KS EPSCoR sponsors KU Natural History Museum's physics programs presented to KU TRIO Talent middle school stduents

Trio students conducting physics experiments at the KU Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum

    This summer Kansas NSF EPSCoR provided participation support for two of the University of Kansas (KU) TRIO Talent Search summer programs, Career Horizons and Discover Technology.  The middle school students involved in these summer programs engaged in hands-on physics activities at the KU Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum. Career Horizons is a program for rising 7th graders and Discover Technology is a program for rising 8th graders. The Career Horizons' learning experience focuses on exploring careers in STEM, attending college, and personal recreational/health and wellness as well as creates opportunities for students to increase a positive peer network. The Discover Technology opportunity is designed to enhance students’ excitement about the world of science and technology, increase career planning abilities, strengthen a positive peer network, and help students explore a global community.
       Kansas EPSCoR had previously partnered with Dr. Teresa Macdonald, Associate Director, Public Programs for the KU Biodiversity Institute & Natural History Museum, this past spring to provide funding support for Kansas middle school students attending her physics hands-on activity programs. To continue that partnership Kansas NSF EPSCoR extended its support to cover these two KU TRIO summer camps' participation in the following physics programs. For the Career Horizons group, they selected the Cartoon Guide to Energy program and for the Discover Technology students, they selected the Quarks: Ups, Downs and the Universe program.  Dr. Macdonald taught both programs.
    Dr. Macdonald said the partnership with the KU TRIO programs began in 2016 when Rebecca Dukstein, Director of KU TRIO Talent Search, was referred to Dr. Macdonald, by Dr. Alice Bean of the KU Physics and Astronomy Department. When Ms. Dukstein contacted Dr. Macdonald they discussed the possibility of creating physics-themed activities that could become part of these two TRIO summer programs.  Ms. Dukstein commented, “We wanted our students to have the opportunity to learn about physics in a fun, interactive way, with hands-on science demonstrations and experiments.”
    As for what the students thought about these learning experiences, on their end of the day evaluations Ms. Dukstein said the students wrote “they loved the activities.... They also commented that it was one of the best activities of the day and they sited different things they learned during the science session at the museum.”  Dr. Macdonald also heard from the students informally, and they told her “they really liked the program, had fun, and learned new things.”  Both Ms. Dukstein expressed her appreciation to Kansas NSF EPSCoR by saying “If it wasn’t for this 'Scholarship Fund', we would not have been able to bring our students to the museum and enhance the opportunity to learn about physics.” Dr. Macdonald echoed her gratitude by commenting, “We appreciate the funding provided by Kansas NSF EPSCoR ... that helped us offer engaging science learning experiences to underrepresented audiences.”

The KU TRIO Talent Search is a free college access program sponsored by the University of Kansas and funded through the U.S. Department of Education. The goals of the KU TRIO Talent Search are to encourage 7th and 8th grade students attending public schools in Kansas City and Wyandotte County to remain in school, pursue post-secondary education, and eventually earn a certificate, associate’s degree, or bachelor’s degree. 

Education and outreach funding for the physics teacher workshop was provided by the Kansas and Nebraska NSF EPSCoR Track 2 Grant #1430519 titled: "Imaging and Controlling Ultrafast Dynamics of Atoms, Molecules, and Nanostructures."  The grant's educational objectives are designed to enhance STEM education in Kansas by supporting activities that will lead to an expanded STEM workforce or prepare a new generation for STEM careers in the areas of atomic/molecular/optical science.

Kansas Elementary Teachers Learn About The Nature of Matter With The Support of Kansas NSF EPSCoR

  As a further extension of outreach to Kansas Science teachers, the Track 2 Grant #1430519 titled: Imaging and Controlling Ultrafast Dynamics of Atoms, Molecules, and Nanostructures sponsored the Operation Primary Physical Science (OPPS) Workshop at Fort Hays State University.  The workshop was held July 17 – 18, 2017. Twenty four elementary school teachers, mostly from the rural communities across the state, were invited to participate in this two day workshop to study how to teach the Nature of Matter and aligned it with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).
   Dr. Paul Adams, Dean of the College of Education, Anshultz Professor of Education, and Professor of Physics at Fort Hays State University (FHSU), has been involved with the highly successful Track 2 Kansas EPSCoR High School Physics and Chemistry Teachers’ workshop, Modeling the Unseen in the Physical Sciences, for the last 3 years. As a result of the Kansas adoption of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) in June of 2013, a new vision was created for teaching and learning K -12 Science.  The relatively new NGSS structure involves transforming traditional science teaching approaches by shifting the focus from the memorization of facts to greater student engagement in the processes of science. Using the NGSS Disciplinary Core Ideas, the Science and Engineering Practices and the Crosscutting Concepts, (known as three dimensional teaching) teachers are now expected to guide students to understand the big ideas of science, conduct investigations and develop models; and bridge concepts across disciplinary boundaries. Because many elementary teachers are not as well prepared to lead students in content-rich, inquiry-based quality instruction, Dr. Adams developed this workshop to meet their need.  He also wanted to provide an aligned connection between the NGSS elementary physics curriculum and the NGSS high school curriculum.  Specifically, the OPPS workshop addressed enhancing the elementary school teachers’ content knowledge related the particle nature of matter as well as experience and develop a three dimensional learning pedagogical approach.

Earl Leglieter leading a modeling lesson

   Earl Leglieter conducted a session on Modeling Strategies, similar to the one he presented at the 2017 Kansas EPSCoR Modeling the Unseen in the Physical Sciences high school workshop in June, but with a specific goal to build a particle model of matter, a first step to understanding chemistry and physics. Adams presented the NGSS three dimensional teaching strategies using National Science Teacher Association materials, and later facilitated teachers’ processing discussions.

  Teachers were given a pre/posttest which showed a significant gain in content knowledge [(P<2e-10) from a mean of 38 to 71].  In addition, the teachers said they enjoyed learning more about structuring lessons to involve modeling and inquiry; having students work in small groups to develop skills of cooperation and learning from others; how to help children learn by discovery through the use of open questions; and how to give students time to experiment and investigate in order for them to come up with ideas on their own.  Furthermore, the teachers really appreciated this opportunity to learn more about NGSS, modeling strategies and teaching physics.
   One Teachers commented “It was good to see actual physics lessons that could be adapted to my level,” and another recognized the need to lead students to figure out solutions on their own. Overall, the teachers were happy to have new curriculum, new experiments, and a different way to teach the states of matter.

Education and outreach funding for the physics teacher workshop was provided by the Kansas and Nebraska NSF EPSCoR Track 2 Grant #1430519 titled: "Imaging and Controlling Ultrafast Dynamics of Atoms, Molecules, and Nanostructures."  The grant's educational objectives are designed to enhance STEM education in Kansas by supporting activities that will lead to an expanded STEM workforce or prepare a new generation for STEM careers in the areas of atomic/molecular/optical science.

KS NSF EPSCoR extends AMO Outreach to Middle School Students attending ESU's Summer Scholars Program

  This summer, Emporia State University’s (ESU) Summer Scholars Program visited the James R. Macdonald Atomic, Molecular and Optical (AMO) Physics Laboratory at Kansas State University (KSU), as part of an outreach extension effort funded by the Kansas NSF EPSCoR Track 2 Grant Imaging and Controlling Ultrafast Dynamics of Atoms, Molecules, and Nanostructures. The ESU Summer Scholars Program invites area middle school students to a 3-day STEM Program designed to provide hands-on activities and learning experiences to motivate students to pursue math and science careers.

Students touring one of the many laser labs
housed in the J.R. Macdonald Laboratory

 The program also takes students on field-trips where they can see STEM research and careers in action. Dr. Marvin Harrell and Dr. Betsy Yanik, from the ESU Department of Mathematics and Economics have headed up the program for the past 5 years, with the help of Dr. Jorge Ballester, ESU Department of Physical Sciences.
   This year, ten summer scholars studied exponential growth using a bucket and water and exponential decay using M&Ms. They also looked at sun spots, watched a 3-D printer work, tested the laws of motion and “why it’s important to not get caught up in experimental bias when conducting experiments.”
   Because of Dr. Yanik’s collaboration with Dr. Carlos Trajellos, former Associate Professor of Physics at KSU, who actively participated in the Si Se Puede Hacer Matematicas y Ciencias (Yes, I can do mathematics and science) program that Dr. Yanik sponsors in the Fall, she decided it would be interesting to take the Summer Scholars on a field-trip to the AMO J.R. Macdonald Lab. Dr. Yanik described experience saying, “While there the kids spoke with faculty and college students about their research involving lasers, fiber optics and high-speed photography.”  Students also visited some of the KSU engineering labs. According to Yanik, the students enjoyed the field-trip and the whole experience very much.

Education and outreach funding for the physics teacher workshop was provided by the Kansas and Nebraska NSF EPSCoR Track 2 Grant #1430519 titled: "Imaging and Controlling Ultrafast Dynamics of Atoms, Molecules, and Nanostructures."  The grant's educational objectives are designed to enhance STEM education in Kansas by supporting activities that will lead to an expanded STEM workforce or prepare a new generation for STEM careers in the areas of atomic/molecular/optical science.

Two Kansas EPSCoR Phase VI: Nanotechnology for Renewable Energy Researchers Receive NSF Award

  Kansas State University faculty members, Keith Hohn, the William H. Honstead Professor in Chemical Engineering, and Daniel Higgins, Professor and Department Head of Chemistry, who both worked on the Kansas EPSCoR Phase VI Nanotechnology for Renewable Energy initiative, have been awarded a National Science Foundation Chemical Catalysis Program grant of $450,000 over the next three years. Their proposed research, titled: SusChEM: Single Molecule Studies of Aldol Condensation on Heterogeneous Catalysts, will study the biomass-derived compound catalyst reactions of aldol condensation to better understand its catalyst properties. Converting biomass–derived compounds to renewable energy differs from the typical biomass extraction from hydrocarbon fuels, because, biomass–derived compounds are smaller and often require a catalytic reaction to build larger molecules. Hohn and Higgins will be observing light-emitting reactions occurring on various catalysts films at different locations and with different properties. By seeing which film produces the brightest light, they will be able to determine the type of catalytic sites are most active.  According to Hohn "… it will make clearer the importance of acid strength, base strength and proximity of acid and base sites on aldol condensation activity."

Information for this blog post was taken from the August 24, 2017 K-State News web story titled National Science Foundation grant funds closer look at catalytic processes written by Mary Rankin, 785-532-6715, mrankin@k-state.edu

The EPSCoR Partnership Between Kansas State University, The University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Arkansas State University Receives NSF EPSCoR RII Track-2 Award To Help Understand Connections Between Genes and Organisms

   National Science Foundation has made eight Research Infrastructure Improvement (RII) Track-2 awards. The intention of the RII Track 2 award as well as its investment strategy is to build national research strength through research collaborations across two or more EPSCoR jurisdictions. These awards establish regional partnerships with government, higher education and industry contributing to lasting improvements in EPSCoR states' research capacity and infrastructure.
   The 2017 RII Track 2 research awards focus on the genotype-to-phenotype relationship. Awarded projects will enhance the understanding of this relationship and its impact on improved food crop yields, human disease and risk predictions, and new drug therapies.

Picture borrowed from the
The NSF document:
10 Big Ideas for Future NSF Investments
https://goo.gl/taCyYo

   Kansas State University has partnered with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Arkansas State University to investigate the foundational knowledge necessary to improve rice and wheat crops yields in stressful environments. Through a multidisciplinary approach the project will explore how to improve crop resilience to high night time temperatures and make discoveries that can be translated into genetic and phenotypic markers for public and private breeding programs.

   

   For more information on this project go to: RII Track-2 FEC: Comparative Genomics and Phenomics Approach to Discover Genes Underlying Heat Stress Resilience in Cereals

The grant's educational objectives are designed to enhance STEM education in Kansas by supporting activities that will lead to an expanded STEM workforce or prepare a new generation for STEM careers. 

Kansas EPSCoR Researchers and Teachers work together to make AMO Physics Curricular Connections

  Kansas State University (KSU) hosted the 2017 Kansas NSF EPSCoR Teacher Workshop, Modeling the Unseen in the Physical Sciences on June 15-16. Twenty seven high school and middle school physics, chemistry and physical science teachers from across Kansas attended the two day workshop. This physics, chemistry and physical science teacher professional development experience was one of the Kansas and Nebraska EPSCoR Track 2 Collaborative Research: Imaging and Controlling Ultrafast Dynamics of Atoms, Molecules and Nanostructures education and outreach initiatives. The goal of this year's workshop was to provide teachers with opportunities to learn modeling and 3 dimensional teaching strategies, understand and incorporate the Kansas Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) into their lesson planning, and interact with some of the Kansas EPSCoR Atomic, Molecular and Optical (AMO) Physics scientists.

Dr. Chris Elles, Dr. Kevin Carnes, Dr. Lizette Burks, Earl Legleiter

   The workshop began with a brief welcome and an explanation of how lasers work from University of Kansas (KU) Associate Professor Chris Elles. The welcome was followed by tours of the James R. Macdonald AMO Physics Laboratory led by KSU Research Professor of Physics & Associate Director of Operations Dr. Kevin Carnes, and KSU Research Assistant Professor of Physics Dr. Charles W. Fehrenbach. Carnes and Fehrenbach discussed the history of the equipment used in the laboratory as well as how the grant was using lasers to conduct the EPSCoR AMO experiments.
   Next, teachers worked with Dr. Lizette Burks, Kansas State Department of Education, Science Consultant who showed them how to use the NGSS to alter their teaching approach from having students learning about a phenomena to a more student directed figuring out a phenomena approach. During the afternoon session, Earl Legleiter, Science Consultant, demonstrated modeling strategies and provided a hands on lesson illustrating how to encourage students to create models and figure out phenomena. At the end of the day, Dr. Paul Adams, Dean of the College of Education, Anshultz Professor of Education, and Professor of Physics at Fort Hays State University (FHSU), guided participants in a discussion to process the days activities and prepare for the following day's round table session with the researchers.

Dr. A. T.Le, Dr. Bret Flanders, Dr. Vinod Kumarappan,
Dr. Chris Elles, Dr. Kevin Carnes

   The morning of day two opened with small group meetings with grant researchers Dr. Kevin Carnes (KSU), Dr. Chris Elles (KU), Dr. Bret Flanders (KSU), Dr. A. T. Le (KSU) and Dr. Vinod Kumarappan (KSU).  Each researcher provided a brief explanation of their role in the grant, the experiments they were conducting, and how they used models in their work. Teachers spent the morning visiting with each researcher, asking questions and brainstorming curricular connections to the research. During the afternoon session, Amy Hammett, 2016 workshop participant and high school science teacher at Maize High School in Maize, KS, led a discussion on how to use models in AMO lesson planning and how to make connections between the research, the NGSS, and real world phenomena. The remainder of the afternoon was dedicated to teachers creating AMO lessons that will be shared with teachers across the state through the Kansas NSF EPSCoR Google Classroom platform.

Dr. Paul Adams, Amy Hammett,
and teachers writing AMO lessons

  As for the teachers' impressions of the two day event, one teacher commented, I discovered “World class opportunities are available in our students' back yard and much of what happens at the highest level of science relies a great deal on the foundations of science we teach.” And, as a result of attending the workshop, another teacher added, I now "feel empowered to bring this material into my classroom.”

Education and outreach funding for the physics teacher workshop was provided by the Kansas and Nebraska NSF EPSCoR Track 2 Grant #1430519 titled: "Imaging and Controlling Ultrafast Dynamics of Atoms, Molecules, and Nanostructures."  The grant's educational objectives are designed to enhance STEM education in Kansas by supporting activities that will lead to an expanded STEM workforce or prepare a new generation for STEM careers in the areas of atomic/molecular/optical science.

Kansas State EPSCoR physicist uses X-ray lasers to create molecular black hole

Artistic rendering of "molecular black hole"
courtesy of DESY/Science Communication Lab.

    Kansas NSF EPSCoR Track II physicist, Artem Rudenko, and his colleague, Daniel Rolles, both assistant professors of physics at Kansas State University (KSU), have successfully used short pulses of ultra-intense high-energy X-rays to create detailed images illustrating X-Ray interactions with and break ups of molecules.  Rudenko is a research team member on the current Track 2 NSF EPSCoR grant titled, Imaging and Controlling Ultrafast Dynamics of Atoms, Molecules and Nanostructures. 
    This discovery involved shooting iodomethane, CH3I, and iodobenzene, C6H5I molecules with an X-ray laser.  The X-ray laser used in the experiments is located at Linac Coherent Light Source at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory at Stanford University and has an intensity of 100 quadrillion kilowatts per square centimeter.  This X-ray laser is understood to be the most powerful laser in the world.  According to Rudenko, "As this powerful X-ray light hits a molecule, the heaviest atom, the iodine, absorbs a few hundred times more X-rays than all the other atoms. Then, most of its electrons are stripped away, creating a large positive charge on the iodine." This positive charge pulls electrons from other atoms in the molecule creating a short-lived black hole. This stripping away process only takes a few femtoseconds (A femtosecond is a millionth of a billionth of a second) and repeats the process until the molecule explodes. Unlike a real black hole in space, the molecular black hole allows the electrons to eventually escape.
   This research may help scientists better understand the damages from X-ray radiation; provide a tool to image biological particles, such as proteins and viruses, with high resolution; shed light on the charge and energy flow in highly energized molecules involved with solar energy conversion; and impact the field of radiation-driven chemistry.

For more information on this discovery go to K-State News  and the June 1 2017 Issue of Nature.

This research was supported by the National Science Foundation EPSCoR Track II Award No. IIA-1430493 and was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy's Basic Energy Sciences Program