Advanced Materials Science rano GmbH, AMS for short, is a company in Saarbrücken for the development, manufacture, production and marketing of scientific teaching materials, especially in future technologies such as nanotechnology.

The high quality of the equipment and design, and uniqueness of the products have made AMS a globally active commercial enterprise. Our programme comprises various experiment kits, which are intended to acquaint children, schoolchildren and students with the key technologies of the future in a targeted way.

Experiment kits encourage enthusiasm for science and are essential for education in natural sciences. Here AMS stands for innovation, future and quality.

We are starting to gradually expand and supplement our product portfolio, although the quality of what we do is immensely important. We would rather supply a few unique products that meet the extremely high requirements now put on scientific education.

The education, and thereby the quality, of the schoolchildren and students is decisive for their social progress within a society and for the development of the respective national economy. The classic sciences are part of every school system and thus so is their combination, nanotechnology.

AMS is the world’s only commercial manufacturer of an experiment kit for nanotechnology, the so-called NanoSchoolBox. The NanoSchoolBox, our current main product, contains 14 experiments and five demo objects, which are intended to communicate the content of nanotechnology in schools. The experiments provide a broad insight into chemical and physical nanotechnology.

The schoolchildren learn the application of the lotus effect, the manufacturing and importance of hydrophobic, scratch-resistant, flame-retardant or electrically conductive coatings. They get to know about the catalytic effect of nanoparticles, the Tyndall effect and the manufacturing of nanoscale gold colloids and their application. In a further chapter, ferromagnetic liquids are explained. The memory effect and the manufacturing of high-purity silicon wafers are clarified by demo objects.

All experiments are illustrated in a 66-page booklet, which is currently available in German, French, English, Russian, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese. Furthermore, the experiments, their background and their carrying out are documented in corresponding films, which can be called from our website www.ams-rano.com. In 2009, the very successful documentation was awarded the Saarland’s state prize for design.

Although the curricula do not focus exclusively on nanotechnology, the experiments in the NanoSchoolBox can be used in chemistry, physics and biology lessons, to enable the schoolchildren to understand the world in which we live.