Upgrade of an ICP-Optical Emission Spectrometer for use in Undergraduate Research in Geosciences at the University of Houston-Downtown

这笔赠款的资金将用于升级休斯顿市中心大学(UHD)现有的电感耦合等离子体-光学发射光谱仪设施。该仪器将用于岩石、土壤和水的化学分析。UHD正在计划或目前正在进行研究项目，这些项目将使用通过该仪器获得的数据。该项目的一个相关目标是为社区学院和UHD学生提供研究经验，重点是来自德克萨斯州西部的火山岩。该项目的这一部分旨在通过提供有意义的指导来提高地球科学的留校率和毕业率，从而使从社区学院向四年制大学的过渡变得容易。该项目将培养出受过良好教育的毕业生，为进入地球科学大军做好准备。这笔赠款的资金将用于升级休斯敦市中心大学自然科学系现有的电感耦合等离子体-光学发射光谱仪(ICP-OES)设施。电感耦合等离子体发射光谱仪将用于在广泛的教职员工和本科生研究项目中定量测定岩石、土壤和水样中的主要元素和微量元素浓度。此外，在超高地质学教授的几门高级地质学和化学课程中，电感耦合等离子体-OES将是一个重要的教学工具。为了满足自然科学系地质学教职员工和学生的研究和教学需求，升级国际电感耦合等离子体-OES设备至关重要。这笔赠款的额外资金将用于支持外联和(或)扩大参与。这些资金将支持一个三年项目，该项目将为学生，特别是那些第一次进入大学的学生提供一个桥梁机制，使他们从社区学院过渡到四年制大学。该项目将重点研究德克萨斯州西部外佩科斯火山省的碱性火山岩，目的是更好地了解从挤压、俯冲相关的构造环境向伸展、裂谷相关的构造环境的转变。社区大学的学生将在实地和在ICP-OES实验室接受超高清初级和高级学生以及PI的指导。这个项目的目标是：1)缓解学生从社区学院过渡到大学通常经历的一些困难(“转学冲击”)，2)让被UHD新的地球科学学士学位项目录取的社区学院学生意识到地球科学的研究生和职业机会，3)为本科生提供使用最先进的分析工具进行研究的高影响力的教育体验，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Funds from this grant will be used to upgrade the existing inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometer facilities at the University of Houston-Downtown (UHD). The instrument will be used for chemical analysis of rock, soil and water. Research projects are planned or currently underway at UHD that will use data obtained with this instrument. A related goal of this project is to provide research experiences to community college and UHD students focused on volcanic rocks from west Texas. This portion of the project is intended to ease the transition from community college to a four-year university by providing meaningful mentorship to improve retention and graduation rates in the geosciences. This project will produce well-educated graduates ready to enter the geosciences workforce. Funds from this grant will be used to upgrade the existing inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometer (ICP-OES) facilities in the Department of Natural Sciences at the University of Houston-Downtown (UHD). The ICP-OES will be used for the quantitative determination of major and trace element concentrations in rock, soil, and aqueous samples in a wide array of faculty and undergraduate student research projects. In addition, the ICP-OES will be an important instructional tool in several upper level geology and chemistry courses taught at UHD. Upgrading the ICP-OES facilities is crucial for satisfying the research and instructional needs of geology faculty and students in the Department of Natural Sciences. Additional funding from this grant will be used to Support Outreach and/or Broadening Participation. These funds will support a three year project that will serve as a bridging mechanism for students, particularly those First Time in College students, making the transition from community college to a four year university. The project will focus on the examination of alkaline volcanic rocks in the Trans Pecos Volcanic Province of west Texas, with the goal of better understanding the transition from a compressional, subduction-related tectonic environment to an extensional, rift-related one. Community college students will be mentored in the field and in the ICP-OES laboratory by UHD junior- and senior-level students, along with the PI. The objectives of this project are to: 1) alleviate some of the difficulties commonly experienced by students making the transition from community college to university ("transfer shock"), 2) make community college students recruited into UHD's new B.S. in Geosciences degree program aware of graduate school and career opportunities in the Earth Sciences, 3) provide undergraduate students a high-impact educational experience in conducting research using state-of-the-art analytical instrumentation, and 4) contribute to our knowledge of magmatic and tectonic processes in the Trans Pecos region of west Texas.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.