NUE: An Integrated Approach to Teaching Nanotechnology and Society

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Project AbstractESI-0407075Clark Miller, University of Wisconsin, Madison NUE: "An Integrated Approach to Teaching Nanotechnology and Society"This project will implement and evaluate an interdisciplinary program in undergraduate education in nanotechnology and society, filling an important curricular gap in nanoscale science and engineering education at UW-Madison as well as elsewhere around the country. Intellectual Merit: The proposed program will create small, first-year undergraduate seminars, composed of students from across campus, that will integrate the technical and social dimensions of nanoscale science and engineering. These courses will be taught by advanced PhD students, who will participate in a rigorous training program to teach them how to teach critical thinking about nanotechnology and society. Throughout the process, an interdisciplinary group of faculty mentors will provide coordination and oversight of the program.Broader Impact: The program will directly impact several hundred undergraduate students, providing them with an in-depth understanding of the societal, ethical, legal, and policy implications of nanoscale science and engineering. It will: (1) enable students in the sciences and engineering to learn about what happens when science and technology leave the laboratory and get taken up into society; (2) expose students in the humanities and social sciences to how social choices shape the design of technological systems and how these systems structure social interactions and human wellbeing; and (3) prepare students in all fields to make informed choices as consumers and citizens about technology. It will provide training to advanced PhD students who intend to become future faculty, giving them the skills and expertise to integrate research and teaching, to build evaluation of student learning into all aspects of their teaching, and to work together across disciplinary boundaries to teach students to think critically about nanotechnology and society. The project training program, syllabi, and curricular materials will be disseminated widely within the nanotechnology research community, the broader STEM community, and among science and technology studies educators.