Two dozen school teachers from low-income schools in Los Angeles have come to UCLA to learn how to invigorate their classes by teaching the new field of nanoscience -- the science of the tiniest particles that will lead to extraordinary advances in medicine and many other fields and will improve profoundly the quality of our lives.

"The teachers will learn a set of experiments to get their students excited and motivated about learning science," said Sarah Tolbert, a member of the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI), and a UCLA associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry, who is heading this nanoscience program, working closely with a group of CNSI graduate students and postdoctoral scholars. The nanoscience program is part of the summer offerings of the UCLA Science Project.

Science is on the brink of a revolution at the nanoscale, with breakthroughs occurring at the atomic level. Nanoscience is done at the scale of a nanometer - one billionth of a meter. The DNA molecule is two nanometers wide - roughly 1,000 times smaller than a blood cell or 10,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair.

"Size matters," Tolbert said. "Scientists working at the nanometer-length scale have the potential to change the properties of materials just by changing their dimensions. This makes work in the field exciting and makes the experiments fun and challenging for both scientists and students."

The high schools that will be represented at the UCLA sessions include Crenshaw, Fairfax, Carson, Franklin, Jordan and Verdugo Hills.

"Our goal is to improve science education for all students in Los Angeles," said Irene Swanson, director of the UCLA Science Project. "The program provides a collegial network for science educators from all levels to share expertise and new ideas. Additionally, the curriculum enables urban students and teachers to see the relevance of science concepts to their own lives."

The teacher professional development program is sponsored by the UCLA Science Project in UCLA's Graduate School of Education & Information Studies (GSE&IS), in conjunction with CNSI and UCLA's National Science Foundation-sponsored Materials Creation Training Program. The cost of building the nanoscience experiments is supported through a UCLA Community Partnership grant.

The nanoscience sessions took place in late July. The professional development program then continued with the teachers receiving education in "active physics" for the remainder of the program. The teachers will be designated as "UCLA Science Fellows," and will attend follow-up sessions during the school year.

A joint enterprise of UCLA and UC Santa Barbara, CNSI will explore the power and potential of manipulating structures atom-by-atom to engineer new materials, devices and systems that will dramatically change virtually every aspect of our technology.

"CNSI will help propel the future of California's economy with revolutionary advances in fields as diverse as health care and medical treatment, manufacturing, information technology, high technology, aerospace, environmental protection, communications, multimedia entertainment and household lighting," said CNSI director Fraser Stoddart, who is also UCLA's Saul Winstein Professor of Chemistry.

Possible nanosystems applications include smaller, faster and more efficient computers; medicines that target the molecular errors that cause disease while leaving healthy cells unharmed; lighter, stronger, more durable building materials that may make cars, buses, planes and other forms of transportation safer and more energy-efficient; a lamp that uses one-tenth as much energy as modern light bulbs and never burns out; and new products and materials created with a molecular-level precision that have characteristics well beyond what can be manufactured today.

One of 11 professional schools at UCLA, GSE&IS consists of two academic departments, the Department of Education and the Department of Information Studies. GSE&IS shares its findings with practicing educators and information professionals through classes, seminars and workshops offered at UCLA and in the community, and through reports, studies and articles featured in publications nationwide.