EUE Proposal

FY2019 Project ID# 19-19

Project Title Chemical Demonstration Resources for the 21st Century

Project Director ID Number Telephone Email Eric J. Voss 800010533 618-650-2099 evoss@siue.edu

Department Campus Box School College Chemistry 1652 College of Arts and Sciences

Course or Program Department of Chemistry Courses

Project Co-Director ID Department Email

Student Impact: 1000

Multiple Submission Priority: 1

Summary: Live chemical demonstrations are an effective way to illustrate interesting phenomena as well as foster understanding of chemical principles, development of reasoning skills, and a healthy attitude toward science. Demonstrations are high-impact educational practices in that they are a form of experiential learning and they involve students with actively contested questions, empirical observation, cutting-edge technologies, and the sense of excitement that comes from answering important questions. About twenty years ago, EUE funds enabled the Department of Chemistry to organize chemical demonstration resources in a manner that facilitated their effective use by faculty members in many chemistry courses. More than 1000 students each year experience chemical demonstrations in courses at SIUE. This EUE proposal seeks funds to support one faculty member and one undergraduate student worker to: 1) move the SIUE Department of Chemistry demonstration collection into the new demonstration/storage area in renovated space in Science East, 2) organize all items and catalog them in a searchable database, 3) properly label cupboards, shelves, and cabinets for easy access to these important resources, and 4) update the supporting demonstration documents so that more faculty members and instructors can easily implement the chemical demonstrations. Evaluation of the project will consist of online surveys of faculty using the demonstration resources, online surveys of students taking courses in which the demonstrations are implemented, and analysis of student comments contained in standard student course evaluation

data. The demonstration collection database and supporting demonstration documents will be disseminated to all Department of Chemistry faculty members on the department share drive. The project director will disseminate project results externally to other chemical educators at an American Chemical Society regional or national meeting. Project Budget Salary Wages Travel Equip. Comm CServ Auto Tele Awards Total

9000 2400 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 11400 Cost-Sharing Salary Wages Travel Equip. Comm CServ Auto Tele Awards Total 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

FY2019 EUE: Chemical Demonstration Resources for the 21st Century 1

Proposal Narrative: a. Current Situation: One goal of the chemical educator is to share the joy of chemical experimentation with

students (both science and non-science majors) in the classroom and the laboratory. The proper

use of effective live chemical demonstrations not only illustrates interesting phenomena, but also

helps to foster understanding of chemical principles, development of reasoning skills, and a

healthy attitude toward science. Live demonstrations are high-impact educational practices, in

that they are a form of experiential learning and they involve

students with actively contested questions, empirical

observation, cutting-edge technologies, and the sense of

excitement that comes from answering important questions.

[https://www.aacu.org/leap/hips] Chemical demonstrations

have a long history, from Michael Faraday’s famous Christmas

lectures in the mid 1800’s to fictional chemistry teacher and drug criminal Walter White’s vivid

demonstratons in the popular TV series Breaking Bad.

Over twenty years ago, the Excellence in Undergraduate Education (EUE) program

funded several graduate student chemical demonstrators to safely develop, prepare, and present

chemical demonstrations in undergraduate chemistry courses during the 1997-98 academic year.

In addition to preparing some of the more popular demonstrations, the graduate students also

kept a “demonstration notebook” and obtained copies of papers from the Journal of Chemical

Education for use as potential demonstrations. These “files” have been invaluable resources for

faculty doing demonstrations in subsequent years. The demonstrators also began the process of

organizing and cataloging all demonstration equipment and materials including apparatus,

FY2019 EUE: Chemical Demonstration Resources for the 21st Century 2

models, books, videotapes, laser discs, and computer programs. This monumental task was

essential, as many of the resources in the department were previously too dispersed to be useful

to anyone. Subsequent EUE funds (in the 1998-99 academic year) supported a half-time

graduate student to the further organize the assembled resources, arrange them into plastic boxes

by topic, and store them in two locking storage cabinets. Written materials developed for the

demonstrations included an “in-house” demonstration guide, overhead transparencies, and a

resource list. Chemistry faculty and students have used the modular demonstration resources and

written materials for over two decades.

Undergraduate chemistry courses that are most impacted by demonstrations include

CHEM 111, 113, 120a, 120b, 121a, 121b, 131, 410, and 411. These courses reach over 1000

students per year. The Department of Chemistry is frequently requested to do demonstration

programs for pre-college students, both on campus and off campus. Students have helped with

these programs and project a positive image of student involvement for these groups. Examples

of groups on campus include visits by elementary and secondary classes during the academic

year. SIUE students have helped with several special programs during National Chemistry Week

(the last week in October), the Boy Scout STEM University SIUE, and with minority youth

workshops on campus. Involving the SIUE chemistry students in these activities helps to

enhance recruitment, especially among under-represented students from surrounding

communities.

b. Proposed Project: In the twenty years since the chemical demonstrations were last organized, additional

demonstration equipment and materials have been secured, many new faculty members have

joined the Department of Chemistry, and the department has moved into new space in Science

FY2019 EUE: Chemical Demonstration Resources for the 21st Century 3

West. The collection is long overdue for reorganization, and in the process of being moved

several times some demonstration

materials have been separated, broken, or

lost. Starting in 2018, renovated space in

Science East will be available to store the

Department of Chemistry demonstration

collection adjacent to SE 1136, the

Chemistry Lecture Hall, and this provides an ideal opportunity to update the demonstration

resources during the moving process in academic year 2018-19.

This EUE proposal seeks funds to support one faculty member and one undergraduate

student worker to: 1) move the SIUE Department of Chemistry demonstration collection into the

new demonstration/storage area in renovated space in Science East, 2) organize all items and

catalog them in a searchable database, 3) properly label cupboards, shelves, and cabinets for easy

access to these important resources, and 4) update the supporting demonstration documents so

that more faculty members and instructors can easily implement the chemical demonstrations.

c. Evaluation and Dissemination Previously collected student evaluation data supports the idea that chemical

demonstrations do help students identify with chemical phenomena by seeing it “in action”. For

example, in CHEM 121a there has been an overwhelming positive response to the chemical

demonstrations. For the question, “What I liked most about this course.” the most frequent

comment was “Demonstrations.” Other representative student comments include: “Chance to

learn chemistry in a fun environment,” “I have a good understanding of chem now. Fun

demonstrations,” “There were a lot of cool demos,” “The experiments were fun and I learned a

FY2019 EUE: Chemical Demonstration Resources for the 21st Century 4

lot from visually seeing them,” “I liked that Dr. Voss incorporated demonstrations into lecture

material. It really helped me to learn the material,” and “The demonstrations broke up the

monotony of continuous lecture, and made the class more interesting.”

Evaluation of the project will consist of online surveys of faculty members using the

demonstration resources, online surveys of students taking courses in which the demonstrations

are implemented, and analysis of student comments contained in standard student course

evaluation data. The demonstration collection database and supporting demonstration

documents will be disseminated to all Department of Chemistry faculty members and instructors

on the department share drive. The project director will disseminate project results externally to

other chemical educators at an American Chemical Society regional or national meeting after

completion of the project.

Budget and Budget Justification: Salaries: 1 month faculty salary, summer $9,000 Student Wages: $10/hour x 20 hours/week x 12 weeks $2,400 Total $11,400 The requested funds are to support one faculty member and one undergraduate student

worker to complete the activities described in the Proposal Narrative. The faculty salary line is

for one month of summer support for project director Eric Voss, and is limited to $9,000 by EUE

guidelines. The student wages are based on twelve weeks of support for a chemistry

undergraduate student at the prevailing wage for undergraduate teaching assistants. The

Department of Chemistry has agreed to continue undergraduate student worker support beyond

the grant period so that this project has long-term sustainability. It is anticipated that the ideal

timeframe for moving and organizing the demonstration materials would be the summer months,

FY2019 EUE: Chemical Demonstration Resources for the 21st Century 5

but this schedule would be flexible depending on timing of the approval of funding for the

project.

1

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH – ERIC J. VOSS

Department of Chemistry, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Edwardsville, IL 62026-1652, evoss@siue.edu, 618-650-2099

A. PROFESSIONAL PREPARATION: Northern Illinois University DeKalb, IL Chemistry (ACS Certified) BS 1987 Northwestern University Evanston, IL Inorganic Chemistry MS 1988 Northwestern University Evanston, IL Inorganic Chemistry PhD 1992 Brookhaven National Laboratory Upton, NY Organometallic Chemistry Postdoc 1992-1994 B. APPOINTMENTS: Professor Southern Illinois University Edwardsville 2013-present Associate Professor Southern Illinois University Edwardsville 2000-2013 Visiting Professor University of Wisconsin-Madison 2003 Assistant Professor Southern Illinois University Edwardsville 1994-2000 C. HONORS AND AWARDS: 2015 Carol Kimmel Community Service Award, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. 2012 God and Service Award, Lewis & Clark Council, Boy Scouts of America and PC USA. 2008 Excellence in Undergraduate Education Impact Award, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. 2005 Acorn Award for Service to Scouting, Cahokia Mounds District, Boy Scouts of America. 2003 Spark Plug Award for Spirit in Scouting, Cahokia Mounds District, Boy Scouts of America. 1998 Teaching Excellence Award, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. 1998 Excellence in Teaching Award, Emerson Electric Company. D. SELECTED PUBLICATIONS: 1. Voss, E. J.; Khazaeli, S.; Eder, D.; and Gardner, D. C. “Improving Science Teacher Quality in

Southwestern Illinois and Metro East St. Louis: Students Learning Science through a Sustained Network of Teachers,” Planning and Changing: An Educational Leadership and Policy Journal, 2011, 42, (1/2), 155-175.

2. Trammell, G.; Dungey, K; Voss, E. J. “A Tale of Two Universities: Collaborative Proposals in the CCLI Program”, http://www.ched-ccce.org/confchem/2009/Fall2009/P2-Trammel.html, 2009.

3. Voss, E. J.; Shaw, M. J. “Nanoscale Science and Engineering Experiments in a General Chemistry for Engineers Laboratory Course,” Proceedings of the American Society for Engineering Education 2005 IL/IN Sectional Conference, 2005.

4. Chen, K. C.; Crone, W. C.; Voss, E. J. “Shape Memory Alloys for Classroom Demonstrations, Laboratories, and Student Projects,” Proceedings of the 2004 Materials Research Society, Symposium Proceedings Series, Volume 827E, 2004.

5. Crone, W. C.; Voss, E. J.; Chen, K. C. “Interactive Demonstrations and Laboratories Using Shape Memory Alloys,” Proceedings of the 2004 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition, 2004.

E. SELECTED INTERNAL GRANTS: 1. “Development of Student Resources for Engineering Chemistry PLTL Workshops,” E. J. Voss, P.I.,

and T. Holovics, CAS Targeted Funding Initiative, $6,551, 2016.

2

E. SELECTED INTERNAL GRANTS (continued): 2. “Laboratory Manual of Experiments for CHEM 135: Engineering Chemistry Laboratory,” E. J. Voss,

P.I., and S. D. Wiediger, FY10 SIUE Excellence in Undergraduate Education Grant, $13,000, 2009-10.

3. “Hands-on Periodic Table: An Element Collection for Chemistry Courses,” E. J. Voss, P.I., FY09 SIUE Excellence in Undergraduate Education Grant, $6,756, 2008-09.

5. “A Scanning Tunneling Microscope for Undergraduate Chemistry Courses,” E. J. Voss, P.I., L. C. O’Brien, and S. D. Wiediger, FY08 SIUE Excellence in Undergraduate Education Grant, $15,490, 2007-08.

6. “Semi-Quantitative Phase Analysis by X-ray Powder Diffraction,” M. Shabangi, P.I., and E. J. Voss, FY07 SIUE Excellence in Undergraduate Education Grant, $6,025, 2006-07.

7. “Solid State Model Kits for Hands-on Chemistry Activities,” E. J. Voss, P.I., S. D. Wiediger, and E. G. Malina, FY06 SIUE Excellence in Undergraduate Education Grant, $3,715, 2005-06.

8. “Digital Image Processing System for the Scanning Electron Microscope,” E. Essellman, P.I., E. J. Voss, and E. G. Malina, FY06 SIUE Excellence in Undergraduate Education Grant, $8,800, 2005-06.

9. “Video Production for an Online Video Lab Manual,” E. J. Voss, P.I., and M. Shabangi, FY05 SIUE Excellence in Undergraduate Education Grant, $12,363, 2004-05.

10. “Filmed Chemical Procedures for an Online Video Lab Manual,” M. Shabangi, P.I., and E. J. Voss, FY05 SIUE Excellence in Undergraduate Education Grant, $9,803, 2004-05.

11. “Development of a New Graduate Course in Nanoscale Chemistry,” E. J. Voss, P.I., FY05 SIUE Excellence in Graduate Education Grant, $5,000, 2004-05.

12. “Inquiry-Based Laboratory Experiments for CHEM 125a and 125b,” E. J. Voss, P.I., and E. G. Malina, FY04 SIUE Excellence in Undergraduate Education Grant, $7,460, 2003-04.

13. “Digital Imaging of Live Chemical Demonstrations in Chemistry Lecture Courses,” E. J. Voss, P.I., FY03 SIUE Excellence in Undergraduate Education Grant, $9,300, 2002-03.

14. “Laboratory Manual of Experiments for CHEM 415: Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory,” E. J. Voss, P.I., FY02 SIUE Excellence in Undergraduate Education Grant, $4,754, 2001-02.

15. “Web-accessible X-ray Diffraction Experiments in Chemistry Laboratory Courses,” E. J. Voss, P.I., and M. J. Shaw, FY01 SIUE Excellence in Undergraduate Education Grant, $10,449, 2000-01.

F. SELECTED EXTERNAL GRANTS: 1. E. J. Voss, P.I., S. Khazaeli, “Southern Illinois Regional Science Network (SIRSN) – FY16,” Illinois

Board of Higher Education ITQ Grant, $220,000, 2016-17.

2. M. J. Shaw, P.I., Y. Lu, E. J. Voss, P. E. Wanda, and C.-C. Wei, “MRI: Acquisition of an EPR Spectrometer for Teaching and Research,” National Science Foundation MRI, $173,865, 2008-11.

3. E. J. Voss, P.I., L. C. O’Brien, and S. D. Wiediger, “Collaborative Project Gemini SPM: Scanning Probe Microscopy in Undergraduate Chemistry Courses,” National Science Foundation CCLI Phase 1, $105,585, 2007-10.

4. E. J. Voss, P.I., M. J. Shaw, M. Shabangi, E. Malina, and S. D. Wiediger, “Collaborative Project Gemini XRD: Powder X-ray Diffraction in Undergraduate Chemistry Courses,” National Science Foundation CCLI A&E, $106,347, 2004-06.

5. E. J. Voss, P.I., M. J. Shaw, P. E. Wanda, N. Saniei, and M. G. Bolyard, “NUE: Incorporating Nanoscale Science and Engineering Experiments and Demonstrations into First-Year Undergraduate Courses,” National Science Foundation Nanotechnology Undergraduate Education Grant, $100,000, 2004-06.

Date: 22January2018

To: EUEReviewCommittee

From: LeahO’Brien

Re: LetterofSupportforEUEprojectfromEricVoss

IstronglysupporttheEUEproposalsubmittedbyProf.EricVoss,“ChemicalDemonstrationResourcesforthe21stCentury.”Iffunded,thePIandanUndergraduateStudentWorkerwillmoveandorganizeallitemsthatareusedfordemonstrationsinChemistrycourses.Additionally,theywilllabelcupboardsandshelvesinthenewdemonstration/storageareathatisadjacenttoSE1136,theChemistryLectureHall.ChemistryDemonstrationsareusedthroughoutourcurriculum,andawell-organizedPrep-Roomisnecessaryforourfaculty/instructorsthatimplementtheseHigh-Impactdemonstrations.

Theworkdescribedisconsistentwiththefundsthatarerequested,andfundingforDr.VossandaStudentWorkerisreasonableandappropriate.Iamconfidentinthesuccessfuldevelopmentandimplementationoftheproposedwork.TheDepartmentofChemistryiscommittedtofuturemaintenanceofthedemonstrationcollection,andwillcontinuesupportforapart-timeStudentWorkerbeyondthegrantperiod.

Campus Box 1608 Tel: 5047 Fax: 5050

COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES, OFFICE OF THE DEAN

To: Excellence in Undergraduate Education

From: Greg Budzban, Dean, College of Arts and Sciences Subject: Dean’s Memo of Support Date: 22 January, 2018

The College of Arts and Sciences supports the application of Dr. Voss for an EUE grant to move the Department of

Chemistry demonstration collection into the new demonstration/storage area in renovated space in Science East,

organize the items in the physical space and catalog them in a searchable database, and update the supporting

demonstration documents so that more faculty members and instructors can easily implement the chemical

demonstrations. The project supports the focus of SIUE and the College of Arts and Sciences on facilitating

opportunities for experiential learning.