Service-Learning in the Physical Sciences:
an Oxymoron?
10 years of Service-Learning in Chemistry
And How does any of this relate to the symposium focus on Mentoring?
Oxymoron Greek word root:
oxy = sharp, keen
moros=
foolish
“A deafening silence”
Physical scientists at LUC tend to think that their “job”
data obtained at the frontier of physical science enquiry
Does not lend itself to service either in the
abstract sense: “Science for science sake”
doable sense: Demands of tier one science is incompatible
with “service”
Alanah Fitch, Loyola University Chicago
afitch@luc.edu
In this regard they seem to be responding
to a single definition of service
1.
an act of helpful activity; help; aid: to do
someone a service.
That is, their skills are not translatable into a “helpful activity”
This definition of service as “helpful” activity leads to two responses
1. Service projects in a loose sense of demonstrations etc.
2. Learning projects in a social context with a loose connection to service
Service-Learning in the Physical Sciences:
an Oxymoron?
10 years of Service-Learning in Chemistry
And How does any of this relate to the symposium focus on Mentoring?
1. The data generated are generally of 2nd, 3rd, or 4th consideration
2. The activity is actually more properly categorized as active-learning in
a social context
Predictions
#1.
large number of SL articles and activities fall into the
“service = “active” learning in a social context
Here there needs to be particular attention to the chemist’s code of conduct
In that the work that is performed by the student investigator in the social context
Context should be carried out transparently
Otherwise one has “used” the community for purely “academic” learning issues.
Other definitions of service: as technical knowledge
Of “value” to somebody
Here the going gets kind of tricky, but it also has some possible
Substantial payoffs
2 the supplying or supplier of utilities or commodities, as water, electricity, or
. gas, required or demanded by the public.
3
.
the providing or a provider of accommodation and activities required by the public, as
maintenance, repair, etc.: The manufacturer guarantees service and parts.
4
.
the organized system of apparatus, appliances, employees, etc., for supplying some
accommodation required by the public: a television repair service.
So let’s review my system of categories
Against the chemistry SL literature
I’ve always liked to categorize and count things
Service Learning Chemistry
Nursing
Remove nursing,
Engineering, etc
For the sci-finder filter: “service learning” “chemistry”
Only three are reviewed articles
Why are there so few peer-reviewed articles on SL in chemistry?
1. The time is too much for the competition to basic research grants
- predict fewer reports from Ph.D. granting institutions
CC
B
MS
Ph.D.
So much for my pre-conceived stereotypes!
2. Women are “sugar and spice” and everything nice – i.e. we are much
“better” people than men and we “get it”
379 total Individuals as shared authors
131 – unknown gender
131 – male
117 - female
42 Authors of multiple articles
7 – unknown gender
18 – female
17 - male
3 as referenced articles
Remainder of this filter = abstracts
I am batting 0/2
What about my categories?
1. Service is really “active” learning in a social context
2. Service in a general sense (tutoring, chem. Demos)
3. Service as a technology deliverable
Watershed,water
waterquality
qualityanalysis
analysis
Watershed,
water
quality
analysis
Watershed,
K12, Museums,
Museums, Native
Native American
American Outreach
Outreach
K12,
Pb and
and As
As
Pb
Mechanics of Doing SL
Service as a Technological Deliverable
What examples are there of Service-Learning in the 3rd sense?
What are the elements that make them work?
Who are the kind of people that do this work?
1. Eastern Oregon State
Model is a partnership with an agency
Anna Cavinato
Service-Learning Research Matrix
Faculty/Scientist
Student
Agency
“J. Q. Public”
Topic
Control
Sampling
Watershed
Sampling
Analysis
Watershed
Analysis
Quality
Assurance
Data can be used for policy/scientific analysis
1. Best model within our database would be longitudinal watershed analysis
2. no peer reviewed publications of watershed listed under SL
Service as a Technological Deliverable
What examples are there of Service-Learning in the 3rd sense?
What are the elements that make them work?
Who are the kind of people that do this work?
1. Eastern Washington State
Model is a partnership with an agency
Anna Cavinto
2. SUNY Buffalo
model EU Science Shop
Joseph Gardella
(1 report)
Interestingly his
activities
In this area are
not even
Mentioned on his
departmental
home page!- You
have to go to
a personal
homepage
I have been courted, but
I can not see my institution
As supportive without funding
Service-Learning Research Matrix
Faculty/Scientist
Student
Agency
“J. Q. Public”
Topic
Control
Sampling
Analysis
Quality
Assurance
Problem here is generally one of a time mismatch/
Student training and flux means that request fulfillment
Depends on academic calendar – when requests are
Usually initiated in an “urgent” fashion
Who is paying
For consumables?
Lead Elimination Action Drive
West-side Alliance for a Safe Environment (WASTE)
Center for Neighborhood Technology
Austin Neighborhood Council
Homes
Pb?
Municipal Waste Incinerator
Incinerator 1994, 1995, 1998
Wind
Background
Soil lead
“Shadow” depends on
Stack height
Decreasing amts
Largest deposition
Is here
Incinerator 1994, 1995, 1998
Control
sampling
Students meet with
elderly ladies who let
them sample soils.
The ladies discuss their
concerns.
Incinerator 1994, 1995, 1998
Soil Lead in parts per million (ppm)
Front
1040
187
440
4822 W. Potomac
4915 W. Kamerling
4833 W. Crystal
Back
1800
1850
1431
231
1385
250
150
372
garage
Incinerator 1994, 1995, 1998
Comparison homes, 17 mile away
1133
2808
2620
3067
2900
1538
700
6613 N. Ashland
BRICK
439
6729 N. Ashland
FRAME
Incinerator 1994, 1995, 1998
Second year: Resample with respect to
the wind; also allowing for up and down wind
comparisons. Wins a National Award.
Luke later goes to Croatia
On UN project on
Lead dispersion by
gasoline
Incinerator 1994, 1995, 1998
North
Wind Pattern
32
101
Class final: enter
Busch National Env.
Award competition –
Place third
23
12
346 546
15
Demolished lot
Cicero
320
644 m
Pulaski
1210 123
Chicago
Orr High
School
89 82
This data presented
To Mayor’s advisory
council
42
Washington
0
Incinerator 1994, 1995, 1998
14
12
> 0.5 mile from incinerator
8
6
< 0.5 mile from incinerator
4
2
0
0
10
0
20
0
30
0
40
0
50
0
60
0
70
0
80
0
90
0
10
50
11
50
12
50
13
50
Frequency
10
PPM Soil Lead
Incinerator 1994, 1995, 1998
Wind
Background
Soil lead
“Shadow” depends on
Stack height
Decreasing amts
Largest deposition
Is here
Incinerator 1994, 1995, 1998
Last time: we finally set up an experiment worthy of an
An air pollution expert
NE
NNE
N
ENE
61
46
E
30
15
0
-15
-30
-46
-61
0
15
30
46
61
SE
Incinerator 1994, 1995, 1998
Article was rejected on grounds of too many sources of error in multiple
Partnerships – flag was raised right at the beginning with attribution of the
Multitude of UG authors
2.1
ENE
2.08
NE
NE
2.06
NE
NE
E NE
NE
2.04
208/206
NNE N
ENE
NE
NE
S ENE
2.02
SE
E
2
1.98
NE
NE
S
N
ENE
SE
1.96
1.94
NNE
1.92
0.78
0.79
0.8
0.81
0.82
0.83
0.84
207/206
Class final: write a scientific journal article
Incinerator 1994, 1995, 1998
Issues
attribution
quality control
Here the medical research world is way ahead of us in clinical
trials
They have tools for meta analysis of multiple sources of
patients added singly to the data base
But!
They also have $$$$$
This will require substantial intellectual activity and funding to
get Chem up to speed where this can happen
Service as a Technological Deliverable
What examples are there of Service-Learning in the 3rd sense?
What are the elements that make them work?
Who are the kind of people that do this work?
1. Eastern Washington State
Model is a partnership with an agency
Anna Cavinto
2. SUNY Buffalo
model EU Science Shop
Joseph Gardella
(1 report)
3. Third model is one in
which the public presents
multiple data and the
student is involved in the
analysis (~0) reports
Service-Learning Research Matrix
Faculty/Scientist
Student
Agency
“J. Q. Public”
Topic
Control
Sampling
Analysis
Quality
Assurance
Audobon Bird
Counts
??????
?????
Data can be used for policy/scientific analysis
CITIZEN SCIENCE
I love this model – I would like to see us
Harness our service-learning for “real” data
collection
A different focus to “prevention”
Percent of Children with
Dust in homes
Elevated Blood Lead Levels
Chicago, 1999
Loyola University Instrumental Methods of
Analysis Chemistry Class measurements of
Soil lead content
ugPb/gsoil
<250
250-500
500-1000
>1000
N
W
E
S
1850
Percent of Children
with Elevated Blood
Lead Levels
1385
250
150
< 5%
5% - 15%
16% - 25%
> 25%
5
0
5 Miles
500 ppm = 0.05% by weight lead
= amt at which Blood lead
level begins to change
Alanah Fitch afitch@luc.edu
George and Matt’s Portal Vision
To be refined at the SETAC/ANCAP meeting Oct 2006
With GLIC community
PORTAL
Instrumentation Scheduler
Shipping Information
Access to Instrument Computer
Camera
Time and activity sensitive
passwords
Education Related
Data Base
Target Pesticide
Mass Spectral Data
Base (Excel format)
Searchable
Student Blog pop ups
Content Modules
“Culled from M.S. Ph.Ds,
quality tagged
Please rank on a scale 0(not easy) -5(very easy) the ease of operation of each of the following
1.
2.
3.
4.
5
6.
7.
8
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
Using PCAnywhere to turn on the TraceMS at Loyola in Chicago 1 2 3 4 5
Transferring files using PCAnywhere to the TraceMS at Loyola
1 2 3 4 5
Initiating a GCMS run from the transferred file
1 2 3 4 5
How much time did the operations take you? (MINUTES:
5 10 20 30 40
Did the computer “freeze” during the operations?
Yes no
Did the web server crash during the operations?
Yes No
Did you bother to note the “bandwidth” during your session?
Yes No
If so what was the bandwidth?
1-5 5-20 20-50 50-100 kbps
Did you turn on the lab camera to watch the real time events at the GCMS computer?
Describe in words what you saw?
Select words that best fit your reaction while viewing the lab during your sample “run”
“Bored, amused, very cool, fun, uninteresting”
Do you have a partner in your experiment?
What is the sex of your partner?
M
F
What tribe or ethnicity are you?
Your partner?
Where are you operating the instrument from?
What is the name of your home school?
What class are you associated with?
Is your instructor in the room with you now?
Is there a technician at the Loyola lab now?
Where did you acquire the information necessary to construct a methods file?
Did your instructor approve your methods?
How did he/she convey to you the strengths and/or weaknesses of your method?
What were the problems that your instructor indicated about your methods?
Do you have a computer at home?
Does your partner have a computer at home?
How much time do spend on the web per week?
Rank the amount of time that you spent controlling the remote instrument
Rank the amount of time your partner spent controlling the remote instrument
Before you turned on the camera describe how you imagined the instrument to look
What size did you imagine the GCMS to be before you turned on the web camera?
How many samples are you running?
How much time did it take you to prepare them?
Do you have an idea of the concentrations of POPS that you will find in your sample?
Why?
Describe in words the main difference between how you imagined the instrument to look
“Public” Database
• Pesticides
• N-alkanes
• LEAD
East African and Midwestern
Searchable Pesticide
dispersion
Data base
Google Earth
“Aha moment”
Portal translator
GIS Arcsoft
David Goldblatt,
Center for Urban Research and Learning
6
y = 1.965x - 4.3233
R2 = 0.996
2
5
2
Pbaqueous
4
nA
3
2
1
0
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
-1
uL of 500 ppm standard added
2
Pbadded
TraceDetect
Donated ASV instrument
Pb2+
Pb2+
+

2
Pbaqueous
 Fe x Oy  M n 

 

colloid

Pb  Fe x Oy 
colloid
n
 M aqueous
Alanah Fitch afitch@luc.edu
Pb 2 aq  2e  Pbo
Pb 2 aq  Pb 4  2e
2 Pb 2 aq  4 NaB(C2 H5 ) 4  Pbo  PbC2 H5  4  4 BC2 H5  3  4 Na 
Light, air sensitive
Soil extract Reaction to be done
Buffered to By T.A., faculty
Get cation 300 uL heptane + 10 uL STEB
2 mL
Hot plate digestion
Of soils, nitric acid, H2O2
Pull off 100 uL heptane
With STEB; seal septum;
Store for GCMS
Run GCMS remotely,
Or in lab
King High School College Preparatory
AP Chemistry Class
Mr. Daniel Morales-Doyle
Bronzeville area of Chicago
Homes – 1880s
Shared soil sampling lab with Loyola Honors Chem Lab class
GPS measurements for GIS mapping
Service as a Technological Deliverable
What examples are there of Service-Learning in the 3rd sense?
What are the elements that make them work?
Who are the kind of people that do this work?
1. Eastern Washington State
Model is a partnership with an agency
Anna Cavinto
2. SUNY Buffalo
model EU Science Shop
Joseph Gardella
(1 report)
3. Third model is one in
which the public presents
multiple data and the
student is involved in the
analysis (~0) reports
When I grow up I want to be like:
GIS model of lead in soils in New Orleans
How many research professors of
Chemistry bring this kind of background
Into the field?
How do we mentor them into the field?
Howard Mielke is a professor in the College of
Pharmacy of Xavier University in New Orleans and
native of Minnesota. In the 1960’s, he served as a
Peace Corps Volunteer in Malawi, Africa. He obtained
his MS in biology and his Ph.D. in biogeography at the
University of Michigan. He began his urban lead
research in 1971 while teaching at the University of
California, Los Angeles, and continued these studies at
the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and
Macalester College in Minnesota and the Center for
Regional and Urban Affairs at the University of
Minnesota.
H. W. Mielke, Xiaver University in New Orleans,
None of his work shows up under a search for service learning
I did not intentionally design this symposium to have women speak about mentors
Telemachus son of King Ulysses searched for his father under the
care of Mentor
Essentially conflict here for me
I only work “scientifically”
“Greek” Men – a man
(publications) as a control freak
tor – who thinks
Difficult to delegate
Les Adventures de Telemaque, 1699 by
Francois de Salignac de La Mothe-Fenelon, 1616-1715
Mentor was went on a journey with the son of to find the missing King
Most of us can only go on a few such trips
The reason why labs specialize to the point of not being able to respond to a public
call for service?
A few thoughts on “factory” science
Synergism to create exciting science. Large groups facilitate rapid science advances???
Small groups facilitate more risk taking????
http://home.att.net/~nickols/homers_mentor.htm
How does one mentor the grad student
Good mentors – small groups?
Frank Stevenson (Agronomy) – doable science
Tim Nieman UIUC chemistry – doable chemistry
DHE – modeling a methodology; allowed me to wander
Larry Faulkner –reading grants and the PPO talk
Ted Kuwana – described as allowing lots of wanderings
Bits and pieces here and there – no one model?
For intellectual, emotional,
and financial support of
my various adventures
For Lessons in humility
For unconditional love
For time management
and shared ideals
For reminding me not
Everyone thinks the
Way I do