Educational Initiatives

Video on the environmental impact of our Hydrogen research

Self-assembly STM lab supplement for our paper in Education in Chemistry

Applet mimicking the Scanning Tunneling Microscope

Looking at Atoms and Molecules (PPT for high school students)

Our Mission:
A mention of chemistry, and in particular physical chemistry, often evokes a negative reaction from the general public. “I was never good with all those symbols and equations” and “we spent all afternoon heating up ice in a bucket for some reason” are common types of remarks I have heard many times. The misconception that physical chemistry is complicated and somewhat irrelevant is carried high up through the educational ranks to undergraduates who have brief uninspired encounters with the subject before moving on to other courses [1]. Also, diversity in physical chemistry is low because the relevance of the subject matter to modern society is not clear and also the pool of faculty teaching the subject is not very diverse. This makes it even harder to attract ethnic minorities and women. Such misrepresentations have resulted in a drop in enrollment numbers and poorer training in the subject.[2] If this trend continues there will be serious consequences for America’s scientific and technological advancement as physical chemistry underpins many important new technologies such as nanoscience.[3] I believe that the onus of changing the face of physical chemistry lies with us; the professors, graduate TAs, and undergraduates that excel at the subject.

We are in a somewhat unique position as the visual appeal and accessibility of our field of research, scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), allows many difficult concepts in chemical kinetics, quantum mechanics and electronics to be broached and explained in simple terms.[4] As such we have been able to attract minorities like women to the research group who did not originally intend on studying physical chemistry upon entering graduate school. In fact, all four of the graduate students are women. We will continue to make the most of this advantage by using scanning probe data and instruments to teach aspects of physics, chemistry, nanoscience and nanotechnology to a variety of people including the general public browsing the web, high school students thinking about what degree to pursue at college, and undergraduates in class and lab.[5, 6]

We have already begun addressing many of these issues and have plans to further this work and impact several different communities:

Plan of Procedure

(1) At the undergraduate level we have begun to revamp the physical chemistry lab, removing outdated experiments and replacing them with modern scanning probe and nanoscience related experiments.[5, 6] Also at the undergraduate level, we continue to recruit students through the Summer Scholars Program at Tufts University and mentor their research projects in my lab. The first undergraduate to join the lab two years ago produced two 1st author papers and started a Ph.D. at Harvard University this past fall.[7, 8]


Figure 1. Undergraduate performing the new physical chemistry laboratory STM experiment at Tufts University.

(2) Female graduate students in the physical sciences are somewhat of a rarity and four are currently supported in the research group. These students will participate in outreach activities that will help attract others to the area. These students are also actively involved in the design and implementation of new teaching experiments based on their own research.

(3) At a broader level we have fostered a collaboration with the Center for Engineering Education Outreach (CEEO) at Tufts University that will allow us to travel to local high schools. This will enable my graduate students and I to travel to high schools and give presentations. We will introduce important concepts of physical chemistry, nanoscience and even give live scanning tunneling microscope demonstrations in which students will see atoms for the first time.[5,6]

 (4) At the broadest level we are presently working on a website for the general public interested in nanoscience and specifically in scanning probe microscopy. This site is being written and developed by undergraduates and will explain the history and concepts of nanoscience.

References:

  1. Atkins, P. Chemistry: The great ideas. Pure Appl. Chem. 1999, 71, 927-929.
  2. Lyons, T. The puzzle of falling enrolments in physics and chemistry courses: Putting some pieces together. Res. Sci. Educ. 2006, 36, 285-311.
  3. Hersam, M. C.; Foley, E. T. Assessing the need for nanotechnology education reform in the United States. Nanotech. Law & Business 2006, 3, 467.
  4. Burewicz, A.; Miranowicz, N. Categorization of visualization tools in aspects of chemical research and education. Int. J. Quantum Chem. 2002, 88, 549-563.
  5. Iski, E. V.; El-Kouedi, M.; Baber, A. E.; Jensen, S. C.; Sykes, E. C. H. Nanoscience Education through the Incorporation of Scanning Tunnelling Microscopy into the Undergraduate Curriculum. Educ. Chem. 2008, 45, 54-58
  6. Iski, E. V.; El-Kouedi, M.; Sykes, E. C. H. Scanning Tunneling Microscopy and Single Molecule Conductance Submitted to ACS Symposium Series on Nanotech. Undergrad. Educ. 2008.
  7. Jensen, S. C.; Baber, A. E.; Tierney, H. L.; Sykes, E. C. H. Adsorption, Interaction and Manipulation of Dibutyl Sulfide on Cu{111}. ACS Nano 2007, 1, 22-29.
  8. Jensen, S. C.; Baber, A. E.; Tierney, H. L.; Sykes, E. C. H. Dimethyl Sulfide on Cu{111}: Molecular Self-Assembly and Submolecular Resolution Imaging. ACS Nano 2007, 1, 423–428.