The event, which will be held in the state Capitol’s rotunda, celebrates the research of Minnesota’s private college students. Thirty-seven students from 15 private colleges and universities will display and present 28 posters describing their research in various disciplines.

Sam Jensen and Julie Rech, both seniors, will represent St. Thomas at Scholars at the Capitol. Faculty advisers also are invited to participate.

The Minnesota Private College Council is the primary sponsor of the event. Each college selects and sends its own students to the event. Students will present to visitors in the rotunda from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Research Summaries

Assessing Estrogenic and Androgenic Activity of UV Filter Photoproducts

By Sam Jensen
Faculty advisers: Dr. Dalma Martinovic-Weigelt, Biology; Dr. Kristine Wammer, Chemistry

Previous research suggests that some UV filters commonly used as active ingredients in sunscreens may exhibit estrogenic or androgenic activity and produce photoproducts that are also potential endocrine disruptors. Here, UV filters were exposed to simulated sunlight to generate photoproduct mixtures and characterized by HPLC and LC-MS. Mixtures were screened for endocrine activity using two transcriptional assays. The endocrine activities of the samples were interpolated by a least-squares means procedure from a nonlinear sigmoidal dose response curve fit to the relative luminescence units of the estradiol/testosterone standards. Octyl methoxycinnamate (octinoxate) and a mixture of its photoproducts exhibited androgenic activity in vitro; one active photoproduct (4-methoxybenzaldehyde) has been identified. Octyl dimethyl para-aminobenzoic acid (padimate O) had no androgenic activity in vitro, whereas a mixture of its photoproducts was found to have activity. Utilizing flash chromatography, present work is focused on isolating and identifying the active photoproduct(s).

Great River Greening: Managing Environmental Data and Evaluating Restored Landscapes

By Julie Rech
Faculty adviser: Dr. Paul Lorah, Geography

As the significance of Earth’s natural landscapes gains increasing acknowledgment, many people are beginning to actively work toward making remedial environmental changes. With these efforts comes the question of how to measure a conservation project’s success. Great River Greening is a nonprofit organization promoting and leading volunteer and community-based restorative projects in Minnesota. It has been asking this question and is interested in understanding its projects’ successes. In partnership with this organization, field research was undertaken by studying its existing sites; further work was done in its office and at the University of St. Thomas GIS Lab, where the organization’s data was managed. Evaluations were collected, datasets were formatted and geodatabases were built. This project also had a marketing aspect, which yielded informational maps and graphics for the organization’s use. Ultimately, this project’s value will lie in its potential future use for evaluations of project sites and maps and for marketing.

Abstracts of all 28 of the research presentations can be viewed in the Scholars at the Capitol abstract booklet.

The Minnesota Private College Council (MPCC) represents 17 liberal arts colleges and universities with 60,000 students. These institutions award about 30 percent of the baccalaureate degrees in the state. The organization’s mission is to advocate for high-quality private higher education.

Editor’s note: The research of Sam Jensen and Julie Rech was conducted with assistance from the Grants and Research Office’s Young Scholars Grant Program, Community Based Research Grant Program and Student Travel Grant Program.

My college years found me at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn., where I did work in chemistry and environmental studies. My motivation stemmed from my interest in, and concern about, the practices that are used to grow crops and raise animals. I wanted to learn more about how human activities are impacting our environment, particularly freshwater sources like those impacted by the runoff from my family’s farm.

I moved to Princeton University for my graduate work. There, I studied pollutants called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which are components of oils and tars and byproducts when fossil fuels are burned. My work contributed to our understanding of how quickly bacteria can break these molecules down in the environment. I examined how easily various PAHs can get into the bacterial cell and be transformed by enzymes within the cell. I returned to Minnesota to perform postdoctoral work at the University of Minnesota; in an interdisciplinary project (with advisers in chemistry, civil engineering and environmental health sciences), my work focused on a class of contaminants of relatively recent concern – pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs).

At St. Thomas, my work has continued to focus on PPCPs. Numerous studies have reported the occurrence of pharmaceuticals at low levels in surface waters, and interest in this topic has moved beyond the scientific literature to the popular press. For example, a story by the Associated Press highlighted the occurrence of pharmaceuticals in the  drinking water supply of at least 41 million Americans. Extensive research is ongoing to determine the potential effectiveness of various treatment processes for removing pharmaceuticals in waste-water treatment plants. Legislation has been proposed both at the state and national levels to regulate use or disposal of pharmaceuticals; a bill recently passed by the Minn. House and Senate will regulate pharmaceutical disposal while a current bill in the U.S. Congress would restrict the use of antibiotics for agricultural purposes. While the environmental occurrence of these compounds clearly has spurred interest in both the scientific community and the public realm, major gaps still remain in our understanding of their significance and potential health and ecological impacts; therefore, the critical question of which PPCPs are of the most concern is still largely unanswered.

The primary goal of my research group is to elucidate some of this needed information about what happens to PPCPs (fate) and what kind of impacts they may have (effects) in the environment. Our research projects are designed to efficiently identify PPCPs of likely concern to focus future monitoring campaigns, treatment strategies and regulatory efforts. We have been directing most of our effort to date toward one subset of PPCPs: antibiotics. This is due to concern about the potential threat of development of enhanced antibacterial resistance due to long-term exposure to low levels of antibiotics.

We have completed several projects designed to understand the role sunlight plays in breaking down antibiotics in sunlit surface waters; this is called photodegradation, and the resultant transformation products are called photoproducts. We are particularly interested in potential biological activity of photoproducts. Identifying all photoproducts for all antibiotics found in natural waters does not seem a practical goal, especially when it is anticipated that the majority of these products will not have ecological significance. It is also not acceptable, however, to ignore the potential for products to have impacts; therefore, we use a bacterial assay as a screening tool to identify those compounds for which photoproducts may retain antibacterial activity. This allows us to focus efforts for comprehensive product identification on those compounds for which it is necessary, and to provide valuable information as to which compounds may be of the most long-term concern. In related projects over the past few years, we have expanded beyond looking at reactions due to natural sunlight and begun studying reactions that occur during water-treatment processes. As is the case for photochemical transformations in natural systems, a major interest of ours is in understanding the significance of transformation products. We wish to efficiently determine whether water treatment strategies may be creating molecules that retain biological activity. While all of our published work in environmental fate of PPCPs has involved antibiotics, we recently have expanded into examining potential endocrine disruptors. In collaboration with Dr. Dalma Martinovic-Weigelt from the University of St. Thomas Biology Department, we are using breast cancer cell assays to assess whether photoproducts of UV-filter molecules used in sunscreens are likely to have significant estrogenic activity.

On the effects side, we are very interested in the potential for the low, subtherapeutic antibiotic concentrations that are found in natural waters to result in proliferation of antibacterial resistance among environmental bacteria. Resistant environmental bacteria are of concern because they can serve as a reservoir for antibiotic resistance genes that can potentially be transferred to pathogenic strains. Our work to date primarily has focused on the impacts of triclosan, a commonly used topical antibacterial compound (e.g. handsoap, toothpaste), on bacterial communities in natural waters from Lake Superior to the San Francisco bay area to local waters impacted by waste-water treatment plants (WWTPs). In our most recent project, we are looking at several classes of antibiotics in collaboration with researchers at the University of Minnesota and Gustavus Adolphus College. We are measuring antibiotic concentrations and antibiotic resistance among bacterial communities at several sites and hoping to elucidate the relative impacts of agricultural and human-based sources. Our study sites are in a portion of the Minnesota River basin and include those same drainage ditches I fished in when taking a break from bean walking as a child.

I have conducted all of my projects at St. Thomas in collaboration with my incredibly able and fun group of undergraduate research students. My six current group members range from freshmen to seniors; all work full time during the summer and squeeze in as many hours as they can during the academic year. They learn so much from this part of their St. Thomas experience: how to communicate their findings clearly, orally and in writing; how to design experiments and refine those experiments as they learn more; and how to fail and keep trying until they succeed. My group alumni have done well with their post-St. Thomas ventures. Three are in graduate school, with three more headed that way next fall. Two are in medical school, two are working as chemists and one as a high school chemistry teacher. I couldn’t be more proud of all of these wonderful students with whom I have had the privilege to work, and I am excited to keep discovering important information about contaminants in our waters with future generations of Tommies.

Kristine Wammer is associate professor of chemistry at the College of Arts and Sciences.

 From Exemplars, a publication of the Grants and Research Office.

As senior biology majors, Schmura and Houserman are lead student researchers for “Team Turtle” in collaboration with Biology Department chair Tim Lewis, a wildlife ecologist whose research involves monitoring the turtle population at Lake Judy. Lewis believes field research is a necessary element to becoming a scientist, and he has been taking St. Thomas students into the field since 2009, when he came to the university.

“Learning science is a lot like learning a musical instrument,” Lewis said. “Somebody can talk to you about playing the French horn forever and you won’t learn how to play. You have to pick one up; you have to have somebody take you and mentor you through the process. It’s the same way in science. You need to go do it.”

Students such as Schmura and Houserman are treated like professionals in field-based research collaborations because their work is done at a professional, and often, publishable level.

“You get to experience the life of actual biologists and ecologists,” Schmura said. Houserman quickly agreed, adding, “There’s something about being out there with the organism you’re studying. In a lab you’re with your organism and you’re studying it, but you can’t see it interact the way it normally does. In field-based research, you’re playing in their ball field.”

In the College of Arts and Sciences, faculty and student collaborative research projects such as this occur in many departments. Much of the drive to foster undergraduate research comes from a faculty commitment to the St. Thomas mission statement, which calls for educating students to become “morally responsible leaders who think critically, act wisely and work skillfully to advance the common good.” As well, a commitment to student-faculty collaborative research is one of the priorities listed in the vision statement of the College of Arts and Sciences. In focusing on these commitments, some St. Thomas science professors are placing an emphasis on research that surrounds one of Minnesota’s most precious resources: water.

Studying the Results of an Oil Pipeline Burst

One of the reasons geology professor Jennifer McGuire came to St. Thomas in 2008 was the interdisciplinary nature of the environmental science program. McGuire’s research focuses on examining what happens to chemicals when they are released into the natural environment, such as in an oil spill. With her student researchers, McGuire asks questions to determine where the chemicals will flow and how fast those chemicals might get into the drinking-water supply.

“For me, it’s really easy to get excited about the importance of clean drinking water,” McGuire said. “It’s fundamental to life. I’m obviously passionate about that, and it’s pretty easy to get students thinking that [working toward] access to clean and safe drinking water is an important contribution to society.”

McGuire believes it is her duty to foster a strong student connection to the environment. “Part of it is getting over this idea that what’s good for the environment is somehow a sacrifice you have to make,” she said. “I think we have to move away from this model that the environment is something that is external, outside of us. The environment is our parking lots. The environment is our backyards. It’s where we eat, and we are part of it.”

When McGuire takes her students just west of Bemidji, Minn., to the site of a 1979 oil pipeline burst, the students have the opportunity to work with her and with  professionals from all over the world.

“The students are thrilled to have this kind of opportunity,” McGuire said about the two-week, on-site stay. Here, students work with her to understand the types of chemical reactions that can happen when two separate water sources come together in an area affected with a crude oil spill. Students are able to look at points where an aquifer discharges and flows into a wetland. They test the changed chemistry of the water and help determine if there are any threats to local drinking water sources. When they are not working directly with McGuire, students are able to meet other professionals. The students’ help in the field is often in high demand, McGuire said. “It makes connections, gives them models for UST portfolios. It’s everything – connections and figuring out where your own interests lie.”

Analyzing Antibiotics in the Minnesota River

When professor Kris Wammer came to the St. Thomas Chemistry Department in 2005 she was excited to see the students’ enthusiasm in and out of the classroom. “All the work I do is involved with undergrads. That’s what I wanted to do – go to a school where I could do good, real research with undergraduate students,” Wammer said.

One of her current projects takes students off campus to Minnesota’s streams and ditches to analyze and understand what antibiotics are present in the water, and where they come from. A typical day in the field for Wammer’s students involves everything from going inside water treatment plants to leaning over the edge of a boat landing or standing in a freezing cold stream to collect water samples. Over the past few summers, Wammer and her students have found clear sources of both antibiotics and antibiotic-resistant genes affecting the Minnesota River. Because of these findings, next summer Wammer and her students will start examining drinking-water sources in the Mississippi River to determine whether there is a potential human health threat from similar antibiotics and antibiotic-resistant genes.

Wammer describes working with undergraduate researchers as not just “a professor-student thing.” Of her experience working with chemistry majors and environmental science majors, Wammer said, “When we’re out slopping in the mud, you get to really know each other.”

Determining the Effect of Contaminants on Turtles and Fish

Biology professor Kyle Zimmer came to St. Thomas in 2003 because he wanted to conduct research with undergraduate students. He said he had experienced working with undergraduates while getting his doctorate and he saw St. Thomas as a place that didn’t just say, “We value undergraduate research,” but actually supported it.

Zimmer’s research focuses on aquatic ecology. He and his students seek to understand how ecosystems work in shallow lakes and wetlands, and what humans are doing to influence “the smaller and shallow” water sources, such as ponds and swamps, all over Minnesota. Zimmer and his students are collaborating with other St. Thomas professors and their students: with Lewis and his team of turtle ecologists, with biology professor Dalma Martinovic-Weigelt and her fish physiology team, and with neuroscience professor Kurt Illig and his student team, which examines the health of the ecosystems in Minnesota waterways. The research explores how contaminants of watersheds might influence the biology and physiology of turtles and fish. When the water drains into Minnesota lakes and streams, contaminants in the water have the potential to make hostile impacts on the ecosystem, such as exposing fish and turtle populations to higher levels of environmental estrogens, which could result in reproductive changes. The end goal of this research collaboration is to develop strategies for reducing the effects of contaminants.

Zimmer believes that this research exemplifies the St. Thomas mission to educate students to work for the common good. “I personally feel that [when we] identify problems in the environment [and] try to come up with ways to manage and alleviate that, we make advances for the common good,” Zimmer said.

Connecting With the Community

Undergraduate research allows St. Thomas science programs to be more than an “ivory tower of learning,” Zimmer said. Each summer his students drive to outstate Minnesota in search of what most people would call a slough, and drag canoes out of the cattails and into the water. For the next eight hours they combat heat and everpresent mosquitoes, collecting samples and on occasion, answering questions from local farmers.

“A lot of times (students) will be standing by the side of the road, getting ready to push the boat out onto the lake and the farmer across the street will stop,” Zimmer said. “They get a chance to explain what they’re doing.”

“It’s really interesting running into the farmers around our lakes and having them ask us why we’re out there,” said Rachel Rockwell ’12, who has worked with Zimmer. Senior Christine Buelt agreed, saying that collecting water samples connects her to the research and the community affected by her findings. “We all take a personal interest [in the research] because we’ve been to these places,” Buelt said.

Buelt is interested in studying the intersection of ecology and environmental science as it is concerned with public health, and she hopes to go to graduate school. Rockwell plans to apply to pharmacy school. Both agree that they fell in love with research because of their fieldwork and community interactions. Of her project on the effect of bugs on the decomposition of plants in shallow lakes, Rockwell, said, “It was a really stinky job, but fun.”

Because their field research is current and practical, the students’ and professors’ main goal is to publish their research and get the information out to the public.

Research led by biology professor Dalma Martinovic-Weigelt takes her students to waste-water treatment plants in Minnesota. This research is part of a project sparked by a call from the Minnesota legislature to determine the effectiveness of waste-water treatment plants.

“Probably the most beautiful part about something like this is that your data is actually published and is part of a government report,” Martinovic-Weigelt said. “Those types of activities really grow that liberal arts student we hope to grow.”

Student researchers also grow when they are able to present their research at national and international conferences. Eight of Zimmer’s students attended the 2012 annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America in Portland, Ore. Two of his other students attended the 2012 annual meeting of the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography in Lake Biwa, Japan.

Gaining More Than a Bullet Point on a Résumé

Undergraduate students are driven to field-based research projects for many reasons. Summer or year-round undergraduate research may appeal to many students applying to graduate or medical school. That extra bullet point on a résumé or project in the portfolio can do a lot for students, sometimes even landing them a spot in a graduate program. But talk to any of the St. Thomas students or faculty involved, and it becomes apparent that a student needs more than a desire to fill a résumé to become an undergraduate researcher.

Grant Schmura said his spot on “Team Turtle” was achieved by “annoying” his professor, Tim Lewis, on a regular basis. “There are so many other students who will do the same thing as you,” Schmura said. “You have to single yourself out. Always ask questions; that’s a big thing.”

Lewis looks for three things in student researchers: how smart they are, and how hard working and reliable they are. “Frankly the world is run by the hard-working people, and if they’re hard working and smart, it’s a killer combination,” Lewis said. “Brilliance never hurts, but brilliance alone is worthless.”

Lewis believes that research will benefit all students, regardless of what they plan to do after graduation. He lists problem solving as the most important skill a student gains in doing research because it is the first thing “everybody in the world” is looking for in an employee.

Schmura agrees. “If you don’t know what the answer is going to be, you have to figure it out yourself,” he said. “You leave school [and go] into the real world where there are no clear-cut answers.”

McGuire believes students transform into scientists when they begin to ask questions on their own. “[Then] everything is really curiosity driven,” she said. She also notes how lucky she is as a researcher to have a constant connection to the energy of the next generation of scientists.

Challenging the Next Generation

In the College of Arts and Sciences, there is no shortage of professor or student enthusiasm for going out and doing field-based research. Zimmer believes that by methodically “plowing through” the course material required to fully grasp the field-based research, students become independent thinkers and are transformed into young scientists.

“I tell students the goal for all faculty is not to produce people that are as good of scientists as we are. Because if we do that, then society is just status quo,” Zimmer said. “Our goal is to have them leave St. Thomas far better prepared, far more knowledgeable, far better citizens than [we] were at that age – to keep moving forward.”

Back out on Lake Judy, Lewis’ student Schmura and a few undergraduates moved forward in their research as they returned from checking the turtle basking traps. The researchers shed their life jackets, stowed their canoes and began examining the day’s turtle haul. After weighing, measuring and determining the sex of each turtle, Schmura attached a pit tag (used for tracking) to the turtle’s shell before returning it to the water.

Now it’s the turtle’s job to swim and the students’ job to dive back into their research.

Read more from CAS Spotlight.

A Grand Rapids, Minn., native, Serratore started his graduate studies in late August with four two-and-a-half-hour tests covering the fundamental areas of chemistry: inorganic, organic, analytical and physical.

“Basically, it was everything you learned in four years at St. Thomas,” Serratore said. “I’m happy to say that I passed all four of my exams.”

Serratore, 23, got his initial start in chemistry at St. Thomas four years ago, but what lies ahead now is five years of studies at Wisconsin (some chemistry areas require six years), and then maybe he’ll work a couple of years at a high-level research lab, and then perhaps apply for an academic or industrial research position.

Back at St. Thomas, Serratore conducted extensive research into the synthesis of isoluminol derivatives, compounds that give off bluish light when mixed with an appropriate oxidizing agent. Isoluminols have medical applications, including measuring vitamin D in the body, and have been used extensively in detecting trace amounts of blood at crime scenes. He would experiment by making various changes to the structure of the isoluminol molecule in an effort to improve its chemiluminescence. Success did not come easily, but there, in the lab, he learned patience.

“It’s a grueling process,” Serratore remarked. “The first three months that I worked in Dr. (Tom) Ippoliti’s lab at St. Thomas I did not have a single reaction that worked. I had no positive results for three months. It’s a very, very grueling process. Patience, and just being able to roll with the punches, is one thing that I definitely learned.”

The isoluminol research at St. Thomas was a “pet project” that he started during the summer after his freshman year. “Nick was one of the most productive research students I have ever had,” Ippoliti remarked. “The number of new compounds he made is astonishing! He knew every instrument inside out and was a tremendous help to the other research students. We will all miss Nick and the contributions he made to the Chemistry Department.”

Serratore’s studies at Wisconsin are a “whole new field” but still within the area of organic chemistry. “What I was doing was organic synthesis,” he said. “Now I’m working on developing new methods for organic synthesis.”

At Wisconsin this fall he will be teaching two laboratory sections, taking four classes, and rotating in multiple labs in an effort to select a research group; ultimately, in November, he’ll select a research group to work in for the next five years. Other obstacles he will need to pass along the way to a Ph.D. include a second-year seminar presentation, an original research proposal in his third year, and a final thesis defense at the end of his graduate education.

“We are absolutely forbidden from declaring what group we would like to do research in right now. The only thing I can tell you is I will be doing research in a group that blends inorganic and organic chemistry,” Serratore said.

In the meantime, the lifestyle of a graduate student is not idyllic. Although chemistry graduate students have their tuition paid and are on stipend, there are drawbacks to the extended years of studies. Serratore says that his commitment to chemistry will not allow him to marry or have a family for at least three to four years.

While that may give pause to current undergraduate chemistry students, he offers this advice: “I would definitely advise them to look at their options, think about what they want to do in the future, and find a lifestyle that is supported by what that future holds.”

But in the end, there are rewards for those who endure the process of earning a Ph.D. in chemistry. Ippoliti has no doubt about what lies ahead for Serratore.

“He has a great future ahead of him,” Ippoliti said, “and I look forward to his future accomplishments.”

Editor’s note: Nick Serratore’s research was funded in part by a Summer Housing grant. He also traveled thanks to a Student Travel grant. Read about Nick Serratore’s photo shoot in our Depth of Field blog.

Nothing happens.

Smiling, he picks up a vial of pale, yellow-tinged liquid in his left hand and pivots the light so that it shines through the glass sides of the vial. Instantly the liquid inside glows an intense aqua, reacting to the invisible UV rays from Serratore’s penlight. These are chemiluminescent molecules and Serratore is about to spend the next hour standing under my, very visible, photo lights and explaining to an increasingly confused photographer exactly what he’s spent the last three years working on under the direction of Dr. Tom Ippoliti.

Nick Serratore is a patient man.

On TV and in PR photography all things science must glow blue (thank you, CSI), so I stick a small flash, gelled blue, inside Serratore’s lab hood (essentially his glass-enclosed working area). The light will be tripped by a radio trigger mounted to my camera. When I push the shutter button, the strobe goes off and fills the hood with a blue glow (you can see it in the background above). Next I point another light, with the power turned way down, at Serratore’s face. We’ll take a variety of shots, some focusing on Serratore’s face, others on the chemicals he works with. By varying the power of the lights and the focus of the camera, I’ll be able to shift visual attention easily between the two. Finally a point another strobe at Serratore’s left hand, adding just enough light to keep his hand from becoming a silhouette.

I work with Serratore for about two minutes to get the vial and the flashlight into the right relationship with his face and we start taking pictures. What you see at the top of this article is one of my favorite shots from the session.

But we’re not done.

Serratore sticks an Erlenmeyer Flask inside the hood while I set my camera on a tripod pointed at the flask. When I give the signal he pours two vials of chemicals into the container. As soon as they touch they burst into the same aqua glow as the chemicals in the smaller vial did earlier in our shoot. But this time there’s much more of the stuff and it glows even brighter – for about 10 seconds.

The key to making a good image of these glowing chemicals is to balance the light they emit for that 10 seconds with the light from my blue-gelled flash. Too much power from my flash and I drown out the natural color coming from the flask. Not enough power and everything in the frame except for the chemicals goes black and the viewer loses any sense of place – including the outline of most of the flask.

Lucky for me Serratore gives me two chances – first with a demo mixture so I can set a proper exposure for the glow from the chemicals, then again with my strobes in place. That second attempt is what you see at right.

Nick Serratore? He’s headed off to UW Madison to pursue his Ph.D.  Me? I’m headed back to Loras Hall to file my images of luminescent molecules and Nick Serratore.

Editor’s note: Nick Serratore’s research was funded in part by a Summer Housing grant. He also traveled thanks to a Student Travel grant.

Read More from the Depth of Field blog.

I have spent much of the last 12 years teaching various topics in statistics, research methods and measurement to undergraduate and graduate students at St. Thomas and elsewhere. My students typically have been hard working and eager to learn. They came to class and took notes. They learned the steps of important processes. Their nodding heads indicated that they understood the material as it was being presented to them. And yet, these bright and capable students often had difficulty applying course material in novel or ambiguous but true-to-life contexts. Despite the clarity of my explanations or the number of times I demonstrated how to apply concepts and processes, students often didn’t know what to do with what they knew.

I came to understand that remembering and understanding are necessary, but not sufficient, for the kind of “knowing” that allows one to think critically and solve complex problems. This realization seemed particularly problematic, as it is precisely this type of“knowing” our students need now, in our increasingly technical and competitive world.

While this need for knowing exists in all disciplines, it may be especially urgent for the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines. In 1996, the Advisory Committee to the National Science Foundation, responding to a call to improveundergraduate STEM education, published “Shaping the Future: New Expectations for Undergraduate Education in Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology.” One of its recommendations called for faculty teaching undergraduate STEM courses to “build inquiry, a sense of wonder and the excitement of discovery, plus communication and teamwork, critical thinking, and lifelong learning skills into learning experiences.”

At St. Thomas, STEM faculty members have taken to heart the call to actively engage students through critical thinking and collaborative problem solving.

In spring 2010, Kris Wammer, associate professor of chemistry, organized a two-day workshop on the use of Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL) in entry-level STEM courses. PLTL involves groups of six to 12 students who take the same course (e.g., Chemistry111) and work with trained peer-facilitators to address problems that facilitate conceptual understanding of course material and the development of problem-solving skills. The workshop was well attended by biology, chemistry, mathematics, computer and information sciences, geology, physics and engineering faculty. At its conclusion, faculty decided to initiate a PLTL program for students taking introductory STEM coursesat St. Thomas.

After an intense summer of planning, the PLTL program was ready to launch: A program structure consisting of a coordinator, four departmental liaisons and 16 to 20student peer-facilitators was agreed upon; shortterm funding to support a program coordinator and pay peer-facilitators for the 2010-2011 academic year was secured from the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and the Biology Department; discipline-specific peer-facilitators were recruited and trained; concept-focused, problem-based activities were developed by departmental liaisons for use by peer-facilitators in small-group sessions; formal PLTL program evaluation procedures were devised; and a name for the PLTL program was created: the STEM Learning Community (LC) Program.

In fall 2010, STEM LCs emphasizing collaboration, active learning, problem solving and critical thinking were introduced. Each semester since then, STEM LCs have been offered to about 300 chemistry students, 200 biology students, 130 calculus students and 90 statistics students, most of whom are first-year college students at St. Thomas. Between 180 and 240 students participate in the STEM LCs each semester.

Research on the use of collaborative learning strategies in undergraduate STEM education suggests that they are a highly effective strategy for promoting the kind of “knowing” that is expected of STEM professionals. Evaluation of the STEM LC programat St. Thomas indicates that benefits for participants and peer-facilitators are many: learning effective study skills; acquiring depth of understanding; gaining skills in collaboration; and developing confidence in problem-solving abilities. As one STEM LCparticipant noted, “I learned different ways of approaching a problem, and if I didn’t understand something, the group was able to help.” Another participant stated, “I study more efficiently and more often” as a result of this experience.

Mithra Marcus, clinical professor of chemistry, is excited by the impact of the STEM LC program on her students. She noted, “This program has helped my students think critically about course material rather than just focus on memorizing facts.” Such an emphasis has translated into improved learning outcomes for participants. Significantly higher exam scores have been achieved by LC participants in all of the courses in which LCs are offered. In the case of chemistry, STEM LC participants scored more than five points higher, on average, than their peers on a standardized, nationally normed chemistry examination.

Through my own involvement with the STEM LC program, I am reminded that my job is not to simply tell students what is important to know. If I truly want my students to beactive learners, critical thinkers and effective problem solvers, I must find ways for them to connect with one another and with the material in deep and meaningful ways. The STEM LC program appears to offer an effective strategy for doing just that.

Read more from CAS Spotlight

“During my summer research, I learned how to never give up even if some days it was tempting to throw my computer out the window!” Joyce said. “I learned that it is OK to be confused and fumble around for a while because this is truly the way to learn something. Sometimes in the process of fumbling you discover something you might not have if you had been following a cookie-cutter lab experiment.”

Brom said it a different way: “Students have to learn to accept that new knowledge in chemistry is obtained only after much failure along the way. When success is finally achieved, it is a glorious experience. During the summer, our students have time to learn this.”

Last August, Joyce’s poster, “A Computational Study of TiH5+ and CH5+,” won the first-place award in the chemistry division at the MRSEC (Materials Research Science and Engineering Center) Summer Undergraduate Research Expo held at the University of Minnesota and sponsored by its Institute of Technology.

At the event, St. Thomas chemistry students accounted for nearly half of the 58 posters presented in the chemistry division by students from across the United States, and they won two of the top three chemistry awards. In addition to Joyce’s first-place finish, a third-place award was won by Gregory Crane, student of Katherine Olson of the St. Thomas Chemistry Department, for his poster, “Real-Time qPCR Analysis of mRNA Concentrations in Alzheimer’s Infected Mice Brain Cells.”

A rapidly growing programThese awards are a sample of the successes being enjoyed by students participating in the Chemistry Department’s large, active and rapidly expanding summer research program. From small beginnings with a handful of summer students and faculty in the former Albertus Magnus Hall, the program now numbers approximately 50 students each summer under the guidance of (as of last summer) eight research-active faculty in Owens Science Hall, part of the Frey Science and Engineering Center, which opened in 1997.

Although most of the summer students are sophomore or junior chemistry or biochemistry majors (the spring 2009 graduating class included 12 chemistry majors and 30 biochemistry majors), students from other scientific disciplines often participate. Just as the number of students in the program has increased, the number of faculty research mentors will increase with the arrival of three new research-active faculty by the beginning of the 2010-2011 academic year. Although official statistics from comparable institutions are unavailable, the undergraduate summer research program sponsored by the St. Thomas Chemistry Department may well rank among the largest in the United States.

Matching students with faculty mentorsThe summer research season actually begins in February. Students enrolled in chemistry courses are invited to interview prospective research advisers to find the best possible match. A faculty committee extends offers to students based on the availability of funding and research space. Although a strong academic performance in relevant chemistry courses is a plus for an applicant, faculty mentors also value other qualities, including enthusiasm for laboratory work and the willingness to learn.

The areas of chemistry investigated are varied, and are drawn from all of the chemistry subdisciplines: analytical chemistry, biochemistry, inorganic chemistry, organic chemistry and physical chemistry. A sampling of titles from the recent MRSEC poster session shows the breadth (and depth) of interests: “Analysis of Algal Toxins in Minnesota Waters Using LC-MSMS,” “The Synthesis of a Thiadiazole Functionalized Oxazolidinone,” and “Nitrogen Homeostasis in the Invasive Argentine Ant.”

Funding for these undergraduate researchers comes from an impressive array of sources, both public and private. Chemistry faculty in recent years have secured research grants from agencies including: the National Science Foundation, Research Corp., the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Merck Pharmaceuticals, and the Petroleum Research Fund of the American Chemical Society, and from companies including Vision-Ease, H.B. Fuller Co., Medtronic, Samsung, Aspen Research, Boston Scientific, Imation, Microtrace LLC, ARKRAY, Chromatic Technologies Inc., Martrex Inc., Hutchinson Technology, Hemostasis LLC, Pepsi, Research and  Diagnostic Systems, and ExxonMobil. Support also has been provided internally through the Young Scholars program sponsored by the Undergraduate Research and Collaborative Inquiry program of the university.

Junior colleagues work closely with their faculty mentorsA day’s work for a summer research student usually begins formally at nine in the morning and ends at five in the afternoon, but students soon learn that research cannot be measured by punching a clock.

Research also involves hours spent outside the laboratory, writing proposals and papers and reading journal articles. Although this might seem burdensome to the novice research student at first, it actually brings home a very important point: the students performing research in St. Thomas chemistry labs are not simply “pairs of hands” carrying out the work of their faculty mentors, they are, in fact, the junior colleagues of their faculty mentors, with the responsibilities and the privileges that this relationship entails. Faculty and students are partners in the production of new knowledge, an activity more all-encompassing and more demanding than the usual summer job. It is also incredibly satisfying and, not unimportantly, really fun.

A sense of camaraderie and common purpose is fostered throughout the summer by a weekly departmental research meeting. Students and faculty gather to share a pizza lunch, and several students give mini-seminars or “chalk talks” that describe the chemical problems they are exploring.

Another ongoing summer tradition is a series of three joint research meetings held with the summer undergraduate research groups of neighboring Macalester College and Hamline University. Student presentations are more formal than those at the weekly departmental pizza meeting and would be appreciated by a graduate-level audience or a group of chemical professionals.

The season finale occurs during the first week of August – the annual Chemistry Department Summer Undergraduate Research Poster Session. St. Thomas chemistry research students present posters describing their summer research to an audience of family, friends and St. Thomas faculty and administrators. Many of these students also present their work at the annual MRSEC Summer Research Expo held at the University of Minnesota that same week.

The research doesn’t end with summerMany students continue their work through the academic year. For several, the summer project becomes a multiyear endeavor. This was the case for Melissa Maurer-Jones ’06 who put her keen interest in environmental issues to work in the analytical chemistry laboratory of Tony Borgerding through most of her academic career at UST. For the 2005-2006 academic year, Maurer-Jones was one of only 320 students nationwide to be awarded the prestigious Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship, authorized by the U.S. Congress in 1986 to honor Sen. Goldwater by encouraging excellence in science and mathematics. She is pursuing a Ph.D. in chemistry at the University of Minnesota.

Another Goldwater Scholar (for 2007-2008), Nathaniel Brandt ’08, followed a multiyear path. Brandt worked throughout his undergraduate career in the Joseph Brom  laboratory on projects in laser spectroscopy and photochemistry. He is a graduate chemistry student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

However long each project lasts, and regardless of the chemical specialty, the goal is the same: the education of a future research scientist by conducting cutting-edge, publication-quality research with the collaboration of a faculty mentor.

Engaging the discipline nationwidePresentation opportunities provide a learning experience for the research student and an opportunity to “show the flag” of the Chemistry Department and the University of St. Thomas. They also represent a critically important aspect of research, the dissemination of scientific results.

Each year, the Chemistry Department sends a group of students to present their summer work to a national meeting of the American Chemical Society, the professional organization for chemists, which, at almost 155,000 members, is the world’s largest scientific society. Students attending the spring meeting, which will be held in San Francisco in March, will have the opportunity to present their previous summer’s work in a large poster session devoted to chemical undergraduate education. St. Thomas students also are planning to present their work in the “regular” sessions held for professional chemists, faculty, postdoctoral researchers and graduate students.

Closer to home, presentation opportunities are offered by the summer MRSEC meeting at the University of Minnesota and the Winchell Undergraduate Research Symposium sponsored by the Minnesota Academy of Science. Chemistry Department research students have fared very well at the Winchell Symposium in recent years. Joshua Speros ’08, a graduate chemistry student at the University of Minnesota, and James Stokman ’09, who has been accepted for admission to the medical school of the University of Minnesota-Duluth, won first-place awards in the chemistry division. Speros presented “Synthesis and Characterization of a Novel Polymerizable Chemiluminescent Compound” in 2008. Stokman presented “Synthesis of an Isothiazole Antimicrobial” in 2009. Both were supervised by J. Thomas Ippoliti of the Chemistry Department, who recently began his duties as the St. Thomas summer research coordinator.

Funding for student travel has been provided by internal grant programs such as the Young Scholars and Collaborative Inquiry programs sponsored by the Undergraduate Research and Collaborative Scholarship program; funding also has been provided by faculty grants and by student fundraising through the Chemistry Club. Individual faculty also may sponsor their students’ travel to meetings.

For some St. Thomas chemistry students, research opportunities extend beyond the labs of Owens Science Hall. Through the years, St. Thomas chemistry faculty have encouraged their students to participate in summer undergraduate research programs that allow them to work at national laboratories or at large research universities. Recent graduates Jonathan Hennek ’08 and Jonathan Athmann ’09 were chosen to participate in the Lando/National Science Foundation Summer Research Program sponsored by the University of Minnesota. Both have gone on to graduate study in chemistry, Athmann at Minnesota and Hennek at Northwestern University.

Chemistry graduate and Aquinas Scholar Adam Garske ’03 participated in summer chemistry research at Columbia University in 2002 as a National Science Foundation-Research Experiences for Undergraduates fellow before pursuing graduate studies in the Biomolecular Chemistry Department at the University of Wisconsin.

In the summer of 2009, chemistry senior Joanna Thielen participated in the Materials Design Institute, a 10-week summer program for undergraduate researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where she worked in the Bioenergy and Environmental Science group. She had been encouraged to apply by Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist Fran Stephens ’99. Thielen’s summer work was awarded second place in the energy category of the 2009 Science and Energy Research Challenge sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy held last fall at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Challenges and opportunitiesThe success of the program and its rapid continued growth have presented challenges as well as opportunities for the Chemistry Department. Each year, more students apply for the program than available funding and space can accommodate, and unfortunately some students must be turned away. Faculty in the department continue to apply for support from private and government granting agencies, but unfavorable economic conditions have slowed – or in some cases stopped – the flow of funding from many of these agencies.

At the same time, the large number of students the department currently accommodates has put severe demands on available research space. The department laboratories already are filled to capacity each summer, and the arrival of three new research-active faculty before the next academic year is guaranteed to put even greater demands on the space. Despite these challenges, the department is confident that the long-term future of its summer research program is bright.

What does the near future hold? For Melissa Joyce, the plan is to complete her bachelor of science degree in chemistry and seek a position in research and development. Eventually, she plans to pursue a graduate degree. For the faculty, staff and students of the Chemistry Department, spring semester means that preparation for the summer research program already is well under way. For St. Thomas students and research mentors – computational and non-computational chemists alike – the calculations point toward another successful season.

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