Evolution of undergraduate students’ ideas for size dependent properties of nanoparticles


Published: Sep 12, 2024
Keywords:
Nanotechnology Tertiary education Evolution of ideas
Ioannis Metaxas
Emily Michailidi
Ioannis Pavlidis
Dimitris Stavrou
Abstract

Nanotechnology is a state of the art scientific field with a well-documented educational value. This study, based on the Model of Educational Reconstruction, describes the implementation of a teaching experiment about the size-dependent optical properties of nanomaterials. This study was aimed at clarifying the evolution of ideas of students from chemistry, physics and biology departments during the implementation of a teaching experiment for size dependent optical properties of nanomaterials. The analysis of the results highlighted a two-step evolution. The first step is the transition from size independency of color to partial size dependency. The second step is the transition from partial size dependency to size-dependency specifically at the nanoscale.

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References
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