About the Electron Technologies Project
The interactions of electrons with matter have great explanatory power and are central to many technologies from transistors, diodes, smoke detectors, and dosemeters to sophisticated imaging, lasers, and quantum computing. A conceptual understanding of the interactions of electrons in general allow students to acquire conceptual understandings that they can apply to a very broad range of technologies.
The Concord Consortium is working with Parkland College, and four ATE Centers (NANO-LINK, BIO-LINK, MATEC, and OP-TEC) to develop approximately 16 field-tested interactive computer-based learning units addressing core content and technical applications such as nanotechnology, photonics, electronics, materials science, biotechnology, and chemical engineering. In addition, the project will create accompanying models intended for use by an online community of educators to create, customize, post, and critique additional model-based learning activities.
Project Goal
The goal of the proposed Electron Technologies project is to improve the ability of high schools and colleges nationwide to prepare students for a range of careers by enhancing the learning of properties of electrons, electron-matter interactions, their emergent properties, and the ways in which these are utilized in the workplace. Project collaborators will do this by creating, testing, and disseminating contextualized materials that can be used in basic science and technical courses in grades 10-14.
The Software Environment
The project will be enabled by a set of sophisticated computational engines embedded in our popular Molecular Workbench that supports the authoring and delivery of learning activities based on a simulation of electrons and their interactions with atoms. For more information about our modeling work, click the following links:
