Preservice teachers from education programs at UNL participated in the annual "Hands-On Nanoscience" NCMN workshop covering topics like "Planck's Constant with LEDs," "Organic Solar Cells," "Squishy Circuits, Batteries and other Electronics." Steve Wignall, Seward High School science teacher, provided teaching and one-on-one coaching on how to use the kits to enrich and support current nanoscience curriculum.

•  Project Lead the Way (PLTW) Engineering Conference

NCMN and NNF partnered with the College of Engineering at the PLTW Engineering Conference to provide nanoscience information and hands-on activities to over 150 teachers, school administrators, industry reps, government officials, and university faculty, staff & students. The PLTW curriculum, cited by the Harvard Graduate School of Education as a "model for 21st-century career and technical education," is founded in fundamental problem-solving and critical-thinking skills taught in traditional career and technical education (CTE), while integrating national academic and technical learning standards and STEM principles. Nanoscience is a very relevant part of these project-based engineering courses for elementary, middle, and high school students.

•  Science Matters Workshop

Over 75 middle and high school teachers, librarians, and other school representatives attending the National Science Teachers Association Science Matters workshop in Omaha were given the opportunity to experience STEM/Nano concepts through an NCMN kit presentation in February. A variety of kits covered information about memory metals, ferrofluids, thin films, liquid crystals, and other chemistry, physics, and engineering topics.

•  K-12 Science Education Summit

This statewide conference held at Innovation Campus engaged science education stakeholders from across the state, including NDE officials, school district science directors, ESU science staff developers, science teacher educators, K-12 science teachers, and UNL faculty and students, around the Next Generation Science Standards and innovative instructional resources. NCMN showcased STEM/Nano activities to interested science educators through breakout sessions and a booth.

•  Nebraska Association for Teachers of Science (NATS)

NCMN participated in the annual Nebraska Association of Teachers of Science conference at Fremont, Nebraska, this fall, where UNL faculty and NCMN staff presented information about nanoscience through hands-on activities, demos, and resources. Some of the topics included carbon nanostructures, DNA, ferrofluids, magnetism, and emerging nanomaterials. One of NCMN's outreach goals is to help teachers integrate nanoscience into their classrooms while achieving state science standards. Please see information under our Professional Development Workshop links below, our Teacher Resources, and Nebraska State Science Standards.

•  Nebraska Association for the Gifted Conference

This year, we helped sponsor the annual Nebraska Association for the Gifted Conference, where 400 K-12 teachers, Directors of Curriculum, and Librarians/Media Specialists attended. Many scholarship awards were given to Native American and Title 1 high school teachers to provide them the opportunity to learn about nanoscience topics and bring the information back to their schools. 75 STEM/Nano activity kits were also distributed to conference attendees to support learning in the classroom around nanoscale science, technology, and engineering topics.

•  The Nebraska Chapter of the American Association of Physics Teachers

Professors Steve Ducharme, Christian Binek, and Axel Enders are some of the NCMN faculty members from the Department of Physics & Astronomy who have been invited as guest speakers to Nebraska – AAPT meetings. Topics covered were Cooperative Problem Solving, Magnetic Nanoparticles, Statistical Physics, and Magnetic Metal/Insulator Heterosystems, and Self-Assembly of Nanostructures.

•  Teacher Science Fair

We had the opportunity to resource over 100 Lincoln Public School science teachers with STEM/Nano-related information at their annual pre-term meeting in Morrill Hall on UNL’s City Campus. NCMN, partnered with MRSEC to provide handouts, interactive materials, and other tools to share with teachers.