The aim of this simple, quick, and safe laboratory exercise is to provide undergraduate students an introduction to nanotechnology using nanoparticle (NP) synthesis. Students are provided two procedures that allow for the synthesis of different yet controlled sizes of silver NPs. After preparing the NPs, the students perform UV-visible spectroscopy and full-width-half-maximum (fwhm) analysis to determine the size of the NPs they have synthesized. In doing so, the students made nanoparticles of size ranges from 10-100 nm, thus spanning the range of nanotechnology. The experiments are designed to be accomplished in a single 90 min session and have been successfully conducted with over 1000 first-year-level students over a three-year period.