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

休斯顿大学市中心分校用于地球科学研究的 ICP 发射光谱仪升级

• 批准号: 1848240
• 负责人: Kenneth Johnson
• 金额: $ 10.49万
• 依托单位: University of Houston - Downtown
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-03-01 至 2022-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1848240&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Upgrade; ICP; Optical; Emission; Spectrometer

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.

这笔赠款的资金将用于升级休斯顿大学市中心（UHD）现有的电感耦合等离子体发射光谱仪设施。 该仪器将用于岩石、土壤和水的化学分析。 UHD正在计划或正在进行的研究项目将使用该仪器获得的数据。 该项目的一个相关目标是为社区大学和UHD学生提供研究经验，重点是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，以提高地球科学的保留率和毕业率，从而缓解从社区学院到四年制大学的过渡。 该项目将培养受过良好教育的毕业生，准备进入地球科学工作队伍。 这笔赠款的资金将用于升级休斯顿大学自然科学系现有的电感耦合等离子体发射光谱仪（ICP-OES）设施。 ICP-OES将用于定量测定岩石，土壤和水样品中的主要和微量元素浓度，广泛用于教师和本科生的研究项目。 此外，ICP-OES将成为UHD教授的几门高级地质学和化学课程的重要教学工具。 ICP-OES设施的升级对于满足自然科学系地质教师和学生的研究和教学需求至关重要。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为期三年的项目，该项目将作为学生的桥梁机制，特别是那些第一次在大学的学生，从社区学院过渡到四年制大学。 该项目将侧重于检查得克萨斯州西部的Trans Pecos火山省的碱性火山岩，目的是更好地了解从与俯冲有关的挤压性构造环境向与裂谷有关的伸展性构造环境的过渡。 社区学院的学生将在现场和ICP-OES实验室由UHD初级和高级学生，沿着PI进行指导。 该项目的目标是：1）减轻学生从社区学院过渡到大学（“转学冲击”）时通常遇到的一些困难，2）使社区学院的学生被UHD的新学士学位录取。在地球科学学位课程意识到研究生院和地球科学的就业机会，3）为本科生提供了一个高影响力的教育经验，在使用国家的最先进的分析仪器进行研究，和4）该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为是值得支持的，使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估。