Nanoscience in Society undergraduate course: integrating history, science, society, and technology

Nanoscience in Society is a semester-long course with lab, open to all majors. It was developed and taught in collaboration with Santa Barbara City College in Spring 2011 (Physical Science 107).  It is our intent to share the course materials and teaching experience, and we invite others to adopt the course or elements from it for their own institutions.  Note that the materials provided reflect our pilot experience teaching this course, and the Evaluator's Report details suggestions for improvements to the course. 

Click on the links below to download the following contents:

• Instructor’s Report by Professor Eric Bullock describing the course content and reflecting on the experience teaching it.
• Pdf of spreadsheet syllabus detailing learning objectives for each section and labs for each week.
• Labs and assignments: one folder for each week contains the labs and supporting materials and assignment instructions (note: Week 4 was a holiday, thus there is no folder)
• Lab Notes, a concise reflection on each of the labs by Graduate Teaching Scholar Erin Calkins
• Lecture materials by Eric Bullock (please contact Eric directly; see contact info below)

Additional resources:

• Evaluator's Report on students' experience with the course in Spring 2011
• Article on the original INSCITES program, the forerunner of our course: Murr, Patterson, Hu, Goodchild, and McCray. 2009. From the Ground Up: Developing an Interdisciplinary Course Focusing on Materials Science and Society in Green Technologies. Journal of Materials Education, 31 (5-6): 251 – 264.

If you have questions about the course or the material, please contact Professor Eric Bullock at Santa Barbara City College (bullock (at) sbcc.edu, (805) 965-0581 x3639).

We would love to hear your feedback!  Please take a moment to complete a very brief feedback form to help us track the dissemination and utility of this material.

Acknowledgements

This course was developed by (in alphabetical order): Dr. Peter Alagona (UCSB History), Dr. Eric Bullock (SBCC Chemistry), Erin Calkins (UCSB Chemistry), Dr. Julie Dillemuth (UCSB), Dr. Patrick McCray (UCSB History), Dr. Meredith Murr (UCSB), Marilynn Spaventa (SBCC), and Lily Anne Welty (UCSB History), with evaluators Lubi Lenaburg, Shadi Roshandel, and Elizabeth Sciaky.  The project was funded by the National Science Foundation, award # SES-0924646.