MRI: Acquisition of an ICP-MS for novel undergraduate research and project-based student learning

Westminster University, Salt Lake City UT

Investigators

Abstract

This award funds the acquisition of geochemical instrumentation that will be used by faculty members across four departments (chemistry, biology, geology, environmental science) at Westminster College to substantially expand undergraduate opportunities to conduct novel research on topics that are currently beyond in-house instrumental capabilities. This research will be highly interdisciplinary, collaborative, integrate research with education, and involve the biogeochemical cycling of elements in natural systems, including the Great Salt Lake. The researchers will develop new curriculum and lab activities around the new instrument in multiple courses that will provide students with hands-on experience in the use of modern instruments and mass spectrometry. These unique labs will use real world applications to infuse education with the excitement of discovery and move students beyond simply following a list of protocols to measure metal concentrations, and will focus on interdisciplinary approaches and the development of critical thinking and problem solving skills. The instrumentation will improve the researchers' ability to use project-based learning for training in courses across multiple disciplines, create new opportunities for research collaborations and cooperation on interdisciplinary research with partners at other educational, public, and private institutions in the region that lack this instrumentation, provide one of the cornerstones and core facilities of a new geology department at Westminster, and support and expand outreach that promotes science and environmental education of K-12 students and actively links researchers with public outreach. Some of these effective and proven activities at Westminster are coordinated through the Great Salt Lake Institute, which facilitates collaborations between undergraduate researchers and faculty at Westminster with several K-12 schools and their teachers and students to conduct research projects that involve the Great Salt Lake. With these outreach activities, this instrumentation will support ongoing efforts to improve student retention in STEM disciplines, especially women and students from diverse backgrounds. Among others, the McNair Scholars program, a federally funded effort to increase the number of students from underrepresented groups who go on to graduate school and will increasingly recruit and target students in STEM disciplines. The new instrument will enrich their classroom experience by introducing more inquiry-based labs and incorporating research as a learning tool early in the curriculum. The instrumentation will also expand undergraduate research opportunities for these students outside the classroom to further integrate research into their education and training. Specifically, this award funds the acquisition of a quadrupole inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometer (ICP-MS) for simultaneously measuring concentrations of a wide range of trace metals and other elements at the parts per billion and parts per trillion levels typically required for environmental research. A hydride generator sample introduction system that couples directly to the ICP-MS will allow for the analysis of the elements Selenium, Arsenic, Tin, and Mercury in high salinity matrices, such as in the Great Salt Lake, which is the focus of research by multiple faculty and their students at Westminster.