
NSF Org: |
DUE Division Of Undergraduate Education |
Recipient: |
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Initial Amendment Date: | July 9, 2016 |
Latest Amendment Date: | July 9, 2016 |
Award Number: | 1611988 |
Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
Program Manager: |
Tom Higgins
DUE Division Of Undergraduate Education EDU Directorate for STEM Education |
Start Date: | July 15, 2016 |
End Date: | June 30, 2019 (Estimated) |
Total Intended Award Amount: | $279,297.00 |
Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $279,297.00 |
Funds Obligated to Date: |
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History of Investigator: |
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Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
261 FOREST DR STE 3000 STATESBORO GA US 30458-6724 (912)478-5465 |
Sponsor Congressional District: |
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Primary Place of Performance: |
11935 Abercorn Street Savannah GA US 31419-1997 |
Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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Parent UEI: |
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NSF Program(s): | IUSE |
Primary Program Source: |
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Program Reference Code(s): |
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Program Element Code(s): |
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Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.076 |
ABSTRACT
The Department of Chemistry at Armstrong Atlantic State University will develop "Polymer Chemistry: Crosslinking the Curriculum" (PC3). Natural and synthetic polymers are important materials found in almost all biological systems and durable products, and approximately half of all professional chemists work with polymers at some point in their career. This project will allow students to experience the interconnectedness of chemistry in the context of studying polymers. It will develop new polymer-themed materials for existing courses and laboratories, and develop new introductory and advanced polymer courses for chemistry majors. Together, these efforts will intertwine a polymer paradigm across multiple chemistry sub-disciplines and strengthen students' foundations in polymer chemistry. PC3 will promote faculty collaboration and facilitate team teaching by having multiple faculty members coordinate their instruction to address a complicated topic in a coherent manner. The project will offer a comprehensive curricular approach to meet the recently revised ACS Guidelines and Evaluation Procedures for Bachelor's Degree Programs.
PC3 will focus on two polymeric systems, polyaspartic acid and ring opening metathesis. In these contexts, students will be introduced to historically and industrially relevant polymer synthetic procedures, and will learn modern polymer characterization techniques using gel permeation chromatography, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and infrared spectroscopy. Incorporating problem based learning in the laboratory is expected to improve students' competency in understanding the primary chemistry literature, better prepare students for careers in local polymer-specialized chemical industries, and increase student interest in and engagement with chemistry. Working with a project evaluator, the investigators will study how integration of polymer chemistry across the curriculum increases student understanding of fundamental chemical principles, and how curriculum-wide teaching reforms influence non-cognitive student outcomes.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
The Polymer Chemistry: Cross-Linking the Curriculum (PC3) project was initiated to develop an exploratory curriculum at Georgia Southern University-Armstrong Campus to improve and reinforce students? knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) in the science of large molecules such as polymers, macromolecules, and nanomaterials. This project was motivated by the need to satisfy the new mandate for increased polymer instruction by the American Chemical Society (ACS) Guidelines and Evaluation Procedures for Bachelor?s Degree Programs.
We developed a curriculum that avoids isolating individual faculty members endeavoring to incorporate polymer instruction in their courses, but instead the courses were ?cross-linked? with interweaved polymer laboratory experiments and activities to show the interconnectivity of polymers science. Indeed, the chemistry of polymer chemistry rests on the concepts of traditional chemistry sub-disciplines such as Biological, Inorganic, Instrumental, Organic, and Physical Chemistries. The central idea was to have students prepare monomers (polymer building blocks) and/or polymers in one course and distribute those materials to other courses to conduct additional experiments. Importantly, the polymer experiments supplanted established experiments conducted with small molecules to maintain course learning objectives, just performed with a polymer. Two stand-alone special topic polymer courses were also developed to further immerse our students into the science of polymers. A diagram of the material flow is shown in the attached figure.
The epicenter of the project rested in Organic Chemistry because of the synthetic nature of the discipline. Here, students prepared a monomer in one experiment and an amino acid-derived natural polymer in another. Students characterized their materials using modern spectroscopic instruments and learned methods to calculate purity and reaction efficiency. The monomer was then transferred to Inorganic Chemistry to have students polymerize the monomer and monitor the reaction progress using modern spectroscopic tools. Both the natural and synthetic polymers were transferred to the Instrumental Analysis course to determine the polymers’ molecular mass using specialized instruments. The natural polymer was also transferred the Biochemistry course to have students break down the polymer using enzymes. Students used an array of methods to determine the extent of digestion. In all courses, the experiments were modified from literature procedures that often resulted in unexpected outcomes, which afforded faculty members opportunities to guide students into exploring of these observations. In fact, the inquiry-based laboratories have led to original research projects for chemistry majors completing capstone experiences.
While the overall design of the curriculum is by far the most impactful outcome of this project, there were also a number of additional important impacts, including:
- Faculty Development: A large cadre of faculty members was able to travel to regional meetings and workshops to gain instructional knowledge and skills in the pedagogy of polymer chemistry.
- Student engagements: A total of 706 student engagements in polymer concepts was accomplished. Included in these numbers, especially for chemistry and biochemistry majors, were repeated exposures.
- Capstone experiences: 16 students completed capstone projects in polymer chemistry research. All have either remained enrolled as Chemistry or Biochemistry majors or graduated with their degree. Half of those graduates have gone on to pursue post-graduate education.
- Professional Conferences: 16 presentations were given at local, regional, and national conferences, including three oral presentations and thirteen posters presentations. Two presentations were invited to specially recognized sessions, including the multidisciplinary SCIMIX function at the 2018 National ACS meeting.
- Publications: One article with two undergraduate coauthors has been published and four additional articles are in preparation.
These tangential impacts of this project will influence both the faculty and students in the near and extended future. Faculty members will be more aware of incorporating polymers into the curriculum, and Chemistry and Biochemistry majors will be better prepared for careers that utilize concepts in polymer chemistry. The latter is important because half of all chemists will work in polymer chemistry at some point in their careers. The graduates will also help fulfill the need for a well-qualified STEM pipeline to satisfy the employment needs for the United States now and years to come. Moreover, because our campus is highly diverse (67.8% female, 24.6% African American, 6.8% Hispanic and 32% first-generation), we are effectively educating a student body who will positively influence the underrepresented demographics gap observed in the STEM disciplines. These students will likely become agents of change in the future, propagating their success to inspire future generations of STEM scholars.
In closing, the ACS-mandate for increases polymer chemistry inclusion for certified degrees will affect chemistry departments nationwide. Our exploratory curriculum may serve as a model for other institutions to adopt by either incorporating experiments/activities developed in the project into their courses or implementation some elements of our curricular design with their own modifications. In either case, this curriculum design and its contents can help aid affected stakeholders to satisfy the ACS polymer inclusion mandate.
Last Modified: 10/25/2019
Modified by: Brandon P Quillian
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