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

这笔拨款将用于升级休斯顿大学市区（UHD）现有的电感耦合等离子体光学发射光谱仪设备。该仪器将用于岩石、土壤和水的化学分析。超高清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学院和超高清学生提供研究经验，重点研究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专业的留校率和毕业率，从而缓解从社区学院到四年制大学的过渡。这个项目将培养出受过良好教育的毕业生，为进入地球科学领域做好准备。这笔拨款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光学发射光谱仪（ICP-OES）设施。ICP-OES将用于定量测定岩石、土壤和含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将成为超高清大学讲授的几门高级地质学和化学课程的重要教学工具。升级ICP-OES设施对于满足自然科学系地质教职员工和学生的研究和教学需求至关重要。这笔奖助金的额外资金将用于支持外展和/或扩大参与。这些资金将支持一个为期三年的项目，该项目将为学生，特别是那些第一次上大学的学生，从社区学院过渡到四年制大学提供桥梁机制。该项目将重点研究德克萨斯州西部Trans Pecos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。社区学院的学生将在现场和ICP-OES实验室接受UHD大三和大四学生以及PI的指导。这个项目的目标是：1)减轻学生从社区学院过渡到大学的一些常见困难（“转学冲击”），2)使社区学院的学生进入UHD新的地球科学学士学位课程，了解地球科学的研究生院和职业机会，3)为本科生提供使用最先进的分析仪器进行研究的高影响力教育经验。4)有助于我们了解西德克萨斯州跨佩科斯地区的岩浆和构造过程。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。

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.