| NSF Org: |
DUE Division Of Undergraduate Education |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | September 15, 2015 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | January 24, 2018 |
| Award Number: | 1501878 |
| Award Instrument: | Continuing Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Virginia Carter
vccarter@nsf.gov (703)292-4651 DUE Division Of Undergraduate Education EDU Directorate for STEM Education |
| Start Date: | September 15, 2015 |
| End Date: | June 30, 2020 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $2,325,403.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $2,545,211.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
FY 2017 = $998,095.00 |
| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
1300 145TH ST E ROSEMOUNT MN US 55068-2932 (651)423-8319 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
1300 145th St E Rosemount MN US 55068-2999 |
| Primary Place of Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | Advanced Tech Education Prog |
| Primary Program Source: |
04001718DB NSF Education & Human Resource |
| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.076 |
ABSTRACT
Nanotechnology encompasses subjects from physics and chemistry to emerging technologies such as photonics and biotechnology; and its market segments go beyond the traditional electronics and materials industries, to encompass segments as diversified as lubricants, paper manufacturing, cellulose, energy, consumer products and the food industry. Forecasts of nanotechnology workforce needs cite 500,000 nanotechnology technicians needed by 2020. The ATE Regional Center, Nano-Link, will grow both an industry and education network to help meet these workforce needs.
Nano-Link will continue and expand on the successes of the last six years by: providing nanoscience course content to an expanding set of colleges supporting the introduction of nanotechnology aware technicians into industry positions; increasing the number of multi-disciplinary educational modules to address the growing market segments; expanding outreach to underrepresented minorities by creating culturally relevant educational content; and providing college faculty best practices on interacting with industry as nanotechnology educational programs are updated and developed. Ongoing assessment of progress towards the project's goals will help inform the overall project evaluation, which in turn will contribute to building the knowledge base regarding the effectiveness of the network of project partners in achieving improvements in nanotechnology education and meeting regional workforce needs.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
The Nano-Link Center for Nanotechnology Education was funded in 2015 and ended in 2020. Dakota County Technical College in Rosemount, Minnesota was the fiscal agent. There were three additional institutions that were partners in the center - Chippewa Valley Technical College in Eau Claire, WI, Northeast Technical College in Wausau, WI, and Oakton Community College in Skokie, IL. Several ATE funded centers collaborated on this center including BioLink, MatEdU and OP-TEC.
Outreach
During this funding period, Nano-Link's synergy project, Nano-Infusion, created three additional modules that were added to its library for a total of eighteen modules. Nano-Link also translated all eighteen modules into Spanish. All modules were published on the Nano-Link, MatEdU, nanoHUB and NNCI websites for continued use by the public. Of the eighteen modules, eight were supported with experiment kits free to the public. A total of 1,783 module kits were sent out to 761 educators and impacted 82,556 students.
| Module Kits Sent and Students Reached | ||||||
| Year | 2015 - 16 | 2016 - 17 | 2017 - 18 | 2018 - 19 | 2019 - 20 | Total |
| Number of Kits | 276 | 413 | 622 | 371 | 101 | 1,783 |
| Number of Educators | 175 | 152 | 241 | 145 | 48 | 761 |
| Number of Students | 16,838 | 15,904 | 24,799 | 19,094 | 5,921 | 82,556 |
Over 180 outreach events were attended by over 75,000 participants. These events included conferences such as the High Impact Technology Exchange Conference, National Science Teaching Association conferences, National Career Pathways Network conference, local state science association conferences, talks at high schools and career fairs, etc.
Nano-Link also supported the yearly Micro Nano Technology (MNT) conference and the Micro Nano Technology Education Special Interest Group (MNTeSIG) and its annual meeting at HI-TEC. The MNT conference was a yearlong standalone conference for those excited by and working/teaching in the micro and nano fields. This conference morphed into the MNTeSIG meeting that takes place during the HI-TEC conference every year. Nano-Link has been a member of the planning team and sponsors of the conference/meeting along with SCME, NACK/CNEU, NEATEC, and SHINE. Each year there were 50 to 100 conference attendees.
Professional Development
Professional development was an integral part of the Nano-Link center. Nano-Link Educator Workshops were developed and designed to teach educators the science behind the module experiments. The workshops also guided the educators on how to incorporate the modules into their current curriculum instead of trying to modify their curriculum.
As a result, nine Emerging Technology Coach?s (ETC's) were trained to give Nano-Link Educator Workshops. Three of the ETC's are Latino and translated the Nano-Link modules into Spanish for dissemination into their communities. One ETC is bilingual and has incorporated the modules into their nanoscience course. One ETC is an African American female that teaches at a historically black high scholl and a historically black university.
Nano-Link gave forty educator workshops reaching five hundred and fifty-eight educators in grades seven through twelve and 2-year and 4-year faculty and administrators.
Nano-Link also provided professional development for its ETCs. This allowed the ETCs to stay up to date on current topics, get help on topics that they were not too familiar with and reconnect with the other ETCs and the training coaches.
Job Placement
Nano-Link graduated a total of sixty students with associate degrees, ten with baccalaureate degrees, and three hundred and sixty-two post-secondary completers. Nano-Link graduates had a 90% job placement rate and employers stated that they valued the knowledge of nanoscience concepts and the hands-on training they received with the nanoscience instruments.
Broader Impacts
The work of Nano-Link has resulted in the advancement of knowledge in nanomaterials, nanobiotechnology and nanoelectronics through the offering of professional development activities, presentations and exhibits, and the development of programs and coursework. A broader impact of Nano-Link includes reaching out to audiences that had little or no awareness of nanoscience and influencing students to pursue STEM field careers.
?Nanotechnology is the application of scientific knowledge to engineer systems enabling the investigation of structures and behaviors on the nanoscale, and to manipulate and control matter in such scale to make use of size and structure dependent properties distinct from those of smaller or larger scales.? (ISO 2010, modified by Theriault 2019).
Last Modified: 09/11/2020
Modified by: Mike Opp
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Center for Nanotechnology EducationDakota County Technical CollegeCreative CommonsMike OppNano-Link logo
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