Student understanding of nanoscience through the Gecko's surface to surface interactions

Nanoscience education requires learning in a meaningful context. In the NanoLeap unit Investigating Static Forces in Nature: The Mystery of the Gecko, high school students were introduced to an interdisciplinary approach in nanoscience. As a summative assessment, 100 high school students wrote essays responding to the question, 'How does the gecko adhere to a ceiling?' Using design based research and qualitative theme analysis, researchers analyzed 100-student essay using the original scores given by their teachers. The findings supply four major themes and five subthemes that highlight trends in student understanding. Expectedly, students accurately described physical characteristics of the gecko, surfaces, and the coinciding principles of force at the nanoscale level. With language, more students used colloquial terms to describe scale than used references to numbers. Unexpectedly, almost half the students used words to describe their sense of wonder and value of nanoscience to understanding their world.