Stanford University’s Center for Probing the Nanoscale runs a program for middle school science teachers where they, over a period of a week, participate in lectures and more (from the Center’s Summer Institute for Middle School Teachers webpage),

Daily sessions focus on content lectures and inquiry-based modules that explicitly address California’s 5-8th grade physical science content standards. Teachers will also receive a hands-on activity kit with many fun activities that bring nanoscience into the classroom.

• learn about nanoscience and nanotechnology in simple terms
• develop and receive hands-on activities targeting CA 5-8th grade science content standards
• interact with scientists at Stanford University
• tour research labs and see instruments in action
• receive a $850 stipend and professional development units ($550 after completion of SIMST, $300 after implementing a nano lesson in the classroom)

An Aug. 1, 2013 news item on Azonano provides a description of a “fun activity,”

After a lecture on nanofabrication, Maria Wang, associate director at Stanford’s Center for Probing the Nanoscale, handed out white paper, boxes of colored crayons, thick black crayons and pipette tips. …

Following Wang’s directions, the 13 teachers quickly got to work. Each filled a small square of paper with color, covered the color entirely with several layers of black crayon, then etched a design into the paper by pressing the pipette tip through the black layers to expose a colorful pattern – mimicking the plasma etching they had learned about in the lecture.

“These pipette tips are kind of high tech for this activity, but I think it’s neat to find any opportunity to introduce tools that we use in the lab to you,” Wang told the teachers, who were sitting at small tables in a classroom in the McCullough Building. “You can actually just use a paper clip as a low-cost solution in case you don’t have access to pipette tips.”

…

Michael Wilson, who teaches sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade science at Stewart Elementary School in Pinole, Calif., said crayon etching, which is taught in art classes at his school, offered the possibility of injecting a “little science” into an art lesson.

“Now we can say this is why that happens,” said Wilson.

The crayon etching exercise, a demonstration of “top-down fabrication,” was one of a dozen hands-on activities scheduled during the July 22-26 [2013] summer institute.

The July 31, 2013 Stanford Report article by Kathleen J. Sullivan, which originated the news item, explains this program’s raison d’être,

David Goldhaber-Gordon, director of the center [Center for Probing the Nanoscale], said most elementary school students are excited about science, but lose interest or confidence in their ability to do science during the middle school years.

“Middle school science teachers are hungry for both subject area knowledge and for reinvigorating their passion for science,” said Goldhaber-Gordon, a Stanford associate professor of physics. “We select teacher participants primarily from schools with students who are traditionally underrepresented in science. In this way, we hope to impact the lives and decisions of thousands of students each year. More than ever today, as our economy is driven by scientific and technological developments, we need a scientifically literate populace. Middle school is a key time to reach students.”

Interestingly (to me), the center is a joint Stanford University/IBM Corporation project.