Education and Outreach
Overview
WVNano envisions a comprehensive effort to not only enhance formal education, but also on building a diverse workforce in STEM fields, specifically in bionanoscience and biotechnology. It is our objective to increase technically competent graduates from the state's colleges, universities and community colleges through efforts that increase public awareness, engagement and understanding of nanoscale science, engineering and technology. WVNano strives to provide opportunities for integrating students’ educational experience across diverse areas including microfabrication, electromagnetics, nanotechnology, pharmacology, microfluidics, biometrics, physics, and chemistry. WVNano initiates, partners with, builds upon, and extends other NSF-funded education and outreach projects and University-supported initiatives.
Goals of Education Programs
(1) to help STEM students make the transition from studying science as isolated fields to developing knowledge and skills that enable them to thrive in an interdisciplinary research environment
(2) to better integrate research and education
(3) to transform academic culture in order to increase retention and graduation rates of STEM students
(4) to reach out to recruit promising students, including underrepresented (UREP) minorities, women, persons with disabilities, the economically disadvantaged, and first generation college students
(5) to introduce students to innovative research through custom laboratories and train them on state-of-the art equipment
Goals of Outreach
(1) increase overall awareness of the WVNano Initiative and all of its components in order to foster avenues for collaboration with peers at other institutions both nationally and internationally and enhance research funding efforts
(2) increase diversity among WVNano faculty, students, post docs in STEM disciplines.
(3) increase the awareness of the importance of STEM education at the K-12 level to reinforce the WVNano EHRDO pipeline
(4) increase the awareness of WVNano summer undergraduate programs to create a larger pool of quality students for the programs, particularly minority students and underrepresented groups
(5) increase the awareness of graduate education in STEM areas in order to build the next generation of high tech work force infrastructure
(6) increase the awareness and usage of the WVNano Shared Facilities among those on campus and in the private sector
886 Chestnut Ridge Road
P.O. Box 6223
Morgantown, WV 26506-6223
