Nanoscience and engineering are the wave of the future, and nanoscience education is key to developing the next generation of innovative developers. However many K-12 students have difficulty relating to science that they cannot directly observe.

Virtual reality based simulations are helpful for exploring these sorts of phenomena, however they must be firmly grounded back to a frame of reference with which students are familiar.

This paper presents a progression of learning which uses pixels on a computer screen as a unifying theme to lead students from physical models to microscopic exploration and finally to nanoscale exploration in a virtual world.