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IS CYBERSPACE THE PLACE TO REACH OUT AND RECRUIT MORE UNDERREPRESENTED MINORITIES AND WOMEN INTO THE SCIENCES?
H as ity kell I ndian Nations Univers
Cheryl M. Harris
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n unlikely encounter encouraged Lisa Holland to build a classroom of science and cultural understanding out of bits and bytes from cyberspace. It began in the fall of 1998 with a headache and a researcher who had a cure. During a National Science Foundation (NSF) Regional Grants Conference in Lawrence, Kan., Holland, then a University of Kansas (KU) postdoc, had a throbbing headache. She sat at a table and wondered how she would make pleasantries with NSF officials. At the table also sat Charles Haines, a microbiologist. He said, “Hello” and asked Holland how she was. She told him she had a headache. “And then he pulled this thing out of his pocket, which was like a root or something, and he said, ‘If you chew on this, your headache will go away,’” recalls Holland. “In truth, I never chewed it, but I kind of wish I had.”
Holland had missed an opportunity to rid herself of pain. The sweetflag, or bitterroot, used by many Native American tribes throughout the Great Plains, Northern Lakes, and Southeast, is known as a medicinal agent for sore throats, respiratory infections, and headaches. The root contains antibacterial compounds, such as eugenol, isoeugenol, calamene, azulene, pinene, and other terpenes. Now an assistant professor at West Virginia University (WVU) in Morgantown, Holland has won a five-year, $495,000 Faculty Early Career Development Program award to examine nontraditional medicines with Haines’s help. She won the award when she was at Kent State University (KSU) in Ohio. The award is NSF’s most prestigious for new faculty members who develop creative career-development plans that integrate research and education. Holland, whose research inO C T O B E R 1 , 2 0 0 2 / A N A LY T I C A L C H E M I S T R Y
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chemistry . . . [was] distance volves bioanalytical separause of expensive equipment tions and sampling, will use or distance use of equipher grant to establish an ment that could be shared, interactive distance-learnbut never distance undering network that will ingraduate mentoring.” troduce the latest in CE Such findings—or lack to Haines’s classroom at thereof—could be missed Haskell Indian Nations opportunities for analytical University in Lawrence, chemistry and other related which enrolls, on average, fields. Some researchers say 950 Native American stuthe kind of distance learning dents representing 152 InHolland and Haines are impledigenous Nations from across menting could actually help rethe United States. cruit into the sciences not only In exchange, Haines, who more students overall but also underteaches a course on ethnobiology at represented minorities, women, and peoHaskell, will allow Holland access to an ple with disabilities by providing a more ethnobotanical library of natural Native Alyison Leigh friendly and accessible teaching atmosphere. IroniAmerican medicines. Details of the research are confidential. Holland’s goal will be to apply her research methodolo- cally, say experts, computer technology may actually provide a gy of high-throughput screening to target drugs from complex more balanced, “human” touch to mentoring students. samples. “She would be [at the] main lab . . . looking at the analytical end, and we could be working with the plants and ex- Building bridges tractions themselves at this end and preparing material for her,” The type of interaction that Holland and students at Haskell says Haines. will be engaging in appears to be rewarding in its own way, exThis month, Holland plans to fly out to Haskell and set up plains Thomas Wenzel of Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. the CE instrument for Haines to initiate the research in an al- “Those kinds of interactions, even though you’re not face to most 1000-mile interactive distance-learning curriculum in sep- face, seem to be . . . more personal interactions.” In addition, arations. But Haines, who is Native American, and Holland a student who interacts with Holland during the project may know there will be more than just science involved in their decide to enroll in WVU for graduate school, and thus the venture. It will also be an exploration into a new way of project itself becomes a recruiting tool for the university, mentoring and building teacher–student relationships. says Wenzel. Accompanying Haines to Haskell will be Alyison Leigh, Sadly, not all face-to-face interactions with faculty a WVU undergraduate studying biochemistry who parmembers turn out to be rewarding for students. Haines ticipated in the pilot project last year when she was also and Holland have unfortunately seen cases where proat KSU with Holland. She was on the receiving end of fessors were deliberately hard on minority and female learning CE through video conferencing, e-mail, and webstudents. Because of cultural and ethnic differences, pages. And she liked it. “Being an undergrad and having some Native American students feel “like they’re a rat in this opportunity has been really, really wonderful . . . and a cage” on predominantly white campuses, explains good for my preparation for graduate school,” she says. Haines. “At least with Lisa, it was very helpful as a female Leigh, who recently transferred to WVU, is excited about scientist to share her tradition [and science] in a nonthreatworking with Haines and his students on the project. Haines is ening way, in a nondominant way, and that’s key with these kids also enthusiastic. “It’s just wanting, at least for us here at . . . . If you’re going to try to control everything, then they’re Haskell, to open the door to look at some cultural elements of just going to back off and pause and probably go elsewhere.” science,” he says. “And that’s extremely important for . . . the Driving away underrepresented minorities and women from students here.” The project has also prompted Haines to fever- the sciences, where their numbers in academic tenured posiishly read through recent developments in CE. “There’re so tions are already uncomfortably small, is something NSF and many new applications being brought forward,” says Haines. universities don’t want. In a 2000 survey, Donna Nelson and “I’m chomping at the bit to get going,” he adds, laughing. four undergraduate students at the University of Oklahoma– Although collaborations through the Internet involving large Norman conducted a survey that hammered home the dearth research laboratories appear to be well known (1), hunting of underrepresented minorities on tenure-track chemistry facdown information about real-time interactive distance learning ulty positions. Out of 1637 tenured-track faculty at 50 chemin the physical sciences for undergraduates wasn’t easy at all for istry departments identified by NSF as having spent the most Holland. “When I started writing this [proposal],” says Hol- money on chemical research, 43 were identified as underrepreland, “I tried to do a background check about what has been sented minorities: 22 were Hispanic (1.3%); 18 were Africandone, and most of what I was able to turn up in the field of American (1.1%); and 3 were Native American (0.2%). 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which numbered 100 (6.1%), were not considered an underrepresented minority group in the study. A Chemical & Engineering News survey in 2000 revealed that only 10% of women on the faculties of the top 50 U.S. chemistry departments were in the tenure track (2). Nelson, who is also Native American, believes distance learning can be a tool to attract more underrepresented minorities into the sciences. “Networking is always more valuable to underrepresented groups,” said Nelson via e-mail. “It reduces isolation. Often, it is the only way to obtain significant mentoring, research discussion, and unbiased opinions.”
The pilot project
ware, hardware, and mentoring strategies were going to be successful for real-time distance research, and she wanted Leigh to gain confidence in her own research abilities. Leigh began the project by taking a brief Internet course on chemical separations. Later, in a storage-room-turned-laboratory, Leigh learned how to assemble and ground CE equipment. As the summer project progressed, Leigh also learned how to properly fill out lab notebooks, inject microliters of sample, and assemble the CE system on her own. Only once did Holland have to drive down to the Stark campus to help Leigh with a problem, which was a misunderstanding of how to properly fill vials with buffer solution. With the help of video conferencing software, high-speed Internet access, and e-mail, Leigh could look into the monitor and ask other graduate students or Holland for help on the spot. “Really, it was very easy,” recalls Leigh. “If I had a question, I just would be like, ‘Hello!’ And they’d perk up,” she says. “. . . I didn’t get lonely because there was someone [to talk to].”
Holland knew something too big to pass up was within the walls of Haskell. Haines’s knowledge of nontraditional medicines was an opportunity that Holland, an advocate for bringing more women and underrepresented minorities into the sciences, especially into analytical chemistry, could not ignore. She had initially asked Haines if any of the students were interested in doing research at a larger university. But Haines knew the Native Amer“Networking is always more valuable to underican culture and its strong sense of community and traditions. He understood that many represented groups. . . . Often, it is the only Haskell students would find it difficult, if not unfathomable, to leave family behind and travel way to obtain significant mentoring, research to an out-of-state campus. “You’ve got to understand the history here,” says Haines. “Many of these kids that are coming here today—not discussion, and unbiased opinions.” many, but I would say maybe 30%—come from relocated families. These are families that were —Donna Nelson forced from the reservation and relocated elsewhere back in the big [government-led] breakup of the 1950s.” Holland had to think of another plan, so she decided to bring Cyberspace schooling the WVU campus to Haines’s students through interactive dis- Truth be told, the Internet is ripe for scientific learning, and some tance learning. She was the right person for the job, says Haines, groups are taking advantage of that fact. adding that Holland’s genuine interest and outreach were just At Arizona State University (ASU) in Tempe, a band of six the ingredients needed to make a connection. Holland submit- scientists and engineers have constructed a website where visited a 15-page proposal, “A Novel Liquid Crystal System for tors can learn about materials at the nanoscale using scanning Capillary Electrophoresis”, to NSF in 2000 when she was on probe microscopy in real time. The goal of their NSF-funded the KSU faculty. She was awarded the grant on her first try and Interactive Nano-Visualization in Science and Engineering Edplans to submit the paper to the Journal of Chemical Education. ucation (IN-VSEE) project is to introduce high-level research In the summer of 2001, Holland’s pilot program used video equipment to middle- and high-school students, as well as colconferencing and Internet interaction between KSU’s main lege students, explain Vincent Pizziconi of ASU’s Department branch and its Stark campus in Canton about 28 miles away. At of Bioengineering and B. L. Ramakrishna of ASU’s Departthe Stark campus, Leigh completed separations of nonsteroidal ment of Plant Biology (3). anti-inflammatory drugs by micellar electrokinetic CE with HolIn the past six months, the site has attracted about 250,000 land’s lab at the main campus. Assisting Holland were undergrad- visitors. “Most people didn’t know what a scanning probe miuate students Sara Tomechko and Angela Bradford and graduate croscope was,” says Pizziconi. “The whole [purpose] is to get student Anne Oommen. the learner and the educator excited about the nanoworld.” Out of three students, Leigh was specifically picked—with They have also remotely linked the IN-VSEE facility to a rapid help from her professor Andrew Burns—because she had taken prototyping machine located in another campus building, adds only two semesters of freshman chemistry, had not done inde- Pizziconi. From image data obtained from the scanning probe pendent research before, and didn’t mind working for free. microscope, the machine can fabricate plastic representations from Those factors indicated to Holland that Leigh was serious the nanoworld, such as constructing a strand of DNA the size about the research. Holland’s goal was to determine if soft- of a finger. Ramakrishna calls IN-VSEE a “laboratory without O C T O B E R 1 , 2 0 0 2 / A N A LY T I C A L C H E M I S T R Y
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walls” and says that he and his colleagues Lessons learned realize its potential for recruiting students Advocates for interactive distance learning, into the sciences and engineering. especially those who see it as a tool to help “I could see how The Southern Regional Education Board recruit students who are minority, female, (SREB), a nonprofit, quasi-governmental oror disabled, know the topic can cause conpeople would say, ganization established in 1948, offers a distroversy. Does it actually build bridges, or tance-learning project with a broader scope: does it create wider distances between peo‘Well, it takes the the “Electronic Campus”, which was created ple? Leigh, who spent a summer working in 1998. Today, more than 325 institutions with this technology, says it definitely helps from 16 member states participate in it, offerbuild bridges. “I could see how people personal aspect out ing more than 8000 credit courses and 275 would say, ‘Well, it takes the personal aspect degrees for students, says Bruce Chaloux, out of research.’ But I think it’s easier to of research.’ But I Director of the Electronic Campus and the have one-on-one in front of a computer,” complementary policy vehicle, the Distance she says. And sitting in a classroom facing think it’s easier to Learning Policy Laboratory, at SREB. A the professor isn’t as personable as people few science degrees, mostly at the bachelor’s might think, adds Leigh. have one-on-one in or master’s level, are offered. The objective But having a one-on-one experience is of the Electronic Campus is to give students not the only thing desirable to students. Cula chance to obtain their degrees via the Infront of a computer.” ture is also a big part of whether a student ternet without traveling to a campus, which will be happy on campus, explains Wenzel, can be very helpful for those in rural or has seen how African-American stu—Alyison Leigh who urban communities or those who are disdents quickly network with each other on abled, adds Chaloux. the Bates College campus for academic and An initiative affecting several universities moral support. “There are institutions where and projects has greater ambitions in cyberspace. Internet2, a students don’t feel they’ll fit in,” he says. “And some students nonprofit consortium established in 1996, involves nearly 200 may not feel they’re ready to go to a large university where the universities and more than 80 companies. Among the goals of support may not be there for them.” Internet2 is the creation of an extensive, high-speed network Distance learning doesn’t necessarily have to be regarded as a for the national research community. At the same time, partic- tool to recruit minority students into large universities, adds ipating companies can test out their latest, cutting-edge tech- Haines. For example, he says, some Native American students nologies, says Internet2 President and CEO Douglas Van will choose to attend larger institutions and pursue careers, Houweling. whereas others will prefer to attend nearby, smaller institutions, Internet2 member universities pay $25,000 in dues, and main- get their degree, and return home to help their tribe. tenance fees for high-performance connections and other infraIn the end, though, the Internet and distance learning can structure can run at around $1 million a year, says Van Houwel- only go so far. “I don’t know that the network will ever replace ing. The universities’ campus networks are connected to the the on-campus undergraduate experience,” says Van Houweling. national Abilene network, which operates at 2.5 billion bits per “[That’s] sort of a special thing.” Holland says that, in most second compared with the typical home cable network that op- cases, it’s definitely better to do the research in person. But inerates at about 1 million bits per second. The system affects teractive distance learning poses a question that educators and universities in a stealthy fashion. Researchers and students often researchers, especially those in the sciences, must address: How don’t know that they’re using Internet2, says Houweling. do educators mentor students and sustain viable partnerships Various public and private universities are members, including via cyberspace? “Now, you have to think about establishing a KU, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, KSU, WVU, relationship over the Internet, showing the student things over and Harvard University. But not all institutions can afford or have the Internet, and conveying information appropriately,” says yet to be connected to Internet2. Small colleges and most histor- Holland. “That’s hard.” ically black colleges and universities, such as Bowie State UniverTo check out Holland’s website, log onto www.as.wvu.edu/ sity, Spelman College, and even Howard University, are not mem- ~lholland, and to get a glimpse of the IN-VSEE project at ASU, bers. Universities can sponsor other institutions to be connected log onto http://invsee.asu.edu. to the Internet2 network. Haskell Indian Nations University is working toward getting a connection with the help of NSF, Cheryl M. Harris is an associate editor of Analytical Chemistry. says Greg Wood, director of communications for Internet2. Although Internet2 could potentially expand, Van Houweling References fears that in these hard economic times, the federal govern- (1) Johnston, M. V.; et al. Anal. Chem. 2001, 73, 440 A–445 A. ment may not have the money or interest to invest in such a (2) Long, J. R. Chem. Eng. News 2000, 78, 56. system. He says countries such as Japan, Singapore, and The (3) Ong, E. W.; Razdan, A.; Garcia, A. A.; Pizziconi, V. B.; Ramakrishna, B. L.; Netherlands are already ahead in establishing similar networks. Glaunsinger, W. S. J. Chem. Educ. 2000, 77, 1114–1115. 538 A
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