Despite the economic recession, the Russian Federation continues investing
in nanoeducation. Unlike the Western countries, Russia provides the special
governmental program "Nanoeducation" and finances those activities
from the federal budget. The core point of the program is installation of special
tools in educational establishments of different kind and organization of special
training nanolaboratories.
The Federal Directed Program "Development of Nanotech Infrastructure
in The Russian Federation", initiated by the president Vladimir Putin,
was adopted in 2008 and will be active through 2010. The Nanoeducation is one
of the important parts of this program which is governed by the Ministry of
Education and Science of Russia.
According to the Program, the main activity in Nanoeducation for today is
to equip the central universities and other educational establishments with
training nanolaboratories. These are experimental classes fitted with special
microscopes and connected computers, where students can do trainings under the
auspices of professor or lead their scientific investigations.
Creation of nanolaboratories is the idea of the Minister of education and
science Andrey Fursenko. After visiting one of the nanoeducational exhibitions
and getting acquainted with simplified training nanocomplexes, he has come to
the decision to establish such equipment in Russian universities. This idea
had come to realization even before the educational standard in nanoscience
was developed and widely spread in the country.
In 2008, 35 higher schools in Russia were equipped with special nanoeducational
complexes. The universities, the first tried on the experiment, were chosen
according to their specialization and rating and were situated all over the
country.
Professors and students have already spoken the first favorable reports about
the program. "For the first time the students, even on the earlier stages
of education, received an opportunity to look at the nanoworld by their own
eyes and to imagine the real picture. I am sure that this positive fact will
make the educational process much more interesting and clear", - told
the professor of one of the main Russian universities. It's important
to mention, that the first student scientific works, done with the training
nanocomplexes, have already appeared in Russia. Some of them are going to be
presented as the PhD studies.
But it is not the end of the story. At the moment the nanoeducational complexes
are being installed in 48 Russian secondary schools. Primarily, these are the
schools specialized on Physics, situated in different parts of the Russian Federation.
At the end of the last year the equipment has already been delivered and now
most of the classes are ready to teaching.
It is worth mentioning, that down to date the Russian Government, equipping
the classrooms, has worked with the same contractor NT-MDT
Co. It is a global company, producing complex nanotech devices. For Russian
schools and universities the company provides special training tools "NANOEDUCATOR".
It is a scientific educational complex with a set of learning aids, accessories
for introducing students to nanotechnology and giving them a basic understanding
of how work with objects at nanoscale level. It's a student-oriented SPM developed
for work by even first-time microscope users.