SGER: Undergraduate Research Curriculum Development in Chemistry

Suny At Albany, Albany NY

Investigators

Abstract

The Division of Chemistry and the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation jointly fund this award to the State University of New York at Albany. The PI for this project is Rabi Musah. This project will develop research protocols, employing X-ray powder diffraction and X-ray fluorescence data from soil samples, to generate mineral profiles and soil signatures for entire geographic regions. The data will be manipulated using GIS software such as ARCView and ARCINFO. The data collected will supplement existing soil maps, and be valuable to soil scientists and professionals in other fields including agriculture, engineering, ecology and forensics. The research activities resulting from this project will be integrated into the academic year curriculum. It is expected that nearly 50% of the students served will be from underserved populations including minority and economically disadvantaged students and approximately 50% of the students will be female. The mentoring and retention program will be comprehensive, including the education of parents and families as well as high school students, teachers and guidance counselors. Middle and high school students will be engaged in seminars, field trips and career counseling.