The Interactive Nano-Visualization for Science and Engineering Education (IN-VSEE) project is a visionary effort, funded by the National Science Foundation, that brings sophisticated, yet user-friendly, state-of-the-art imaging technology and instrumentation that are traditionally available only at elite research centers into any classroom.
The project combines elements from interdisciplinary research, integration of research into education, industrial liaison and outreach to provide innovations in formal and informal education at the high school and college levels.
This project has created a consortium of university and industry researchers, community college and high school faculty and museum educators with a common vision of building an interactive World Wide Web (WWW) site to develop a new educational thrust. It is centered on the web-based remote operation of advanced microscopes, particularly the Nobel-Prize-winning Scanning Probe Microscopes (SPMs).
IN-VSEE is a unique initiative that enables a science or engineering class ("operator") to select and investigate materials over the WWW. Using a "fishbowl" format, other classes ("observers") will be able to observe the operator class conducting an experiment. Operator classes will remote-control the SPM from their classroom with the SPM images broadcast over WWW in real-time. The observers will actively participate by communicating with the operator class via WWW-Chat or video conferencing. IN-VSEE will have a chain reaction effect by creating dialogue and being shared over WWW with other classrooms. This same approach will serve as a model for the national use of other instruments beside the SPM.
Our objective is to exploit the incredible potential of Nanoscience and Technology for teaching college students about fundamental concepts that cross traditionally separate disciplines such as the physical, life and engineering sciences & technology as well as mathematics. Teachers and students can take part in hands-on exploration in partnership with research scientists to explore new educational paradigms that prepare the next generation of scientists and engineering for the imminent nanotechnology revolution.
We have designed novel interactive educational modules that integrate concepts across size, scale, disciplines, methodologies and phenomena to emphasize nano-imaging, structure-property relationships, structure-function correlations, and nano-fabrication.Our goals are to develop a new educational paradigm to help prepare the future generation of scientists and engineers for the new age of nanotechnology and to provide a novel mechanism for integration of nanotechnology into education in the traditional disciplines of science and engineering. We will discuss the evolution and vision of IN-VSEE, philosophy of the educational modules and the parameters for a valuable remote experiment. The contents of a specific interactive educational module and a live, interactive, remote experiment associated with that module will be demonstrated. (The time required would be one hour and the equipment needed are a projector which can take computer input and an Internet connection (preferably T1 or a similar fast line)).