Making Nanoscale Science Research Accessible to High School Students through the Summer Ventures Course

Providing STEM education in secondary schools that is enriching and matches the latest advancements in the field is vital for preparing students for their futures. Through the Summer Ventures in Science and Mathematics (SVSM) program, a Nanoscale Science course for high school students in North Carolina was developed and implemented. This course used evidence-based practices to teach students advanced concepts in Chemistry, Biology, and Physics while also guiding students through the design and execution of their own research projects. This course was conducted twice with revisions made between cohorts. Revisions were made to the course based on student results and feedback. These revisions focused on guiding students to specific projects which featured real world applications or an emphasis on familiar scientific concepts that students found more accessible. The data for investigating the impact of the SVSM Nanoscale Science course and its revisions was collected through the scoring of student final papers using a rubric specific to the Big Ideas in Nanoscale Science (BINS) and the experimental design process. The results of scoring the student final papers from the SVSM Nanoscale Science course showed significant improvements to writing research questions, designing experiments, and writing conclusions about their findings for students in the second cohort compared to the first cohort. These findings indicate that the implementation of the course and its revisions had a positive impact on student learning outcomes.