Interactive nano-visualization in science and engineering education: Conforming technology to transform education: The IN-VSEE project

The Interactive Nano-Visualization in Science and Engineering Education (IN-VSEE) project combines advances in telecommunications, instructional technologies, and science and engineering research to provide the first real-time interface for remote operation of Scanning Probe Microscopy (SPM) over the World Wide Web for educational and training purposes. The "live remote control" of this Nobel prize-winning microscopy technique enables the user to carry out "real-time" remote scientific experiments and is the basis for discovery-based learning about our material nanoworld. This novel visualization-centered, distance learning project utilizes a WWW technology-based 'visualization pipeline' to enhance students' understanding of our material world at all levels of scale, from the macroscopic and the microscopic levels to even the smallest levels of matter, the nano- and atomic scales, where, intuition and textbook examples alone do not suffice. The project has produced interactive educational learning modules to bring the excitement of research using cutting-edge technology to upper-level high school and first-year college students and teachers in ways not previously possible. We hope that this unique combination of cutting-edge research, leading-edge telecommunications, and advanced learning technologies will serve as a model for the development of a new educational paradigm to meet the educational needs of the 21 ^st century.