Argonne National Laboratory Argonne, Minois
I
- - - - - -- a -
An experiment in educational cooperation
Eleven students representing the ~ s s o ciated Colleges of the Midwest are now completing their "Argonne Semester," the ninth group to carry on research a t Argonne National Laboratory for academic credit at theh. home colleges. Five years ago, Dr. Blair Stewart, President of ACM, approached the Argonne Laboratory Director to discuss the possibilities of d+ vising a cooperative project, and found a willing listener. For 16 years Argonne has been providing space, supervision, and equipment for graduate students to work on thesis problems which required facilities not available a t their own universities. It was a logical extension of this plan that qualified undergraduates should he brought in. Under this plan, the ten ACM schools, Beloit, Carleton, Coe, Cornell, Grinnell, Knox, Lawrence, Monmouth. Riuon and St. Olaf. collectivelv s u ~ ~ al v professor of biology, a professor of chemisiry, *&l a professor of physics to Argonne for a lbmonth period, and 10 or more outstanding science students each semester. A committee composed of A2M faculty members and Argonne staff members selects the participants. Associated Colleges of the Midwest was organized, with financial assistance from the Ford Foundation, in the fall of 1958, and has been in active operation for six years. Its purpose is to contribute to the educational effectiveness and operating efficiency of its member colleges. The Argonne Semester is one of a number of its programs. Other regional groups with similar aims also exist. It is evident that many of the prohlems associated with the operation of small liberal arts colleges of high academic standards are being met by such a cooperative approach. At the close of an academic year, the three faculty members chosen to spend the next 15 months a t Argonne arrive to get started on research problems and to prepare for the arrival of the students in September. They remain until September of the following year, carrying on research, teaching courses, and acting as liaison agents. Ten students who are either second-semester juniors or first-semester seniors arrive in September and 10 more in February, for 20 weeks of combined study and research. Their research problems are such that no one of the colleges could supply the facilities which are needed. Argonne contributes the services of its staff and facilities to the program and in turn receives research assistants. I n addition, it pays the faculty members Based upon a paper given at the 141at Meeting of the ACS, Washington, D. C., March, 1962.
668
/
Journal o f Chemiml Mucafion
and students in accordance with its program for Research Associates and Student Aides. During the summer, the three faculty members receive full pay from the Laboratory, and during the academic year they receive half pay from the Laboratory and half pay from the colleges they represent. ACM in turn reimburses the colleges for these half-salary payments, making the full amounts available to the colleges for replacements on the college campuses. Students pay the regular tuition to their colleges and are paid by Argonne for the 20-hour week they work as laboratory assistants. They live together in the guest facilities on the Argonne site, paying the normal rents involved, and benefit from the group living. As they are thrown into intimate contact with one another and with graduate students doing thesis work a t Argonne, they have excellent opportunities for discussions and social contacts. All the students attend a semi-weekly seminar, a t which the speakers are usually Argonne staff members discussing their research problems. In addition, each student takes a t most two academic courses, taught by the visiting professors. Those students who are selected are advised to arrange their academic work so that no formal courses will be required for them during the Argonne semester, hut they still come up with subjects in which they desire lectures, and courses are arranged to suit the specific needs of the participants. During the past semester one biology, three physics, and four chemistry courses were given. For the combination of research, seminars, and courses, academic credit for 15 semester hours is given by the college concerned. This program stimulates all concerned. ACM faculty members have an opportunity to cooperate with Argonne staff members in research in their fields of interest. ACM students participate in research as part of an able group, developing their knowledge and abilities and broadening their understanding of how research is carried on. Both students and faculty make use of Argonne's superb scientific equipment and facilities, which could not possibly be duplicated by their colleges. The Laboratory staff members, in turn, take advantage of the opportunities to discuss their work with the visitors. A body of published papers is already building up containing contributions from the 93 .iCM students and 12 faculty members who have been a t Argonne during the eight semesters so far completed. No single college could possibly staff such a program. Ten colleges, all with high academic standing, with mutual respect and joint operation, make it feasible. It is expected that other regional groups of colleges will
undertake similar projects, either with Argonne or with other research establishments. Some comments on the first semester, a. pioneering venture, follow. From students:
Instead of reading ahout research and reading ahout science, I feel I did research and was involved in science. In the research environment, I learned for the first time to want to learn. We learned that science usually creeps ahead by tedious steps and that many frustrations usually precede discovery. In summary the students felt that they had leamed more in their Argonne Semester than in any comparable period in their education. They discovered that rmearchers are real human beings; they gained a good picture of the life they could expect to lead in science careers; and they experienced some of the excitement and challenge of that way of life. As a result of their laboratory experience their thoughts about careers crystallized. They felt more qualified and more interested in going on to graduate ,work. From professors:
Imagine a class of ten or fewer students who are highly motivated and eager to work. I t is a rare privilege to teach such a group. The philosophy of the scientific method has been demonstrated in the most direct manner. The discussions with investigators and the applic&ms of well-thoughtaut basic problems in the laboratory cannot be duplicated on campus in the regular college curriculum. I was skeptical a t first. I had the feeling that students should not miss junior and senior level courses in their major subject area. I came away impressed with the potentialities of the Argonne-ACM plan, not merely for the material facilities which
rue available for the student, but especially for what obviously is a maturing and stimulating intellectual atmosphere.
From Argonne scientists:
Initially, the idea of a student training program seemed an extremely poor one not only to me hut to many of my associates, since most undergraduates are ill-prepared to do research with the rather unspecialized training they have received. In addition more than one summertime employee has left the Laboratory having experienced little more than exposure to one routine technique and with only a passing introduction to the relationship of his job to the broader field of study. I am elad to sav that this last-semester has changed my initial opinion. his group has been exposed to the demands and the delights of research, as well as to the techniques. More important, perhaps, they have been exposed to the symbiotic requirement of continued education and learning for effective research. This latter exposure has come in part from the interdisciplinary seminar. First, we have been very pleased with the quality of the students. The fact that they are all very good comes as no surprise; we were confident that they would he. Second, we are equally pleased with the faculty members: they are able, devoted, and hard working, but this, too, is no surprise. What did come to us as a bit of a. surprise--a lagniappe, if you wish-is the feeling that each of the partieipanta has given us that he has become a devoted friend of Argonne. The sincerity of their friendship could not redly have been anticipated. Perhaps our higgest surprise came early in the history of the Program. Many of us here had feared that the colleges would he unwilling to permit students to center their attention on offcampus research activities for a semester without exacting from them a penalty in the form of lost academic credit. We are d l delighted to find that a broad view of the educational process prevailed and that a willingness to experiment survived. Clearly, in the ACM schools, at least, the faculties are unwilling to let rigid curricular requirements interfere with their students' education
...
. .. .
Volume 41, Number 12, December 1964
/
669
