EDUCATION FROM
THE
ACS
MEETING
CREATIVITY BOOST High school and college teachers empower students to do consequential science projects SOPHIE L. WILKINSON, C&EN WASHINGTON
S
TUDENTS ARRIVING IN HIGH
school or college may be bubbling with enthusiasm about science, but they may not have the tools to channel their energy into meaningful scientific activities. And students arriving in grad school or industry may discover they haven't been prepared with the tools needed for a career in the "real world." But chemical educators are developing several techniques to impart skills to students earlier so they can get a faster start in their endeavors. The educators described their innovative programs in posters and talks in the Division of Chemical Education during the American Chemical Society national meeting held earlier this month in Newark City These science teachers have observed that students need more help to transition successfully from one stage of their career to the next. For instance, "there's a dis-
POLLUTANT PATROL Dowling College undergraduate Gary Falta, who mentors high school student researchers, collects a sample from the Patchogue River for testing. 34
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connect between the undergraduate curriculum and what students do once they graduate," according to Diane W. Husk, chairman and professor in the chemistry department at East Stroudsburg University, a primarily undergraduate institution in Pennsylvania. "We try to bridge the gap between undergraduate education and the real world." In doing so, Husk has designed a challenging curriculum that pushes students to grow. For instance, undergrads in her second-semester biochemistry course are taught to "read and pull apart and understand journal articles," she said. The students must explain and critique the research for their class members. They also have to identify 'Svhat the next questions are, what the authors have left to do next." Husk believes that "having students pull apart portions of a manuscript for analysis shows them not only how to write technically, but also how to identify research questions, to consider the logic of experimental design (that is, what procedures and what experiments will get at a particular question being asked), and to evaluate the quality of data and conclusions made by scientists." But Husk is concerned with more than the mechanics of dissecting a technical paper. "I use the journal articles to show connections between the concepts being taught in class and current research that is being done in thefield,"she explained. "This helps to make real-world connections for the students as they realize that they are not just learning some static informationfroma textbook or the professor." As a culminating experience in the course, students write a grant proposal in National Science Foundation format. Students tackle topics that match their interests. One undergrad, for example, has a sister with Crohn's disease, so she chose the disorder as the focus of her project. After conducting an extensive literature review,
the students propose a series of research objectives and experimental approaches. "Students also have to do a budget, so they have to look up the costs of reagents, instrumentation, graduate student stipends, etcetera," Husk said. "They gain a whole new appreciation of 'doing science' from that part of the assignment." The students present their proposals to a mock review panel of their peers. The panelists evaluate the proposals for significance of the research, the feasibility and appropriateness of the proposed experiments, clarity, and so forth. The experience, Husk said, is "hated by students initially and loved by them once they go out the door to grad school or industry. Graduates have told me that it helped them design their research proposal for graduate school or prepare project justifications and reports in industry" B.S. students enjoy the luxury of having four or five years of college to acquire such useful realworld skills. Chemical technician students, on the other hand, may have just two years to get their degree. Additionally, they usually come to college with little or no experience with analytical equipment, and they often have to juggle heavy course loads and work and family responsibilities, according to Pamela A. Brown, an associate chemistry professor at Newark City College of Technology "A lot of students arrive enthusiastic and want to get involved in the laboratory but don't have the necessary skills," she said. "By the time they have received the training to conduct research, it is time to graduate." Brown speeds her most motivated firstand second-semester chemistry students along the learning curve by having them design their own experiments. To get a student started, Brown suggests an idea for a lab exercise. The student then does background reading to come up with a procedure, tests it out, and writes it up. Brown asked one student to find out how to determine the calcium concentration in food using a calcium electrode. Another developed a microwave synthesis for banana oil. A third is designing a breathalyzer this semester. The best of the experiments that are designed by Brown's students are adopted for use in the college's general chemistry labs. Knowing that one's work could be useful to others may be one of the best motivators for doing research. But the utility is
"We try to bridge the gap between undergraduate education and the real world."
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not always apparent, and college students and even grad students may sometimes be at a loss to find the purpose in their toil. High school students are even less likely to find themselves doing useful scientific work. But Lori A. Zaikowski, associate professor and chairman of the chemistry department at Dowling College in Oakdale, N. Y, and Paul Iichtman, a science research teacher at nearby Uniondale High School have found away to turn the creative drive of a group of high school students into science that makes a difference.
MIT CHEMISTRY LABS GET UPDATED DIGS Exterior of building designed by celebrated architect is retained while interior gets an overhaul
labs received any natural light, despite the building's copious supply of windows. The $62 million overhaul—conceived by Boston-based architecturalfirmGoody, Clancy & Associates, with substantial inCURRENTLY, MORE THAN 40 students put from students and faculty—has at the high school are working on multiyear changed that. Lab space in the building is research projects. In this program, "stunow light and airy, thanks to lots of glass dents are not 'farmed out' to high-powered and light woodwork. The desk areas for research institutions, but rather develop students and postdocs, once small and adtheir projects from an original idea that injacent to the lab benches, are now more terests them," according to Zaikowski. The generous and facing the windows. Glass students are responsible for designing and windows separating the desk areas from implementing the experimental methodthe bench areas let students observe their ology, presenting their results in written experiments while working or eating at and oral form at science competitions, and their desks. From both the labs and the developing further studies. The students desks there are unbroken views to rely on the "Uniondale Research Manual," the outside and plenty of sunwhich Iichtman wrote, for guidance in the shine—at least when Boston's unscientific discovery process, research predictable weather allows. ethics, scientific integrity, and the preparation of their research papers. The labs are state ofthe art, with fully outfitted hoods and benchFirst, the studentsfigureout what projtop work space. The biochemical ect they want to do. Then they identify a labs feature walk-in cold rooms for mentor to whom they send a detailed reprotein purification and walk-in bisearch proposal with specific questions, ological safety cabinets for tissue such as, "I Ve seen a particular UV-Vis techculture. nique in the literature. Could this method be modified to do what I want to do?"The The renovation was completed students are given a budget for purchasing in phases, allowing experimental supplies. And they can use the lab instruwork in building 18 to continue ments and expertise of faculty and students throughout the renovation period. at Dowling College. Associate department head Rick L. Danheiser says the process reMany of the projects integrate chemminded him of something an enistry and biology, Zaikowski told C&EN. gineer with Boston's Big Dig once For instance, one student studied the physaid about the city's attempt to toremediation of arsenic and determined move a major crosstown highway that a fern could bioaccumulate the poison, underground: "It's like doing openremoving arsenic from the soil. In a folheart surgery on someone playing low-up project, another student studied NEWLY RENOVATED Undergraduate in a tennis match." the evolutionary relationship of that fern Andrew Danford works in an open, airy, and to others, and predicted which related well-equipped lab in MIT's building 18. Renovation of building 18 may ferns might be even better at arsenic upbe finished, but it's not the end of take. She found one that turned out to be expansion of the Louvre in Paris and the the improvements being made in the dehundreds of times more effective as an ar- Rock & Roll Hall of Fame & Museum in partment, Lippard tells C&EN. In 1995, senic accumulator, Zaikowski said. Cleveland, the building has been admired Lippard spearheaded a fund-raising camSeveral of the projects have involved in architectural circles for its clean, mod- paign to support renovation of all of the department's research labs. Custom-made, the South Shore Estuary on Long Island. ern lines. The students' research into water polThe building got its sleek lookfromthe climate-controlled labs designed for laser lution in the estuary enabled the village fact that the normally cluttered lab space experiments were built in 1999, and many of Patchogue to gain funding for water- was confined to the center of each floor, of the inorganic chemistry labs were refront revitalization and restoration. with only hallways and doors visible built in 2000. The department hopes to And what could be a better motivator through the building's large glass windows. have all of its research labs renovated by than that? • But this design also meant that none of the 2005, he says.—AMANDA YARNELL HTTP://WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG
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N SEPT. 5, MASSACHUSETTS IN-
stitute of Technology's chemistry department celebrated the completion of three years of renovations to itsflagshipbuilding with a star-studded symposium and laboratory tours. The overhaul of the Dreyfus Building is just the latest accomplishment in an ongoingpush to renovate all ofthe department's laboratories, according to department head Stephen J. Lippard. The Dreyfus Building—widely known as building 18 on a campus obsessed with numbers—was built in 1969. Designed by renowned architect and MIT graduate I. M. Pei, whose credits include the
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