I wanted to share with you the following article and video that were produced by WKTV:

WKTV: 14 Whitesboro High School seniors will enter college with a nanotechnology background By Gary Liberatore Jun. 5, 2015

Whitesboro, N.Y. - Buzz Putnam has taught physics in the Whitesboro school district for about four decades, but this year he has taught a class of 14 students something different.

His Intro to Nanotechnology class has been filled with everything from measuring the actual size of a human hair to the students using nanotechnology to build their own solar powered cell phone chargers, which is what they completed for their final project Friday morning.

Putnam says with Whitesboro High School less than a mile from where more than 1,000 nanotechnology jobs are expected to be announced in the coming months at the new QUAD-C Building on the campus of SUNY POLY, it was only logical to begin teaching nanotechnology, "Because this district, the Whitesboro District, is actually in NANO Utica, we actually encompass part of that, so the district said can we develop a nanotechnology course, and so we did.  I was elected to do such a thing and I was sent to Cornell Univesity and the University of Massachusetts to actually develop a course."

The course for seniors is completely hands-on, there are no tests, all you have to do is demonstrate what you've learned.

Senior Emilie Mull is the only female among the 14 students in class, "We have a couple more recruited females coming in next year so, we're going to try and build it."

Putnam says the interest has been so great for next year, a second class will be added.

Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente says he is glad to see nanotechnology being taught at the high school level, "The same way that we want to be known, as Albany is with nanotechnology within the CNSE umbrella that is here, now we want our schools to be the same way when families settle here and young people come to work here, they have kids, their kids are going to school here and learn nanotechnology, it all fits."

Picente says he has heard people are frustrated at not seeing any announcements as far as official jobs at QUAD-C, but he says those announcements are coming at some point this year, "Well I think you're going to see in this calendar year some major announcements that will solidify the investment and really let people see all is happening, and that it just take time as I've said all along.

Watch Video:

[video width="320" height="240" mp4="http://sunypoly.edu/apps/blogs/news/files/2015/06/WKTV_06-05-2015_Training-nano-workers-of-the-future.mp4"][/video]