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Make sense of nanochemistry and nanotechnology

Article in Chemistry Education Research and Practice · January 2008

DOI: 10.1039/B801285G

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RESEARCH www.rsc.org/cerp | Chemistry Education Research and Practice

Make sense of nanochemistry and nanotechnology

Paola Ambrogi,a* Monica Caselli,b Marco Montaltic and Margherita Venturic
Received 20th January 2007, Accepted 5th December 2007
First published on the web 28th January 2008
DOI: 10.1039/b801285g

A class in a Scientific-Technological Lyceum (age 17) decided to produce a PowerPoint

presentation to introduce nanochemistry and nanotechnology to the students in lower grades.
Because the subject is very new, there was nothing in the School textbooks and, therefore, the
students had to cooperate in order to find materials, to use ICT sources and to take decisions, such
as selecting information and choosing slide layouts. Furthermore, the Cooperative Learning
methodology was employed to solve the problem of setting up the presentation. To make
nanochemistry and nanotechnology a reality for the students, they used a link between these new
frontiers of Chemistry and subjects currently tackled at the Secondary School level. This was the
quantitative determination of Ca 2+ ions by using calcein, a luminescent chemosensor, in which well
known concepts, such as chemical equilibrium and stability constants of coordination compounds,
are involved. The educational aims of the project were to promote both content knowledge and
social skills in Secondary School students. The activity created a good class atmosphere and also
led to the retention of content knowledge.

Keywords: situated learning, cooperative learning, social skills, nanotechnology, quantitative

analysis

a non-traditional approach in teaching-learning methodologies

Introduction to develop content knowledge and social skills.
The topic is unusual and it is not in the curriculum, so
A booklet of the European Association for Chemical and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) was
Molecular Sciences (EuCheMS 2006) states: “the chemical indispensable to find and communicate the necessary
and molecular sciences have been fundamental to the current information. Knowledge is indispensable but it must now be
economic and social achievements in Europe, and will combined with a growing number of new skills in
continue to be the key underpinning sciences for future intercultural, computer, linguistic, and ecological fields. In
European innovation and industrial advances.” The students, preparing citizens for the future the role that education plays
who will be our future society, must learn for tomorrow’s is fundamental. Tarozzi (2005), describing the profile of the
world and so they need a meaningful knowledge of the basic ideal graduate of interest to a well-known chemical company,
principles of science. The PISA 2003 report (see the web site stresses the following abilities: business direction (strategic
http://pisacountry.acer.edu.au/) showed that Italian students component), implementation (results), networking/team
do not perform very well in Science; indeed, they have scored building, people development, personal leadership
486 (the average score was 500), which made them 27th out of characteristics, communication skills. Content knowledge
40 countries. Chemistry, like physics and mathematics, is not alone seems no longer to be sufficient, and social skills are a
very popular among our students. Chemistry, in particular, is must in order to work successfully in a team as our complex
considered too hard to study, abstract and distant from society requires. Schools must keep up with cognitive, socio-
everyday life. Many students believe they will never have to cultural and technological changes. In this society that evolves
do anything with Science and Chemistry, or use them outside so quickly, learning to learn has become a key concept.
the school. Therefore, it is important that they understand how Starting from these considerations a complex activity was
the Sciences impact on human life and how it might help in decided on to enhance the students’ capacity to face a
taking decisions concerning social, technological, and complex society. The work involved individual and group
economic problems. A good strategy might be, in order to activities, decision making, ICT use, practical work in the
catch the students’ interest and motivate them, to starting with chemistry laboratory, and numerical exercises. The project
challenging topics at the cutting edge of science. was created on the basis of the constructivist theory for
In this article we present a teaching-learning activity based learner driven learning. Both traditional face-to-face
on nanochemistry and nanotechnology. This choice required instruction and the cooperative learning approach were used
both the use of new technologies to carry out the activities and to carry out the project.
a
I.T.I.”L. Nobili” Reggio Emilia - SSIS Università degli Studi di Modena e
Reggio Emilia; E-mail: [email protected]
b
Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia,
c
Università degli Studi di Bologna

This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2008 Chem. Educ. Res. Pract., 2008, 9, 5–10 | 5
Table 1. Performed activities seminars the class was requested to choose the best way to
introduce to the students in the lower grades one of the topics
• Creation of a PowerPoint presentation on Nanochemistry and
Nanotechnology discussed in the Seminars. The class, inspired by the lecture
• Use of ICT “Natural and artificial molecular machines” delivered by
• Design of a rubric to evaluate the presentation Margherita Venturi, chemistry professor of the University of
• Formulation of questions related to the objectives and contents of the Bologna, decided to select “Nanochemistry and
presentation
Nanotechnology” as the topic and to prepare a PowerPoint
• Project processing, presentation and behavioural evaluation
• Practical work concerning the spectrofluorimetric determination of presentation (see the web site:
Ca2+ in samples of water www.itisnobili.org/seminari.htm ). Nanotechnology, the new
technology dealing with the manipulation of materials
billionths of a meter in size, was introduced by explaining
how it could impact our life in years to come. Scientists are
Aims and activities struggling with individual atoms to develop molecule-sized
The educational aims of the project were to promote in computers, tiny tools for health care and even stain and
Secondary School students’ content knowledge, consisting of wrinkle-resistant clothes and sun screen creams.
a meaningful introduction to Nanochemistry and First, the students looked at the PowerPoint presentation of
Nanotechnology, and to enhance the students’ social skills the European Commission, Community Research (CORDIS):
such as team work, communication and conflict management. ‘How can you explain what is meant by nanotechnology?’,
The Cooperative Learning approach was employed to pursue and then they started to plan the work.
both the aims. Because the subject is very innovative, nothing could be
The activities carried out by the students to develop the found in the available Secondary School textbooks. Therefore,
project are summarized in Table 1. To make nanochemistry the students had to work together in order to find materials
and nanotechnology a reality for the students, it was necessary and to take decisions. Materials, like information and images,
to find a link between them and subjects currently tackled at were found by using the Internet. Then they had to select
the Secondary School level. This link was the quantitative information and choose the layout for the slides. This kind of
determination of Ca2+ ions by using calcein, a luminescent activity is an open ended problem and can be viewed with
chemosensor; this process involves well known curricular favour by the students who dislike Science because only one
concepts such as chemical equilibrium and stability constants solution is expected to be correct (Millar, 2006). Furthermore,
of coordination compounds. A chemosensor is able to bind, the students of the class involved in the project seemed to be
selectively and reversibily, an analyte, and responds to the lacking in critical thinking. When stoichiometric problems on
interaction with an analytically useful signal. A luminescent equilibrium, like acid-base, solubility or coordination
chemosensor responds to the interaction with a change in its compound stability, were posed, they immediately applied any
luminescence. Calcein forms a fluorescent chelate with Ca2+ algorithm, and rushed through a numerical output without
ions that can be quantitatively detected with a considering its congruence within the context. This kind of
spectrofluorimeter (Hoelzl Wallach et al., 1959). In a behaviour shows their scarce capability to be critical and their
supramolecular perspective calcein can be regarded as a disinclination to analyse. “The focus of the students is on
simple multicomponent system (Lehn, 1995; Balzani et al., getting the “right” answer whether or not it is reasonable”
2003) in which two different units, the receptor and the ...” they take every number in the question and others that
fluorophore are respectively responsible for target recognition they assume have some relevance and bang them into the
and signal transduction. Although such system is not calculator in a desperate attempt to get an answer, and it’s
comparable in complexity and level of sophistication to the just a matter of “garbage in , garbage out” (Hoffman, 2007).
most recent prototypes of nanodevice, it presents some To prevent this behaviour, which seems to be widespread in
fundamental advantages: it is commercially available and the student community, it is necessary to improve their High
reasonably cheap, and its simple function, namely the calcium Order Cognitive Skills (HOCS), such as creative and critical
recognition and its quantification can be intuitively thinking (Zoller and Tsaparlis, 1997) because “a chemically
understood, and visualized by means of accessible techniques literate person is able to raise a question, look for
such as absorption and emission spectroscopy. Finally, information and relate to it” (Shwartz, 2006).
because of the important role played by Ca2+ and other ions in Research has revealed (Sharan and Sharan, 1992; Kagan
biological systems, this study focused on chemosensors and 1994) that Group Investigation methodology is effective in
nanochemistry, provides a starting point for a increasing student HOCS and therefore this approach was
multidisciplinary nanoscience approach. adopted to create the presentation.
The Group Investigation approach calls for social skills
Subjects and setting such as group work planning and co-operative work to
achieve the identified objectives, and the review of the
A class (age 17) of the Scientific-Technological Lyceum – contributions and agreement on the ways to improve the team
I.T.I. “L. Nobili” – of Reggio Emilia, a town in the northern work. The creation of the final product required that the
part of Italy, had the opportunity of attending a series of students found, interpreted and selected information, all of
seminars on the new frontiers of Chemistry. At the end of the which enhanced their content knowledge. This situation

6 | Chem. Educ. Res. Pract., 2008, 9, 5–10 This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2008
corresponds to a situated learning approach (Stein, 1998) in to learn from them the other subtopics.
which knowledge and skills are learned in the contexts that For the practical work carried out in the laboratory, each
reflect how knowledge is obtained and applied in everyday group was composed of five students to whom different roles
life: knowledge is socially embedded, and learning occurs were assigned.
from socially-mediated collaborative processes. 1. Sampler: the student taking care of all the operations
This group investigation project was largely based on the needed for the sample preparation
use of ICT, making the computer, the main components of 2. Instrument setter: the student setting the instrumentation
the learning environment. As a consequence, these students used
learned to use ICT well, which is not only a curricular subject, 3. Recorder: the student involved in keeping records of all the
but also a very popular information source in every day life observations and the data collected
and in almost every work place. Furthermore, situated 4. Data analyser: the student elaborating data and graphics
learning that involves well known tools could help in like calibration curves
approaching the new topic with a positive feeling. To carry 5. Ambassador: the student responsible for communication
out the group investigation the students had to use knowledge, within the group, with other groups and with the teacher.
social skills and technological tools similar to those The arrangement of the students into expert groups enabled
encountered in the real world, and therefore this activity can them to share opinions and to solve problems more
be regarded as authentic learning. Authentic learning (Muller) successfully. The sampler expert group gained experience in
needs authentic tasks that are used to assess the ability of the using micropipettes, in calculating concentrations, and in
students in applying standard-driven knowledge and skills to manipulating the sample correctly (e.g. avoiding a long
real-world challenges. A task can be considered authentic exposure to air). The instrument expert group learned how to
when the students have a) to construct their own responses set the instrument, and why, and how to insert the sample
rather than select one answer in a predefined list, and b) to properly. The recorder expert group found the best way to
face challenges similar to those of the real world. Authentic record observations, times and data. The data analyser expert
learning needs authentic assessment. Authentic assessment group solved a series of problems to facilitate the set up of the
includes a task that the students have to perform and a rubric calibration curve and the quantitative determination of the
by which their performances and the task will be evaluated. calcium concentration in samples of water the ambassador
The steps for authentic assessment are: 1) selection of the expert group ensured that all the information was shared by
standards, 2) selection of an authentic task, 3) identification of the group-mates, kept the different groups in touch and, when
the criteria of the task and 4) design of the rubric. For this necessary, asked the teacher for help. Each expert group
project the teacher and the class identified the following identified the critical points in their task and cooperated to
Standards: solve them.
• Process Standard: finding and evaluation of relevant
Group Investigation to set up the computer aided
information; use of ICT to communicate. presentation
• Content standard: description of the nanotechnology and its
applications; use of a luminescent chemosensor for the The Cooperative Learning method was employed to solve the
quantitative determination of Ca2+. problem of setting up the presentation. Students, grouped in
The authentic task consisted in the creation of the four teams of mixed abilities, worked on structured tasks
PowerPoint presentation to be used for peer education. under the conditions that meet the five criteria of Cooperative
Learning:
Methods 1. Positive interdependence
2. Individual accountability
Cooperative Learning (Johnson and Johnson, 1994) was the 3. Face to face interaction
principal method employed and the structures chosen for the 4. Appropriate use of interpersonal skills
activities (Kagan, 1994) were: 5. Regular group processing.
• ‘Jigsaw’ for practical work The Group Investigation theory and philosophy was described
• Group investigation to set up the presentation. by Sharan and Hertz-Lazarowitz (1980). According to Sharan
‘Jigsaw’ for practical work (1994), Group Investigation comprises four basic features:
investigation, interaction, interpretation and intrinsic
The activity concerning practical work was structured motivation. All these features are incorporated in the six
according to the jigsaw approach developed by Aronson stages of the Group Investigation model that are briefly
(Aronson) in the seventies. In this technique the learning unit discussed in the following.
is divided into parts and each member of a group specializes
in one of these parts. As every part is essential to compose the Stage 1: the class defines subtopics and organises into
jigsaw, every student’s contribution is essential to complete research groups. The students chose the topic of the research
the entire product. In the jigsaw approach each member of the having examined the material provided by the teacher and the
groups learns to become an expert in a subtopic, and the seminar speaker; then they split the topic into subtopics. To
students involved in the same subtopic study together to identify the subtopics the students formulated questions. The
master the subject. After this stage the ‘expert’ comes back to aim of these questions is to generate a pool of information
his original team to teach the subtopic to the team-mates, and

This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2008 Chem. Educ. Res. Pract., 2008, 9, 5–10 | 7
Table 2. Rubric designed for the authentic assessment of the PowerPoint presentation.a

Exemplary Proficient Satisfactory To be resubmitted

Criteria \ Score 10 8 6 4

Note cards indicate that Note cards show that you Note cards show that you Note cards show that you
you accurately researched recorded, evaluated, and sometimes misinterpreted recorded information from
Research and Organization a variety of information synthesized relevant statements and failed to four or fewer resources.
sources, recorded and information from multiple identify relevant
interpreted significant sources. arguments.
facts.
The content is written The content is written with The content is vague in The content lacks a clear point
clearly and concisely with a logical progression of conveying a point of view of view and a logical sequence
Content a logical progression of concepts and information. and does not create a of information. The sequence
concepts and information. It includes persuasive strong sense of purpose. of concepts is unclear.
The project gives a clear information from reliable Some of the information
sense of the main idea. sources. is not appropriate.
All slides have transitions Transitions and effects Few, if any, transitions No transitions and effects are
and effects that work. work only in some slides. and effects are placed on placed on slides.
Presentation Backgrounds look good Backgrounds look good slides. No backgrounds were chosen
concerning font styles and concerning font styles and Backgrounds clash with to go on the slide.
colour. colour. font colour and styles.
a
The final grade of the computer aided presentation, obtained as total score/3, is compared to the evaluation scoring scale: exemplary (9-10); proficient
(8-7); satisfactory (6); to be resubmitted (<6).

useful for giving a description of nanotechnology good effective sequence, layout, and animation. In the meantime, a
enough foryounger students. The three major questions that rubric was designed by the students and revised with the help
arose were: of the teacher (Table 2) to make authentic assessment of the
1. What is meant by nanotechnology and when did it begin? presentations.
2. What is nanotechnology used for?
3. Where can the research centres on nanotechnology be Stage 5: the groups make their presentations. Each group
found and what are the research achievements? gave its presentation; the speakers were randomly chosen
Each of the first three groups had the task of developing from the groups. The students from the Group 4, did not give
anadequate answer to one of the previous questions, while the any presentation, they were involved, with their classmates, in
fourth group had the coordinating role, which consist of assessing the presentation. Their communication abilities were
maintaining the contact between the groups and the teacher, not meant to be assessed this time, whereas they cooperated in
ensuring that the research results were shared by all the the creation of the overall presentation.
groups, and that they all meet the deadline.
Stage 6: the teacher and all the students evaluate the
Stage 2: the groups plan their investigations. The team projects. All the students assessed the presentation using the
members worked together in carrying out the research, mainly rubric. They shared ideas about the effectiveness of their
by using the Internet. They decided how to reach the products, their feelings and roles during the experience, and
objectives and how to assign tasks among the members. This proposed suggestions for the future.
operation allowed them to become conscious about their
abilities and skills and how to share them to be a Results
complementary and successful group. Every team had an
‘ambassador’ and a ‘time-keeper’. The ambassador took care The outcomes were assessed in several ways. The traditional
that the information was shared inside the group and with the methods (i.e. questions, exercises tests, gap-filling exercises,
coordinator group; furthermore, when necessary, he had the summaries, etc…) alone were not appropriate to the learning
role of asking for help from the teacher. The time-keeper environment created during the development of the project.
helped the group to carry out the task without wasting time. As a consequence, it was decided that a combination of
methods would be used: the traditional ones to assess the
Stage 3: the groups carry out their investigations. The team subject content and the authentic assessment (Burke, 1999) for
members found, analysed and selected information. They the authentic learning tasks. The assessment tools were:
organized the materials and decided on the information, • rubric design to assess the presentation,
images and films to be selected. Decision making and conflict • behavioural checklist,
management were the skills to tackle. • cooperative project evaluation,
• open ended questions for academic assessment.
Stage 4: the groups plan their presentations. Each group The overall presentation was assessed with the aid of the
planned its presentation after having chosen the main ideas on rubric designed by the students as shown in Table 3.
the topic and after having taken the decision about the most Checklists (Johnson and Johnson, 1994) and open-ended

8 | Chem. Educ. Res. Pract., 2008, 9, 5–10 This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2008
 18
16
14
12
Numbe r of 10
stude nts 8
6
4
After some months
2
After the project
0 Time of
After the seminar
Very good

asse ssme nt
Adequate

Inadequate
Score

Fig. 1 Scores obtained by the students at different time of the academic assessment. The different total numbers of answers reported in the figure are due
to the different numbers of students attending the lessons.

Table 4. Behavioural checklist results

Table 3. Assessment results of the overall presentation based on the
designed rubric (see Table. 2) Always Often Never

Rubric To be I contributed ideas and knowledge 7 9 0

Exemplary Proficient Satisfactory I asked for the other students’ ideas and knowledge 7 5 4
for presentation resubmitted
Criteria \ Score 10 8 6 4 I summarized our ideas and knowledge 12 4 0
I asked for help if needed 11 4 1
Research and 2 10 2 0
I helped my group-mates to study 6 10 0
Organization
I checked if my group-mates understood our tasks 1 11 4
Content 2 11 1 0 I contributed to make the group work 9 6 1
Presentation 3 6 5 0 I involved all my group-mates in the work 4 12 0

____________________________________________________________
times are reported. After the project has been carried out, all
reflection sheets were used by the students to assess their own the students performed at higher levels, with the exception of
social skills and those of their group-mates; the checklist a weak student who had language problems. After some
results are shown in Table 4. This was done to enhance months even the weak student had recovered, and the whole
metacognitive reflections and cooperative behaviours. class performed at an adequate or very good level.
For the project evaluation the students were asked to
describe briefly their contribution to the cooperative project, Conclusion
and the other group members confirmed this assessment with
their signatures. Furthermore, to help self-reflection, the Starting from a challenging topic at the cutting edge of
students had to answer to the following questions. Are you Chemistry, which could be perceived as abstract and distant
satisfied with the development of the project? If not, what from everyday life, the students have been able to find and
could be done to improve it? How could your team work select information about it and to handle a simple
together more effectively? These were intended to help the multicomponent system to carry out a quantitative
metacognitive process. The teacher and the class discussed the determination of calcium ions in commercial samples of
observed difficulties and highlighted the positive results both water. The self assessment behavioural checklist results
from the academic and social viewpoints. demonstrate that almost all the students always or frequently
Then the teacher assessed the individual achievements with showed positive behaviour. They contributed ideas and
open ended questions. After the seminars almost all the knowledge, asked and gave help and participated in making
students achieved the objectives of content knowledge (Figure the group work, which helped to enhance social skills,
1) where the results of the academic assessment at different especially team work.

This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2008 Chem. Educ. Res. Pract., 2008, 9, 5–10 | 9
 Almost all the students assessed the project as valuable, Johnson R.T. and Johnson D.W., An overview of cooperative learning;
especially for the clear and logical progression of significant see the web page:
http://www.co-operation.org/pages/overview paper.html. The original
content. The research work and the selection and organization paper has been published in: Creativity and Collaborative Learning,
of the content were assessed as valuable as well. The group (1994), J. Thousand, A. Villa and A. Nevin (Eds); Brookes Press,
processing involved in these moments of reflection and Baltimore.
evaluation demonstrated highly positive results. Johnson, D.W., Johnson, R.T., and Holubec, E.J., (1994), The nuts and
bolts of cooperative learning, Interaction Book Company, Edina,
The increase in the students' subject knowledge and its long
MN.
term retention, the positive results of the rubric scores for the Kagan S., (1994), Cooperative learning, Kagan, San Clement CA 92673.
presentation, and the self assessment outcome clearly Lehn J.-M., (1995), Supramolecular chemistry. Concepts and
highlight the project’s effectiveness. perspectives, VCH, Weinheim.
We hope that this approach, that enabled the students to Millar R., (2006), ASE Annual Conference 5th January, Reading keynote
lecture looking forward: linking development and research to achieve
learn effectively in a supportive environment, could be a step
real improvement in science education.
towards a better understanding and perception of Chemistry Mueller J., see the web page:
and its important role in everyday life. http://jonathan.mueller.faculty.noctrl.edu/toolbox/
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10 | Chem. Educ. Res. Pract., 2008, 9, 5–10 This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2008
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