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

该奖项将资助威斯敏斯特学院四个系(化学、生物、地质、环境科学)的教职员工购买地球化学仪器，以大幅扩大本科生对目前超出内部仪器能力范围的课题进行新颖研究的机会。这项研究将是高度跨学科、协作的，将研究与教育相结合，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。研究人员将在多门课程中围绕新仪器开发新的课程和实验室活动，为学生提供使用现代仪器和质谱学的实践经验。这些独特的实验室将使用现实世界的应用程序向教育注入发现的兴奋，并使学生超越简单地遵循一系列协议来测量金属浓度，并将专注于跨学科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将基于项目的学习用于多学科课程培训的能力，为与该地区缺乏这种仪器的其他教育、公共和私人机构的合作伙伴在跨学科研究方面的研究协作和合作创造新的机会，为威斯敏斯特一个新的地质系提供基石和核心设施之一，并支持和扩大促进K-12学生科学和环境教育的外联，并积极将研究人员与公共外联联系起来。威斯敏斯特大学的一些有效和成熟的活动是通过大盐湖研究所进行协调的，该研究所促进了威斯敏斯特大学本科生研究人员和教职员工与几所K-12学校及其师生之间的合作，以开展涉及大盐湖的研究项目。通过这些外展活动，这一工具将支持正在进行的努力，以改善学生在STEM学科中的保留率，特别是妇女和来自不同背景的学生。其中包括麦克奈尔学者计划，这是一项由联邦政府资助的努力，旨在增加来自代表性不足群体的学生继续攻读研究生的人数，并将越来越多地招收和瞄准STEM学科的学生。新工具将通过引入更多以探究为基础的实验室，并在课程早期将研究作为一种学习工具来丰富他们的课堂体验。该仪器还将为这些学生扩大课堂外的本科生研究机会，进一步将研究融入他们的教育和培训。具体地说，该合同用于购买一台四极感应耦合等离子体质谱仪(ICP-MS)，用于同时测量环境研究通常所需的十亿分之几和万亿分之一级的多种痕量金属和其他元素的浓度。直接与电感耦合等离子体质谱联用的氢化物发生器样品导入系统将允许分析高盐度基质中的元素硒、砷、锡和汞，例如大盐湖中的元素，这是威斯敏斯特多名教职员工和他们的学生的研究重点。

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.