Using atomic force microscopy in out-of-school settings: Two case studies investigating knowledge and understanding of high school students

Understanding nanoscience and how nanotechnology works has been challenging for high school students, especially if it is not one of the core concepts given in the national science curricula. Out-of-school activities can be adopted as a method for teaching fundamentals of nanotechnology. This paper presents two cases; from Germany and Turkey, where high school students attended one-day out-of school activities on understanding working principles of Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), including the related concepts such as size and scale, and intermolecular interactions. In the German case a teaching experiment group work activity included an educational AFM and introduced the students to this technique using different kinds of media such as teaching model. The out-of-school activity in Turkey was designed to include guided-inquiry activities where students predict individually, work in groups, conclude individually, discuss and conclude in groups. The results of the analysis showed that students understood the working principle of AFM easily, gained a deeper understanding in concepts of size and scale, but also had difficulties in matching the right scale dimensions of objects, especially on the sub-micro level.