
NSF Org: |
DUE Division Of Undergraduate Education |
Recipient: |
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Initial Amendment Date: | February 4, 2013 |
Latest Amendment Date: | August 23, 2014 |
Award Number: | 1319670 |
Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
Program Manager: |
Dawn Rickey
drickey@nsf.gov (703)292-4674 DUE Division Of Undergraduate Education EDU Directorate for STEM Education |
Start Date: | August 1, 2012 |
End Date: | October 31, 2014 (Estimated) |
Total Intended Award Amount: | $27,468.00 |
Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $27,468.00 |
Funds Obligated to Date: |
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History of Investigator: |
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Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
615 W 131ST ST NEW YORK NY US 10027-7922 (212)854-6851 |
Sponsor Congressional District: |
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Primary Place of Performance: |
NY US 10027-6902 |
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): |
S-STEM-Schlr Sci Tech Eng&Math, CCLI-Type 1 (Exploratory) |
Primary Program Source: |
1300XXXXDB H-1B FUND, EDU, NSF |
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
Chemistry (12)
A new undergraduate course in solid state chemistry for senior-level chemistry and chemical physics majors is being developed. The rationale for the course is based on an argument that solid state chemistry and computational methods have been sidelined in the undergraduate curriculum in favor of qualitative approaches to understanding materials, but that there are forms of intuition that can only be developed through including quantitative thinking in the curriculum. The goals of the project include: 1) to develop a suite of solid state chemistry projects for small student-led research groups involving synthesis, structure, experimental characterization, and theoretical modeling; 2) to create a secure website for the course to provide access to instructional materials, computational and visualization software, and sensitive course materials for students; 3) to develop course documentation with theoretical background materials and instructional notes; 4) to create assessment instruments tailored to the course; 5) to implement the course and evaluate its success, and then incorporate feedback into a second offering of the course; and 6) to include internal and external peer reviews of the overall course, to contribute to the course's evaluation as well as dissemination. The project includes developing lab-based projects built around important questions in solid state chemistry and requiring the use of a differential scanning calorimeter and a thermogravimetric analyzer, as well as computer modeling programs: 1) a chemical storage materials project exploring practical ways to store hydrogen in a solid, 2) a project on materials for sequestration and separation technologies exploring how inclusion compounds can be used for this purpose, 3) a nanotechnology materials project exploring whether functionalized nanotubes can assemble into ordered, electrically conductive structures and whether porous arrays of nanotubes or other forms of carbon can store or separate gases, and 4) a project on microporous materials for separation and catalysis exploring what controls the efficacy of separation and catalytic activity in a zeolite. Evaluation consists of internal and external elements. The internal evaluation involves chemistry and physics faculty both internal and external to Hamilton College who are reviewing instructional materials and course evaluations and providing a "critical friends" approach to feedback. External evaluation is examining pre-, mid-, and post-assessments along with course materials, and is focusing on core fidelity, program improvement, promising and replicable practices, and sustainability. Results of the project are being disseminated via student and faculty presentations at American Chemical Society and other conferences and publication of the computational and laboratory experiments in peer-reviewed journals.
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 goal of this project was to create curricular materials for an inquiry-based solid-state chemistry course for undergraduate and teach the course. A web site and online database of crystal structures was also planned as a means of engaging the students online, making the course materials more accessible during the course, and making them available for future courses and other projects involving a broader audience across multiple institutions.
A total of 5 undergraduate students at Hamilton College and Columbia University participated in literature research and experimental projects in support ofcurriculum development during and after the grant period. Through their activities, they developed knowledge and expertise in various topics involving solid state materials and web site programming. A total of 10 students traveled to conduct materials research at other institutions, and 2 students attended scientific meetings to present their work, which was published in ACS Proceedings. One international also participated in the research. Currently, the PI is engaging several undergraduates in hands-on research in the growth of crystals, an expansion of the crystal-related projects undertaken during this project.
With prospects of the course reaching only small numbers of students in solid-state chemistry courses hindering its growth and assessment, use of the course materials was expanded beyond the originally-proposed projects into courses in physical chemistry and general chemistry at Hamilton College, two materials science courses at Columbia, and general chemistry, physical chemistry, and chemistry for non-majors courses currently taught at SUNY College at Old Westbury. Roughly 400 students have taken these courses. These course materials also inspired some of the experiments in a physical science laboratory manual recently co-authored by the PI and being used for the first time at an HBCU in Louisiana, and a laboatory manual for nursing students currently under development.
One particularly promising activity has been broad incorporation of course materials into chemistry courses for non-science majors at SUNY Old Westbury, taking general chemistry as a distribution requirement in science. The non-science majors have experienced significant demonstrative strengthening of their scientific literacy in ways that enable them to understand the materials they encounter in their daily lives as foods, pharmaceuticals, and personal care products, understand the importance and use of solid-state materials in technology, consider the impact of natural and man-made materials in the environment, and tdiscuss the national and global significance of the use of the world's natural resources.
The web-based instructional methods and materials currently in use in the PI's courses have evolved from the web site originally developed for the project in consultation with a professional web developer. The first web site received limited use for the course, however, subsequent web sites created by the PI based in part on the original design have become an enormous asset in a wide range of courses, materials chemistry for engineering majors, general chemistry and physical chemistry for chemistry and biochemistry majors, and general chemistry for non-science majors. To date, more than 10 web sites have been created based on the original site and used for courses; web statistics show thousands of visits to the sites overall. The PI also created a web site that was shared with students at a grade school in NY city during the International Year of Crystallography; the students went on to take second prize in a national crystal-growing contest. Sustainability of the web sites was an issue originally, when programming was written solely by contractors and research students, but it has been improved by the PI taking a more active role in the design, programming, and image production in addition to serving as editor of the sites. The PI's interest in this area has expanded into the production of videos, most notably, a series of videos on the crystallography and lattice vibrations of a material known as graphene.
An ongoing challenge in this project is the recovery of electronic data and manuscripts reference materials, data, and computer programs created and accumulated as the products of this project that were lost due to computer failure. These files, including 3 manuscripts for publication, 2 book chapters, 30 laboratory experiments and assignments, and over 200 crystal structure data files and images, were stored on one computer and one backup hard drive. Both drives were lost within several weeks and the materials were unrecoverable. Paper copies of most of the manuscripts, reports, student assignments, drafts and final version of instructional materials, notes on assessment, and screen captures of web-based file directories are available in storage and are facilitating the recovery. Some of these items are also recoverable from web site files stored on external servers of web site service providers. The process of recovering the materials and putting into place a more robust archival system remains in progress. Many of the curricular materials currently in use have been recreated during this ongoing recovery effort.
Last Modified: 10/09/2017
Modified by: Camille Y Jones
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