Research Experiences for High School Science and Math Teachers.DOC

Research Experiencesfor High School Science and Math Teachers Summer 2003 Advanced Research Program/ Advanced Technology Program Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board July 2003... Su

Research Experiences

for High School Science

and Math Teachers

Summer 2003

Advanced Research Program/

Advanced Technology Program

Texas Higher Education

Coordinating Board

July 2003

Supplemental Grants for High School Science

and Math Teachers - Summer 2003

The Advanced Research Program and Advanced Technology

Program (ARP/ATP) were created by the Texas Legislature in

1987 as competitive grants programs for faculty members at

Texas institutions of higher education Approximately 400

research projects are funded each biennium in a number of

different disciplines and research areas

In January 1999, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating

Board extended the programs to provide small supplementary

grants to existing grantees who employ high school science

and mathematics teachers to work on these projects during

the summer The grants are used by research faculty

members primarily to pay for the teachers’ salaries for the four

to nine weeks they will work in the university laboratories and

to cover costs for laboratory supplies and travel

This program helps build linkages between high school

teachers and university research faculty, gives the teachers

experiences that they will carry back to their classrooms, and

results in increased interest in science and engineering among

high school students

Forty-seven teachers participated in research projects in

summer 2001 and 47 participated in summer 2002 At the end

of the summer, almost all of the responding faculty

researchers and high school teachers judged the program to

be excellent or good

This document lists the teachers and faculty members

participating in the program during summer 2003, and briefly

describes the work that each teacher will do

This summer, teachers are working on projects at 15 different

universities, six health-related institutions, and two experiment

stations Teachers are engaged in a wide variety of different

activities from computer modeling to sample preparation to

using various scientific instruments for making measurements

Projects at begin on page

Baylor College of Medicine 1

Lamar University 1

Midwestern State University 2

Rice University 2

Southern Methodist University 3

Southwest Texas State University 4

Texas Agricultural Experiment Station 5

Texas A&M University 7

Texas Engineering Experiment Station 8

Texas Tech University 9

Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center 10

University of Houston 11

University of North Texas 13

University of North Texas Health Sciences Center 13

The University of Texas at Arlington 14

The University of Texas at Austin 15

The University of Texas at Dallas 17

The University of Texas-Pan American 18

The University of Texas at San Antonio 19

The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston 20

The University of Texas M.D Anderson Cancer Center 21

The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas 22

West Texas A&M University 22

ADVANCED RESEARCH PROGRAM/ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY PROGRAM SUPPLEMENTARY GRANTS FOR HIGH SCHOOL SCIENCE AND MATH TEACHERS

SUMMER 2003

by grantee Jessica Zenker

Life Science and Algebra teacher

YES College Preparatory School

Baylor College of Medicine

Polyethyleneimine-Gene Therapy Given by Aerosol: An Effective Treatment for Pulmonary Metastases

Ms Zenker will play an important role in our TDT project aimed at developing aerosol gene delivery technology for clinical application in the treatment of lung cancer in human pediatric patients This technology uses a tumor suppressor gene (p53) and/or a cytokine gene (IL-12) in a unique and patented nonviral formulation which appears to be highly effective in animal tumor models while exhibiting very low toxicity Ms Zenker has worked with our collaborator on this grant, Dr Genie Kleinerman of the M.D Anderson Cancer Center, and is already familiar with some of the methodology that will be used She proved to be a valuable addition to our collaborative effort and would therefore be an even more valuable component of our research team this summer Ms Zenkerhas expertise in areas of molecular biology that will enable her to continue work on redesigning the plasmids we are using in an effort to increase the persistence of gene expression Such an

improvement could potentially make the difference between success and failure in our planned pediatric cancer trials She will also be involved with animal tumor and tissue culture studies, preclinical toxicity studies and aerosol particle size studies These studies should enable Ms Zenker

to transfer her research experience to the classroom

Super-Porous Titania/NLO-Coated Fiber Optic Photoreactor for Environmental Applications

Ms Ardoin will work with two research assistants, under the supervision of the principal investigators,

on the coating of aerogel TiO2 mixed with a nonlinear optical crystal (BaTiO3 or LiB3O5) on optical fibers, and measurements of photocatalytic oxidation of butyraldehyde in air These research activities need a strong chemistry knowledge and laboratory experience Ms Ardoin will have the opportunity to learn and use analytical instruments such as a Nova surface analyzer, UV-Viz spectrophotometer, X-ray Diffraction (XRD), GC-FID, and GC-MS It is estimated that each of these tasks will take four and a half weeks Ms Ardoin will learn from the laboratory work, interact with research personnel, and have the opportunity to contribute to this emerging technology in air pollution control Her experiences are expected to have a significant impact on her high school science teaching

Teachers and Professors Teacher activity as described by grantee

Computer Science Program

Midwestern State University

Flexible Integrated Caching Approach (FICA) for Efficient Content Delivery in Wireless Internet

The research project involves the use of WEB through wireless devices Ms Wuthrich participated in this research last summer when she developed WEB pages based on the new WML mark-up

language and studied the applicability of such pages to cell phones During that period she authored two papers (one already accepted for a conference) In this new proposed participation, Ms.Wuthrich will study the use of WML on Palm devices, monitoring the access to those WEB pages, anddeveloping on-line and off-line applications to be used by students This data will be later added to her previous results in the simulation of WEB caching as described in the main research project Expected results include the preparation of the teacher for work with PDAs in complement to her previous training in cell phone applications Ms Wuthrich will also have direct participation in the main research topic by proposing new applications, algorithms and making observations to be used

co-in future papers describco-ing the research results

Delivering High Perceptual Quality Real-Time Video Over Wireless Networks

The purpose of my ATP project with Ed Knightly at Rice has been to develop technology and a testbed for a new real-time video delivery system We have made much progress, and a prototype is currently under test Our experimentation with real-time video delivery has convinced us of its great potential in education contexts, such as distance education In this summer project, I propose that Debbie Trahan, a teacher at Mayde Creek High School, experiment with this new technology by integrating her teaching materials for advanced placement high school courses into the Connexions system, a multimedia educational project that I started in 1999 Her work will support the important goal of testing the efficiency and effectiveness of the new video delivery system in an educational setting (scheduled for Mid-03 in our proposal research time table)

Ms Trahan will be using the Content Commons to create lesson plans for use in pre-advanced placement high school mathematics courses Students who take pre-advanced placement mathematics courses generally tend to attempt advance placement calculus courses in high schools Advanced placement courses are college-level courses taught in high schools Ms Trahan will be able to share these lesson plans with a larger community of pre-advanced placement and advanced placement teachers through her presentations during the school year Furthermore, they will be available over the internet for other teachers to use with their students

Novel Scaffold Design and Evaluation Technique for Engineering Bone Replacement Tissue

Tissue engineering techniques generally require the use of porous scaffolds, serving as a dimensional template and providing the necessary support for cells to attach, proliferate, and maintain their differentiated function Its architecture defines the ultimate shape of the new grown tissue A relationship exists between tissue micro-architecture and mechanical usage in bone tissue

three-It is however unknown how this architecture differs between species and how it correlates, i.e., with animal weight and activity level Knowledge about the evolution of bone micro-architecture could potentially revolutionize the design of engineered bone replacement tissue and give insight into the importance of bone micro-architecture

Ms Majors will be involved in characterizing bone micro-architecture from different species by using cored bone specimen in a micro computed tomography system available in our laboratory and different imaging software packages for analysis She will also be involved in making scaled models

of those bone specimens using rapid prototyping and subsequent mechanical testing Because of her training in anatomy, physiology, and biology, Ms Majors can translate the knowledge she gains through this study directly into her classroom Several bone diseases such as osteoporosis directly modify bone micro-architecture Osteoporosis affects about 30% of our population over the age of 50years and models generated with the rapid prototyping machine can be used in class for

Southern Methodist University

Development of Information System for Hybrid Rapid Manufacturing Process

The goal of this proposal is to develop an information system for the Hybrid Rapid Manufacturing Process This system will consist of a number of modules, such as: a solid data exchange module based on a donated ACIS 3D Geometric Modeler package, an on-line slicing module, a process-planning module, a process-sensing and control module, and a module for automatic generation of welding torch paths and milling head paths The completion of this work will lead toward the first full-scale rapid manufacturing system for building parts with features that cannot be readily produced by other methods As the project involves various aspects of engineering science and practice in nontraditional manufacturing processes, welding, design, computer control systems, interfacing, sensing, signal processing, and control, Dr Croman will be exposed to the related concepts, principles, methods, software and hardware, and software development Dr Croman will work with a research team that consists of eight Ph.D students, two post-docs, and a research engineer The Principal Investigator is motivated to help Dr Croman in transferring his research experience to his classroom activities Dr Croman has been collaborating with the Principal Investigator since 2000

Teachers and Professors Teacher activity as described by grantee

Southwest Texas State University

Species Recognition Versus Mate-Quality Recognition

Mr Matt Holmes will return to continue working on the videotaping and video analysis project that he worked on last summer Mr Holmes was able to video interactions between fish in the water in some

of the populations that we tested, but due to the flooding that occurred last summer, the water was too murky to permit taping in other populations Mr Holmes will continue this video process this summer After the taping is finished Mr Holmes will be reviewing the data in the tapes and recording the following information for each focal male: (1) the male’s size class, (2) the number of specific males in the vicinity, (3) the number of females within two body lengths from the focal male, (4) the number of mating attempts (thrusting) and (5) aggressive interactions Mr Holmes’ previous efforts have already helped this project significantly and his future efforts will be very valuable to our study and will provide him with an excellent, well-rounded research experience that he can take back to his classroom

Southwest Texas State University

Microarray-Based Neuropathology Studies

Ms Taylor will determine the microscopic and molecular changes that occur in animal cells in response to bacteria, with the intent of learning what signals are sent between host and potential pathogen This work will support the mail goal of the project, to develop a cell-based microarray system capable of detecting the presence of neural and other pathologies Initial investigations will

be done in an earthworm model; earthworms harbor symbiotic bacteria in their nephridia (kidney-like structures) The host (earthworm) somehow selects the appropriate species of soil bacteria to “infect”its nephridia, rejecting all others Understanding this selection mechanism and the signaling behind itwill yield fundamental clues about the nature of pathogenesis and what signals to look for with a microarray sensing device We expect the structural changes that occur upon infection to educate our search for signals In addition, because this summer research is based on earthworms and relatively inexpensive reagents and equipment, it will be easily transferable to the high school sciencelaboratory

Southwest Texas State University

Biodesulfurization of Recalcitrant Organosulfur Compounds

The overall goal of Leanne Teneyuque-Rios’ summer research project will be to generate a recombinant library of enzymes with enhanced specificity for one and two ring recalcitrant organosulfur compounds This coincides with the goal of the Advanced Technology Program supported project to find engineered bacteria that are able to remove these compounds from crude oil Using DNA shuffling techniques, Mrs Rios will recombine the genes from the IGTS8 bacteria andthe genes from the A3H1 bacteria to form a novel library of enzymes She will then use a growth-based assay to identify bacteria with enhanced activity toward the one and two ring recalcitrant compounds She will work directly with the principal investigator to learn the techniques needed for this project, specifically, DNA shuffling and high-throughput screening

Mrs Rios has previous experience in an academic research lab and will be able to use her previous knowledge of cell culture and molecular biology techniques to significantly contribute to the

development of this research project Furthermore, she will be able to take this knowledge back to her high school classes so that ultimately the students in her Chemistry classes will benefit from this research experience

Mary Booth Lyle

Biology and Chemistry teacher

La Grange High School

La Grange

Patrick W Dunne

Professor

Department of Veterinary

Anatomy and Public Health

Texas Agricultural Experiment

to express virus proteins To prevent the spread of the disease to animals following initial virus exposure, the goal of this project is to express catalytically active antisense RNA (ribozymes) that disrupt the FMDV IRES element in livestock Using an inducible promoter to drive expression of the ribozyme transgene, animals can be protected rapidly by feeding inducer-containing feed The first step in achieving this goal is to synthesize a DNA copy of the IRES element based on published sequence data Using six 107 base-pair oligonucleotides spanning the Pan Asia strain IRES element

as templates, we have now synthesized de novo the complete IRES fragment by PCR The complete

IRES was then subcloned in-frame to a luciferase reporter gene Our next step is to synthesize IRES ribozymes and siRNAs using the cloned IRES as template and test their antiviral activity in cell culture

anti-Mary Lyle will participate in the testing of one or more ribozyme and/or siRNA expression cassettes for their efficacy in inhibiting FMDV IRES-mediated expression of the luciferase reporter Ms Lyle will add to her store of knowledge of recombinant DNA techniques as well as her knowledge of enzyme activity analysis

Teachers and Professors Teacher activity as described by grantee

Amarillo Research Center

Texas Agricultural Experiment

Station

Conservation of Nitrogen and Phosphorus in Open-Lot Cattle Feedyards

Mr Conner who is supported by this grant will assist graduate students and research staff at the Texas Agricultural Research Center in Amarillo to conduct a final feeding study that will finalize the data collection, analysis and reporting for this project Mr Conner is responsible for teaching high school animal science and chemistry at the Amarillo Area Center for Advanced Learning, which is part

of the Amarillo Independent School District He will be introduced to environmental problems facing the beef cattle feeding industry in the Texas panhandle and introduce these problems and solutions tohis classes He will study methods to reduce nitrogen and phosphorus excretion in concentrated animal feeding operations along with nutritional feeding management techniques to improve water, soil and air quality His daily work will consist of assisting existing personnel in completing an experiment designed to reduce the supplemental protein (nitrogen) in the diet without reducing the economics of animal production This will be done by dietary treatments that increase the efficiency

of nutrient use, thereby, reducing excess amounts being excreted to the environment Mr Conner will

be involved with the daily care and management of feedlot animal subjects and collection of samples for laboratory analysis

Sustainable Cultivated Pasture Systems for Texas Meat Goats

Judy Taylor will be invited back to complete her work with previously unstudied native legumes of the

Texas Cross Timbers Utilizing plant samples collected in previous years, she will compare in sacco

degradability of various beneficial (crude protein and acid detergent fiber) and anti-quality (lignin and condensed tannins) plant components in both a typical browser (goats) and a grazer (steer) Results will assist us in understanding the dynamics of ruminant digestibility of browsed legumes and how these dynamics can be utilized to protect native Texas germplasm from extinction from domesticated herbivores

In addition, Ms Taylor will run statistical analyses on data collected the previous years and publish these

results in the Native Plant Journal These will likely encompass two articles, one dealing with the

seed/foliage trade-off involved in herbivory of native legumes while the other will focus on herbivore

dynamics as indicated from in sacco degradability in rumen-fistulated animals.

Glenda Overfelt

Biology and Chemistry teacher

Del Rio High School

Hydrology and Salinity Monitoring and Modeling Along the Middle Rio Grande

The objective of the proposed work by Glenda Overfelt, a science teacher from Del Rio High School,

is to separate local climatic influences on the inflows to Lake Amistad In addition to being meritorious by itself, determining the influence of local variability on the flows and lake levels will helpthe Advanced Technology Program project which seeks to determine local and regional influences on flow regimes into Amistad Specifically, the following questions will be addressed: 1) how are daily streamflows into Lake Amistad responding to local daily rainfall variability, and 2) how are the lake levels in Amistad responding to variability of inflows Lake Amistad receives inflows from the Rio Grande, Pecos, and Devils rivers The primary contributors to Rio Grande and Pecos flows are the snow melt in Colorado, and New Mexico, respectively Baseflow from the Edwards aquifer is the maincontributor to flows of the Devils river

Rain gauges within a 500 km footprint of the lake will be obtained from the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC)-National Weather Service (NWS) website, and a nominal year of rainfall (50% exceedence probability) and wet year (95% exceedence) will be identified for each rain gauge The nearest stream gauge to each NCDC-NWS weather station will be identified using maps such as stream networks, gauge loci, and Digital Orthophoto Quads (DOQQ) generated in a Geographic Information System (GIS) Stream gauge data are readily available from the International Boundary Commission (IBWC), and the U.S Geological Survey (USGS) websites Daily lake levels are available from the IBWC Standard statistical hypothesis tests, and newer variance tests using wavelets will be employed to assign statistical significance between rainfall, inflow, and lake levels

Texas A&M University

Real-Time Drought Assessment and Forecasting System for Texas Using GIS and Remote Sensing

Mr Richards will be assisting with data collection and processing for this project Also, statistical analysis of data during the post-processing phase will be extremely important, and a valuable contribution to the research

Teachers and Professors Teacher activity as described by grantee

Tami Dudo

Algebra and Calculus teacher

A&M Consolidated High School

Manufacture of Improved Thermoelectric Materials

We plan for Ms Dudo to assist on our TDT project in two areas In the first case, she will do dimensional geometric modeling of extrusion billet losses after multi-pass equal channel angular extrusion (ECAE) This is important because of industry’s desire to maximize fully processed materialyield Several different multi-pass extrusion schedules are being considered for industrial processing schedules The route that minimizes billet losses and also accomplishes the best micro-structural refinement in the fewest number of passes (least number of handling steps) will be the most economically attractive The results of this work will be of practical benefit to the industrial co-sponsors (Marlow Industries, Dallas, Texas) and will be publishable

three-The second area of work will be the preparation and characterization of bulk Bi2Te3 following consolidation of powdered precursor materials Most Bi2Te3 materials used for thermoelectric devices

by Marlow’s competitors are prepared following a powder metallurgy route It would be of interest for

us to examine the microstructure of such material consolidated via ECAE As an extension of this powder metallurgy approach, we plan to prepare a batch of nano-structured starting powders, using high energy ball milling, to see if consolidation of such materials gives any thermoelectric

performance advantages The results of this second study will hopefully shed light on special benefits gained from ultra-fine-grained bulk Bi2Te3 alloys

James Bassett

Geometry and Precalculus teacher

A&M Consolidated High School

College Station

Jyh-Charn Liu

Professor

Computer Science Department

Texas Engineering Experiment

Station

On the Statistical/Bio-Physical Extraction of Textural Features of Imagery Databases

A major research opportunity for Mr Bassett to participate in our project is geometric modeling of the 3-D images of living cells, which are acquired by high resolution imaging systems in the veterinary school As a part of the effort to create texture-based imagery databases, the slice-scanned 3-D images need to be reconstructed, so that users can visualize the physical shape, look, and measurement of the cell, from inside to outside

The original research team will work on image processing methods to segment major landmarks of cells, and Mr Bassett will be asked to use his expertise to create different affine transforms, and their corresponding mappings to a regular display screen The research team will work with Mr Bassett to select the proper implementation tools to visualize the cell from different angles, and he can take the resulting work back to his classroom for teaching purposes, and inspire students to see the values of geometry and other related math to real life applications

Texas Tech University

Enhanced Degradation of Environmental Contaminants Using Pulsed and Heterodyne Sonochemistry

Ms Crowell will examine the effects of multifrequency heterodyne sonication on the oxidative degradation of acid orange, a common textile colorant and industrial pollutant Through the work which Ms Crowell will perform we will be able to determine the extent to which multifrequency sonication enhances the production of hydroxyl radicals (a leading oxidant in the sonochemical degradation of environmental contaminants in aqueous media), as well as whether or not there is a particular combination of frequencies which leads to optimum heterodyne sonochemistry

Department of Civil Engineering

Texas Tech University

Physical Simulation of Extreme Winds from Thunderstorms

Mr Franks will construct a model house with variable-strength electromagnets simulating fixity of various building components and cladding The model will be tested in the TTU Wind Tunnel to determine failure mechanisms and wind speed that will cause cladding and overall failure

A parametric study of weak links will be undertaken as a qualitative measure of where fixity strength may be optimized

Texas Tech University

Dual Readout Calorimetry for High-Quality Energy Measurements

In the framework of this project, a large scientific instrument is being constructed at Texas Tech University This instrument is intended for detecting high-energy elementary particles such as protons, electrons and pions with high precision In the summer of 2003, this instrument will be extensively tested in particle beams provided by the Super Proton Synchrotron at CERN

Mr Peikert will participate in the preparation of the detector for these tests He will assist in the data taking at the accelerator and he will also participate in the analysis of these data

Teachers and Professors Teacher activity as described by grantee

Clinical Trial of Oral Interferon Alpha in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis

This project involves a capital phase II clinical trial of an experimental drug for possible treatment of arare disease that compromises the exchange of gases in the lungs Life expectancy after diagnosis is4.5 years, and there is no objective evidence that any current treatment increases either the time of survival or quality of life In this study subjects are treated with the study drug and periodic

assessment made of their pulmonary function and progression of their disease Ms McMillan, under supervision of the Principal Investigator and the clinical research nurse, will interview potential subjects, explain the study to them, maintain contact with newly enrolled subjects, observe the various tests being done, and be involved in data collection and data analysis

During the previous summer, Ms McMillan had the opportunity to interact with subjects prior to and during the early stages of treatment This summer, in addition to working with newly enrolled subjects, she will have the opportunity to work with subjects she interacted with last summer who have now completed one year of treatment and who are continuing treatment for a second year because they showed no progression of their disease In contrast to the very preliminary results that she obtained last summer, she will now be able to describe in her classroom some full sets of data suggesting efficacy of the treatment as well as the next stage in the process of obtaining FDA approval Thus, Ms McMillan will be able to work on data covering the entire initially projected duration of treatment and participate in the writing of an initial report on the study She will also be able to participate in writing grant applications for an additional multi-center study Last summer, on days that no subjects were scheduled for clinic visits, she was involved in some ongoing animal studies exploring the mechanisms for the respiratory responses observed in the subjects in order to compensate for the impaired gas exchange in their lungs secondary to their disease Those studies have been completed, and this summer she will have the opportunity to participate in the next set of experiments designed on the basis of the results of the previous study Again experience with the animal studies will enhance her knowledge of physiology and understanding of what she sees in the human subjects

Gary Fortenberry

Biology and Chemistry teacher

Monterey High School

Detection of Airborne Mycotoxins Produced by Fungi in “Sick Buildings”

Research in our laboratory has examined the role of microbial contaminants in buildings reported to have indoor air quality (IAQ) problems We have shown that in over 95 percent of “sick” buildings, fungi growing on wetted building surfaces have been the principal source of the problem Most

notably, Penicillium, Aspergillus and Stachybotrys species have been found growing in heating,

ventilation and air-conditioning systems and on building surfaces These fungal species produce a number of potent mycotoxins In order to better understand the role of mycotoxins in “sick” building syndrome, we propose the following objectives that Mr Fortenberry will learn: 1.) how to work with these fungi; 2.) how to work with these mycotoxins; and, 3.) how to detect their presence Mr

Fortenberry worked in my laboratory last summer and as a result has his name on a submitted paper

“An investigation into techniques for cleaning mold contaminated home contents” by S.C Wilson, T Brasel, C Carriker, G.D Fortenberry, M.R Fogle, J Martin, C Wu, L Andriychuk, E Karunasena, andD.C Straus

Steven Statt

Environmental Science teacher

Alief Elsik High School

Mr Statt will learn and implement techniques for the cultivation of at least three different

microorganisms: Bacilu subtilus, Serratia marcences, and Brevundimonas dimunita.

Mr Statt will perform filtration experiments to quantify the microorganism effects on membrane foulingduring drinking water filtration He will also train on and use a scanning electron microscope, a phasecontrast microscope and other tools (including a shaking incubator, high speed centrifuge, and generalized sterile laboratory techniques)

Belinda Stanley

Biology and Chemistry teacher

St Thomas’ Episcopal School

Chemoprevention of Skin Cancers by Novel Derivatives of Tempol in Mice and Cultures

There will be two types of experiments that Ms Stanley will perform with the support of this grant The first set of experiments involves the immunohistochemical (IHC) stainings of skin samples harvested from acute short-term UV–irradiated hairless mice The UV–induced damages with and without the BE-TOPS treatment will be evaluated comparatively by expression of tumor suppression gene, p53, TUNEL, PCNA, Bcl-2, Bax, Fas/Fas-ligand, and sunburn cells, using established IHC kits.The second set of experiments involves chronic long-term UV irradiation, three times weekly, in hairless mice The UV-induced damages in the skin and the tumor development with and without BE-TOPS treatment will be monitored as a function of time in weeks The chemopreventive and

therapeutic potentials against the tumor development will be assessed with BE-TOPS treatment employed during or after irradiation, respectively The above listed IHC studies will be performed on the skin samples harvested at various time points In addition, the tumor incidence and multiplicity in each group of 10 mice will be evaluated

Wiley P Schuller

Physics and Chemistry teacher

Robert E Lee High School

Houston

Alex Freundlich

Professor

Texas Center for Superconductivity

and Advanced Materials

University of Houston

Radiation Tolerant and Ultra Efficient Multijunction Quantum Well Solar Cell for Spacecraft

Wiley Peyton Schuller will be involved with the fabrication and testing of the advanced solar cell devices for space application He will be exposed to a large variety of device processing techniques such as photolithography and vacuum evaporation and will support the illuminated and dark current voltage and capacitance-voltage analysis effort The proposed teacher training research work includes the collection of the experimental data

Teachers and Professors Teacher activity as described by grantee

Texas Center for Superconductivity

and Advanced Materials

University of Houston

Novel High Efficiency Thermophotovoltaic Device for Direct Heat to Electricity Conversion

Mr Butcher will be involved with the fabrication and testing of the advanced thermophotovoltaic (TPV)device and will be exposed to a large variety of device processing techniques such as

photolithography and vacuum evaporation The proposed teacher training/research work includes the synthesis of the experimental data

Tricia N Aguas

Physics and chemistry teacher

John H Reagan High School

Houston

Alex Ignatiev

Professor

Texas Center for Superconductivity

and Advanced Materials

University of Houston

Thin Film Optical Detector for Retinal Implantations, a “Bionic Eye”

Ms Aguas will participate in the fabrication process of the detector in the Bionic Eye project as follows:

1 Photolithography Activities in this process include spinning time, pre-baking of the photoresist, uv exposure and

development

2 Transferring to a polymer carries Activities include wet etching of the fabricated devices for transferring them from the original substrates to a polymer film

3 Preparation for implantation Activities include cutting the polymers with the devices to proper sizes (2 X 1 mm) for implantation

Redux Properties of Electroactive Porphyrin-Based Components for Molecular Electronics

The goal of this project is to carry out electrochemical and spectroscopic measurements on a series

of progressively more and more complex porphyrin-based molecules that can be used as components in molecular electronics These studies begin with “simple” mono-porphyrins containing fused aromatic rings and then progress to systems containing 2,3, 4 or more porphyrin macrocycles linked together by various spacer groups Ms Kuhl will contribute to the project by helping to make electrochemical and spectroscopic measurements on the different component species under different solution conditions and in the presence of different complexing ions which may coordinate to the metal centers of the porphyrins being investigated She should also be able to carry out

measurements of equilibrium constants for ligand binding at the metal centers of the compounds and

to investigate complexation of different metal ions by the fused phenanthrolene groups on some of the compounds to be electrochemically characterized Her assistance in these areas will be a valuable addition to the project and will provide her knowledge which can be used to enhance her classroom teaching during the following Fall semester

Clyde A Price

Chemistry, Integrated Physics, and

Environmental Systems teacher

John M Reagan High School

characterization of the nitride-based fire/flame detector prototype This equipment will include the system for deposition of transparent electrically conductive tin oxide layers by spray pyrolysis and modification of spectral measurement system

Sean Eyre

Calculus and Physic teacher

Kaufman High School

Kaufman

Jose Perez

Professor

Department of Physics

University of North Texas

Self-Assembled Silicide Nanostructures for Integrated Optoelectronics

Mr Eyre will work within the Semiconductor Physics Laboratory at the University of North Texas and will become acquainted with the synthesis, processing and characterization of semiconductors He will also participate in a semiconductor seminar series, and will meet with researchers from

semiconductor industries in the North Texas region He will use this exposure with both the university and industry to provide career guidance and enhancement at Kaufman High School This will also expose the high school students to university and industry level research and career concepts in the world of physics

Jo-Ann S Yannazzo

Anatomy, Physiology, Chemistry

and Microbiology teacher

North Side High School

Function and Regulation of Polycystin-2 in C Elegans – A Model for Polycystic Kidney Disease

Research will include testing chemicals on the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans to observe their

effect on intracellular calcium ion channels Fluorescent techniques will be used to quantitate the amount of calcium ions inside the cells