High School-College Research Collaboration Ronald L. Musselman' Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, PA 17604 Elizabeth K. John2 McCaskey High School, Lancaster. PA 17604 Glenn W. Shaffer Hempfield High School, Landisville, PA 17538
Successful teaching includes not only good content hut also enthusiasm for the subject. Generating excitement for chemistry is a goal of every chemistry teacher or professor, hut sometimes the routine and workload overshadow the subject. Just as first-hand experience is an excellent way LO generate excitement for students, current research is a mod way for faculty to ohtilin new lirst-hand experiences and ra regain a sense of excitement and confidence in the teaching ( I ) . This paper describes a program of research cot laboration with high school teachers in our lahoratory a t Franklin and Marshall College and descrihes an academic alliance that emerged from these experiences. Research has lone been the method at the colleee and university level for maintaining alink between theclassroom and first-hand knowledae. The instructor's activity in research and periodic review of results through the publication process are an effective way to maintain currency in a research area and to lend authority to course presentations a s a whole. The students, in turn, respond favorably to an instructor who teaches with a sense of freshness and firsthand authority. Pedagogically, the same arguments in favor of research by college faculty may he applied to high school teachers. The main obstacles, however, are the heavy classroom, lunchroom, etc., responsibilities of the latter. Good teachers resolve to present solid and lively classes in spite of these problems and do motivate several students each year to continue in the sciences. The interested high school teacher, however, need not give u p the idea of an active research program. Several collaborative research Dromams between high school and college faculty have been iep&ted (2-41, and interest from a hiah school tearher could help initiate a new program in a locaicollege or university. For several years our lahoratory a t Franklin and Marshall College and earlier a t Principia College has provided a means for high school teachers to participate in an active research program throueh 5-10-week intensive summer oroerams and weeklv . research meetings throughout the academic year. The initial imoetus for our collaborative efforts came a t Principia college in Elsah, Illinois. The college is a unit of The Principia, which includes several pre-college units located 50 miles away in St. Louis, Missouri. Through a desire to maintain a sense of unity in the institution, a program to provide stipends to Upper School teachers for summer research in our lahoratory a t the college was encouraged and funded by The Principia. In addition, cooperative efforts such as reciprocal classroom visits were regularly carried out. At Franklin and Marshall College, meanwhile, efforts were underway to establish a similar program with the local
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' Auihor to whom correspondence should be addressed. Retired.
high schools. Upon the move of our lahoratory to Franklin and Marshall, it was the logical one to actually initiate the program here. The next sections outline our research program and some of the collaborative results. Program
BBckground The research in our laboratory has emphasized the polarized electronic spectroscopy of both models of binuclear oxygen transport proteins such as hemocyauin (copperbased) and hemerythrin (iron-based) and one-dimensional conductors with chains of metal atoms in sauare-planar arrangements. In both cases, interactions between metals are of interest and the prohe is the charre-transfer transitions in the complexes.~~olarized spectra require oriented molecules, obtainable through crystallization. Since chargetransfer transitions are usuilly symmetry-allowed, they are very intense (f between 1000 and 80,000 M-'em-') and will not pass through most single crystals of inorganic complexes. Specular (mirrorlike) reflectance is greatest when ahsorhance is most intense and is thus most suitable for such intense transitions. Our laboratory focuses on visible and ultraviolet polarized specular reflectance spectroscopy to assist in assigning transitions in these complexes. A variety of associated techniques is needed to carry out a complete investigation including synthesis, crystallization, X-ray diffraction, morphology determination, molecular graphics (ORTEP), and spectral interpretation including Gaussian analysis. Such a variety lends itself well to an undergraduate lahoratory. I t also is good for high school chemistry teachers who can choose from a number of projects to suit their experience and interests. The first steps in developing a working collaboration were to find interested hieh school teachers and obtain fundine for them. In spring 1986,12 letters were sent to several loc2 high schools inviting participants for a summer of research in our lahoratory. Three serious inquiries were received, and two (EKJ and GWS) were selected, representing the more senior of the local high school chemistry teachers. (Possible reasons for the lack of responses from more junior colleagues will he discussed later.) Funding was minimal hut entirely from internal F&M funds. The plan was for one teacher to nartici~atefor five weeks. due to earlier summer commitLents,-and the other for 10weeks. In addition, four college students would he narticioatine for the entire 10-week nrogram. The work was new to thehigh school teachers, sdthe summer was lareelv- a time of learuine new technioues along with some more familiar inorganic synthesis. The summer provided only a beginning to a valuable broadening experience, and a main concern was for the high school teachers to maintain their newly learned skills and concepts. Thus, during the following academic year regular weekly research meetings o f t h e lahoratory were scheduled Volume 66
Number 6
August 1989
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Specular Reflectance Research Group Summer 1987 Organizational Chart Principal investigator Research Associates Hackman Fellows
Research Assistants
Instruments Supporting Grants Figure 1. hganizational m f
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NIH
PRF
o r summer 1987. See text for discussion.
so the teachers could attend and maintain contact throughout the year. The following summer, 1987,the high school teacher staffing was thesame as the previous year with the exception that both participated for a full 10 weeks. The teachers were experienced in the lah procedures and theory, having kept familiar with them through the weekly academic year research meetings. In the following description, we will discuss primarily the summer 1987 program. Organization and Function Our research -m o w . in summer 1987 consisted of 13 individuals including the two high school teachers,a recent graduate, four undergraduates. n high school graduate, four high school students, and the principal investigator. Such a large group requires thoughtful organization. Since the two high school teachers were fairlv familiar with the lahoratorv ooerations, each of them tookaalf of our participants under their supervision. With support from the two most senior college students the plan was for them t o supervise and participate in the projects of one of our grants, a National Institutes of Health Academic Research Enhancement Award (NIH AREA), or the other, an American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund grant (ACS-PRF). The organizational plan is illustrated in Figure 1, wherein "Research Associates" refers to the high school teachers, "Hackman Fellows" are the college students supported with stipends from the Hackman Summer Research Fund a t Franklin and Marshall College, and "Research Assistants" are the high school students. The daily routine during the summer began with a meetine of all ~ a r t i c i ~ a nat ts 8 a.m. a t which each oarticinant reciewed
