StyleSpyrtou, A., Manou, L., & Peikos, G. (2021). Educational Significance of Nanoscience–Nanotechnology: Primary School Teachers’ and Students’ Voices after a Training Program. Education Sciences, 11(11), 724. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci11110724