MRI: Acquisition of an ICP-MS for novel undergraduate research and project-based student learning

MRI：购买 ICP-MS 用于新颖的本科研究和基于项目的学生学习

• 批准号: 1427470
• 负责人: Frank Black
• 金额: $ 24.53万
• 依托单位: Westminster College of Salt Lake City
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-09-01 至 2016-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1427470&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: MRI; Acquisition; ICP; MS; novel

This award funds the acquisition of geochemical instrumentation that will be used by faculty members across four departments (chemistry, biology, geology, environmental science) at Westminster College to substantially expand undergraduate opportunities to conduct novel research on topics that are currently beyond in-house instrumental capabilities. This research will be highly interdisciplinary, collaborative, integrate research with education, and involve the biogeochemical cycling of elements in natural systems, including the Great Salt Lake. The researchers will develop new curriculum and lab activities around the new instrument in multiple courses that will provide students with hands-on experience in the use of modern instruments and mass spectrometry. These unique labs will use real world applications to infuse education with the excitement of discovery and move students beyond simply following a list of protocols to measure metal concentrations, and will focus on interdisciplinary approaches and the development of critical thinking and problem solving skills. The instrumentation will improve the researchers' ability to use project-based learning for training in courses across multiple disciplines, create new opportunities for research collaborations and cooperation on interdisciplinary research with partners at other educational, public, and private institutions in the region that lack this instrumentation, provide one of the cornerstones and core facilities of a new geology department at Westminster, and support and expand outreach that promotes science and environmental education of K-12 students and actively links researchers with public outreach. Some of these effective and proven activities at Westminster are coordinated through the Great Salt Lake Institute, which facilitates collaborations between undergraduate researchers and faculty at Westminster with several K-12 schools and their teachers and students to conduct research projects that involve the Great Salt Lake. With these outreach activities, this instrumentation will support ongoing efforts to improve student retention in STEM disciplines, especially women and students from diverse backgrounds. Among others, the McNair Scholars program, a federally funded effort to increase the number of students from underrepresented groups who go on to graduate school and will increasingly recruit and target students in STEM disciplines. The new instrument will enrich their classroom experience by introducing more inquiry-based labs and incorporating research as a learning tool early in the curriculum. The instrumentation will also expand undergraduate research opportunities for these students outside the classroom to further integrate research into their education and training. Specifically, this award funds the acquisition of a quadrupole inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometer (ICP-MS) for simultaneously measuring concentrations of a wide range of trace metals and other elements at the parts per billion and parts per trillion levels typically required for environmental research. A hydride generator sample introduction system that couples directly to the ICP-MS will allow for the analysis of the elements Selenium, Arsenic, Tin, and Mercury in high salinity matrices, such as in the Great Salt Lake, which is the focus of research by multiple faculty and their students at Westminster.

该奖项资助了对威斯敏斯特学院四个部门（化学，生物学，地质学，环境科学）的教师使用的地球化学仪器的收购，以实质上扩大了本科生的机会，以进行有关目前超越内部仪器功能的新主题研究的新颖研究。这项研究将是高度跨学科的协作，将研究与教育融合，并涉及包括大盐湖在内的自然系统中元素的生物地球化学循环。 研究人员将在多个课程中围绕新工具开发新的课程和实验室活动，这将为学生提供现代仪器和质谱法的动手体验。 这些独特的实验室将利用现实世界的应用来注入教育，并引起发现的兴奋，并使学生不仅要遵循衡量金属浓度的协议列表，并专注于跨学科的方法以及批判性思维和解决问题技能的发展。该仪器将提高研究人员使用基于项目的学习在多个学科的课程中培训的能力，为研究合作创造新的机会，并与该地区其他教育，公共和私人机构的合作伙伴在跨学科研究方面的合作创造新的机会与公共宣传。 在威斯敏斯特，其中一些有效且经过验证的活动通过大盐湖研究所进行了协调，这有助于威斯敏斯特大学的本科研究人员和教职员工与几所K-12学校及其老师和学生进行涉及大盐湖的研究项目。 通过这些宣传活动，该工具将支持不断努力，以改善学生在STEM学科中的保留，尤其是来自不同背景的妇女和学生。 除其他外，麦克奈尔学者计划（McNair Scholars Program）是一项由联邦资助的努力，旨在增加代表性不足的团体的学生人数，这些群体继续上研究生院，并将越来越多地招募和针对STEM学科的学生。 新工具将通过引入更多基于询问的实验室并将研究作为课程初期的学习工具来丰富他们的课堂体验。 该仪器还将为这些学生在课堂之外扩大本科研究机会，以进一步将研究纳入他们的教育和培训。 具体而言，该奖项资助了四极杆耦合等离子体质量光谱仪（ICP-MS）的授予，以同时测量以每10亿美元的零件和其他零件的浓度，通常是环境研究所需的每十亿零件，每千亿美元的零件。 氢化物发电机样品简介系统将直接耦合到ICP-MS的系统将允许分析高盐度基质中的元素，砷，锡和汞的元素，例如在大盐湖中，这是多个教职员工及其学生在威斯敏斯特的研究的重点。