REU Site: Physics and Chemistry Research at The College of Wooster

在材料研究部的支持下，这个位于伍斯特学院物理系和化学系的REU网站让学生作为合作者参与材料科学、物理和化学方面的创新研究项目。每年夏天，8名学生将参加一个为期9周的项目，重点是研究，包括额外的专业发展和推广活动。作为一个专门从事本科生研究的机构的教员，REU的导师在将学生从犹豫不决的初学者转变为自信的科学家方面经验丰富。该项目特别针对初学学生和社区大学生，通过直接指导的研究经验，为他们未来的科学事业做好准备和激励。一个友好和协作的环境为在STEM社区中被边缘化的学生提供了一个茁壮成长的地方。该计划的研究领域范围为使用实验和计算方法探索材料科学，物理和化学跨学科主题的学生提供了一个智力家园。项目涉及从分子到星系等不同尺度的系统和现象。通过让学生参与这些项目和专业发展，该计划扩大了教育机会，培养了对STEM的专业兴趣，提高了美国劳动力的竞争力。伍斯特大学REU项目的广泛目标是在一个充满活力的研究社区中创造一种有利于高质量科学的氛围，在这里学生可以增加他们的信心和归属感。通过实验、计算和理论的平衡，REU网站在凝聚态物质、颗粒物质、软物质物理、光学、化学物理、模式形成、溶胶-凝胶和天体物理学等领域推进知识。研究颗粒物质的学生开发视频分析技术，以表征临界堆珠上的雪崩动力学，以研究普遍的标度定律。其他学生测量可膨胀的有机改性二氧化硅的热力学性质，这是一种“可膨胀玻璃”，在丙酮等有机液体中吸收其自身质量的许多倍，并在工业和环境修复中得到应用。利用詹姆斯·韦伯太空望远镜的最新图像，天体物理学研究人员研究了团块星系的演化。所有的研究项目都是这样设计的，即使是新手本科生也可以做出重大的科学贡献。他们通过研究、口头和海报展示以及全面的书面报告成为实践科学家。项目结束后，教师继续指导学生参与者一起准备会议演讲和同行评审的出版物。作为持续改进指导和学生培训的一部分，项目负责人还将制定一个框架，明确扩展学生的科学论证技能。这些用于发展和评估学生在科学论证中的批判性思维技能的工具，将对其他寻求为更广泛、更多样化的学生群体带来有效、高质量研究指导的项目有用。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过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，被认为值得支持。

NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARYSupported by the Division of Materials Research, this REU site in the Physics and Chemistry departments at The College of Wooster involves students as collaborators on innovative research projects in materials science, physics, and chemistry. Each summer, 8 students will participate in a 9-week program focused on research and including additional professional development and outreach activities. As faculty at an institution specializing in undergraduate research, the REU mentors are experienced in transforming students from tentative beginners into confident scientists. The program particularly targets beginning students and community college students and prepares and motivates them for future careers in science through a direct, mentored research experience. A welcoming and collaborative environment provides a place for students who have been marginalized in the STEM community to thrive. The program's range of research areas provides an intellectual home for students who use experimental and computational methods to explore interdisciplinary topics across materials science, physics, and chemistry. Projects address systems and phenomena across vastly different scales, ranging from molecules to galaxies. Through engaging students in these projects and professional development, the program results in broadening educational access, developing professional interest in STEM, and increasing the competitiveness of the American workforce.TECHNICAL SUMMARYThe broad goal of the College of Wooster REU program is to create an atmosphere conducive to high-quality science in a vibrant research community where students increase their confidence and sense of belonging. Through a balance of experiment, computation, and theory, the REU site advances knowledge in the fields of condensed matter, granular matter, soft matter physics, optics, chemical physics, pattern formation, sol-gels, and astrophysics. Research students in granular matter develop video analysis techniques to characterize the avalanche dynamics on a critical pile of beads to investigate universal scaling laws. Other students measure the thermodynamic properties of swellable organically modified silica, a "swellable glass" that absorbs many times its own mass in organic liquids like acetone and has applications in industrial and environmental remediation. Using recent images from the James Webb Space Telescope, astrophysics researchers investigate the evolution of clumpy galaxies. All research projects are designed so that even novice undergraduates can make significant scientific contributions. They become practicing scientists through research, oral and poster presentations, and comprehensive written reports. After the end of the program, faculty continue mentoring student participants to prepare conference presentations and peer-reviewed publications together. As part of continual improvement of mentoring and student training, the program leaders also will develop a framework to explicitly expand students' scientific argumentation skills. These tools for developing and assessing student critical thinking skills in scientific argumentation will be useful to other programs seeking to bring effective, high-quality research mentoring to a broader, more diverse student population.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.