The 209th meeting of the American Astronomical Society and the 2007 Winter Meeting of the American Association of Physics Teachers met jointly in Seattle, Washington over January 5 through January 10, 2007. Recognizing the need for an energized science and engineering workforce, leaders in business, government, physics and science education addressed a number of pertinent issues throughout the week.

In a session on Nanoscale Physics in the Classroom, Dr. Nick Giordano delivered a presentation entitled “National Center for Learning and Teaching in the Nanoscale Science and Engineering (NCLT)”. The NCLT and its collaborating institutions were described, as were the NCLT’s endeavors in several fields:

• Research into how and where nanoscience concepts can be introduced into 7-12 Grade curricula
• How to design grade-appropriate nanoscience activities at those grade levels, and
• The design and implementation of Professional Development programs that enable science teachers to integrate nanoscience education into traditional chemistry, physics, biology and mathematics classes

Dr. Giordano is a Hubert James Distinguished Professor of Physics at Purdue University. Among his varied research interests are computational neuroscience, computational physics, the acoustics and physics of piano and guitar, and the physics of nano scale metallic systems. He is actively engaged in the Student Learning and Motivation (nanoSLAM), Degree Programs, Professional Development and Evaluations Work Circles within the NCLT.