Nanoscience Workshop for Teachers Program
The Nanoscience Workshop for Teachers program is open to all elementary, middle, and high school teachers from across the greater Los Angeles area. The CNSI at UCLA hosts nanoscience teacher training workshops once a month on Saturdays throughout the academic school year where teachers will receive six professional development hours while learning cutting-edge science concepts and performing hands-on experiments. Our workshops are pre-approved for LAUSD salary points!
Our team of dedicated faculty, graduate students, and post-doctoral scholars begin each workshop with an eye-catching and thought provoking anchoring phenomenon (or demo) to get students thinking and wondering about the science of what’s happening. Through hands-on, interdisciplinary nanoscience experiments, students will discover and develop their understanding of the scientific phenomenon. At the workshop, teachers will have a chance to discuss with their peers how to best implement this experiment in an age-appropriate, subject-specific manner and in alignment with Next Generation Science Standards and current curriculum. Teachers that attend workshops can request a free kit of experiment materials to use in their classroom. Teachers will walk away feeling confident in their ability to perform this experiment with their students and explain the cool science!
Steps to Register:
- Indicate your interest in attending workshops with the form below. We recommend signing up for all workshops so you hear first about registering.
- About one month before the workshop, you will be asked via email to register for that specific workshop and pre-order a kit of free experiment materials.
- About one week before the workshop, confirmed registrants will receive parking information.
2026-2027 Workshop Schedule:
- September 19, 2026 – Biopolymers
- October 24, 2026 – Elementary Measurement at the Nanoscale
- December 5, 2026 – Water Filtration
- January 23, 2027 – Structural Color with Bismuth Oxide
- February 20, 2027 – Nanoscale Control of Wetting + The Lotus Effect
- March 13, 2027 – Biotoxicity
- April 10, 2027 – Solar Cells
- May 1, 2027 – Color from Gold (Plasmonic Nanoparticles)
From this workshop, you will receive:
- Free parking
- Free continental breakfast
- Hands-on professional development experience
- Teacher Manual, Student Manual, Experiment Presentation
- An opportunity to interact with real scientists! (UCLA STEM undergraduate and graduate students)
- New connections with like-minded teachers from around Southern California
- Free lunch
- Insight on how to implement this experiment in your classroom (grade, subject, in alignment with Next Generation Science Standards and current curriculum)
- Certificate of workshop attendance, usable toward earning salary points (we’re pre-approved for LAUSD salary points!)
- A free kit of experiment materials to perform this in your classroom
For more information about this program, contact us at education@cnsi.ucla.edu.