CNSM Summer Newsletter

Close to 280 Arkansas math and science teachers attended summer professional devel-

opment sessions provided by UCA STEM Institute. Teachers were highly engaged in sev-

enteen two, five, or ten-day sessions. The content of the sessions included implementa-

tion of Common Core Mathematics, Common Core Literacy and Next Generation Sci-

ence. Faculty from the Departments of Mathematics, Physics, and Biology conducted

the sessions. Teachers not only received content training but also several resources

materials to implement in the classroom.

The UCA STEM Institute has been at the forefront of enhancing science, technology,

engineering, and mathematics education for the region’s K-12 teachers and students.

The Institute collaborated with the Arkansas Department of Education, Arch Ford Edu-

cational Cooperative, and various departments from the College of Natural Sciences

and Mathematics and College of Education to provide high quality content specific pro-

grams for teachers and students.

The STEM Institute is also extending its outreach programs to K-12 students. Eighty high

school students enrolled in a four-week College and Career Readiness program offered

by UCA STEM Institute. Students went through an intensive ACT preparation in English,

Reading, Sciences, and Writing Math. The UCA Career Services offered the “Jump Start”

program that connected students with career development choices and helped them

learn about skills needed to succeed in college and to develop a successful career plan.

The students also toured the campus and heard about special programs offered by

CNSM.

ACT Prep Class

Transition to College Mathematics (TCM) is a 4th year high school mathematics course accepted along with pre-calculus and calculus by the state’s colleges and uni-versities . The TCM training is a rigorous five day course designed to meet the state requirements to be qualified to teach Transition to College Mathematics in Arkansas high schools. UCA is the only university that is recognized at present to conduct this training.

This summer, 33 teachers representing 32 Arkansas High Schools successfully com-

pleted the training. The participants actively engaged in numerous mathematics ac-

tivities to model concepts that will enhance their students’ understanding of higher

level mathematics and problem solving skills. A participant that has been in the

teaching profession for 45 years stated in an email: “THE BEST, MOST HELPFUL

WORKSHOP OF MY 45 YEARS OF TEACHING THANK YOU SO MUCH ,” Another partici-

pant pulled the facilitator aside during a break and stated he thought the workshop

was the best training he had received in all the years he had been

teaching.

Ms. Belinda Robertson, UCA STEM Institute Mathematics Special-

ist, and Javier Taylor, Western Educational Cooperative Mathe-

matics Specialist, facilitated the 5-day training. Ms. Judy Dunbar,

Mathematics Specialist from the University of Arkansas Fort Smith

STEM Center was a guest facilitator for the first two days.

On August 14, 2012, science teachers

from the Little Rock School District met

at McClellan Magnet High School to

enhance their understanding of A

Framework for Science Education: Prac-

tices, Crosscutting Concepts, Core Ideas

(NRC, 2011), and its impact on the de-

velopment of the Next Generation Sci-

ence Standards (NGSS).

College of Natural Sciences & Mathematics Newsletter


Minnietta Ready (right), UCA STEM Center Science Specialist, works with teachers during VICTER Power Box professional development workshop in June 2012.

ASSET Initiative, an National Science Foun-

dation project administered by the Arkansas

Science & Technology Authority, is a state-

wide, seven-institution partnership to ad-

vance biotechnology and solar materials

research in Arkansas. The program includes

three main research groups: Plant-Powered

Production (P3), the Vertically-Integrated

Center for Transformative Energy Research

(VICTER), and the Arkansas Center for Gen-

erating Renewable Energy-Efficient Nano-

plasmonic Solar Cells (GREEN) research cen-

ters as well as a growing educational out-

reach and diversity program designed to

expand and strengthen the K-20 STEM pipe-

line.

As one of seven partner institutions in the

ASSET Initiative, the University of Central

Arkansas (UCA) plays a critical role as both a

research contributor to the P3 group and

as host site for two ASSET K-12 outreach

The Next Generation Science Standards are being developed in a two-step

process. The first step was completed with the release of A Framework for K-

12 Science Education by the National Research Council in July 2011. The

framework identifies core ideas and practices in natural sciences and engi-

neering, which students should know by the time they graduate. It was devel-

oped by a committee representing expertise in science, teaching and learn-

ing, curriculum, assessment, and education policy. The second step is the

development of science standards based on Framework. Arkansas, with 26

state partners, will guide the national standards writing process, gather and

deliver feedback from state-level committees and come together to address

common issues and challenges. The state also agreed to commit staff time to

the initiative, and upon completion give serious consideration to adopting

the Next Generation Science Standards.

The UCA STEM Institute hosted the training. Minnietta Ready, Science Spe-

cialist of UCA STEM Institute, led the professional development opportunity

and presented with the members of Arkansas Department of Education and

other state science specialists. The presentation was focused on the three

dimensions of the Framework and the architecture of the Next Generation

Science Standards. Physical science, life science, and earth and space science

content areas were addressed.

Biotech-in-a-Box classroom resource kits. Kits

were designed through science researchers

and K-12 STEM teacher partnerships to create

customized, project-based learning materials

to be used in classrooms to support Arkansas

frameworks. The kits are housed in the UCA

STEM Institute. During summer 2012, the

STEM Institute hosted two highly successful

teacher-training sessions on UCA campus. Dr.

Uma Garimella, the director of STEM Institute,

provided additional teacher professional de-

velopment workshops for STEM teachers in-

terested in using the kits to integrate more

hands-on activities into their curriculum. Ar-

kansas classroom teachers from the STEM

Center can check out materials for free once

teachers complete training on the equipment.

Contact Information:

Dr. Uma Garimella

[email protected]

501-450-3426

Main Hall 212

NSF EPSCoR grant supports research in biotechnology, solar energy, and advanced materials

(Continued) Science Teachers Receive Professional Development

On Next Generation Science Sponsored by UCA STEM Institute


Alan Lim, a student in the Biology Department, presented his research this sum-

mer at the first annual Undergraduate Research Symposium in Biomedical Scienc-

es held in July at the William J. Clinton Presidential Center. Alan and business

student graduate Travis Kersh, have been working for several years with Dr. Bar-

bara Clancy on a major revision to a web-based program used to compare and

predict brain development across various species http://

www.translatingtime.net/. The site is daily use by researchers and clinicians from

more than 112 different countries, with an average of 45 “hits” per day, and

more than 75,000 overall. The significantly revised 2.0 version is expected to

launch by the end of 2012.

In July, Richard Tarkka attended a week-long workshop on Green

Chemistry at the University of Oregon. The workshop is part of the

CCWCS (Chemistry Collaborations, Workshops & Communities of Schol-

ars) program which is sponsored by the National Science Foundation.

Chemistry professors from around the country participated. The focus

of the workshop was evaluation of 24 different lab exercises for the

organic chemistry sequence, all of which had major green chemistry

themes. There were also presentations about toxicology, life cycle as-

sessment, strategies for implementing green chemistry, and other re-

lated topics. Several experiments tested at the workshop, or under

development at UCA, will be incorporated into the Organic Chemistry

2401/3411 sequence during the 2012-2013 academic year.

Under the direction of Dr. Pat Desrochers, Ryan Rogers presented a summary of his work from this summer at the Central Arkansas Undergraduate Research Symposium 2012, 1st Annual Meeting. Ryan demonstrated the use of microwaves for the effi-cient synthesis of scorpionate anchors on solid supports. These anchored scorpionates were shown to give functional complexes with chromium(III), cobalt(II), and nickel(II) ions. His work was funded in part from an National Science Foundation award and from a UCA STEM research award. Ryan will be a junior chem-istry major in the fall.

Each of six computer science female freshmen is receiving the fall

2012 Computer Science Female Freshman Scholarship in the

amount of $500. Recipients of the scholarship were Samantha

Anima, Amanda Falls, Angela Lewis, Yaying Li, Jessica Stewart, and

Kelsey Zahorec. Dr. Chenyi Hu, chairman of the department, made

the announcement at the first meeting of the UCA Student Chap-

ter of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) on Sep-

tember 6. This scholarship is sponsored by the National Center for

Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) for the project

“Recruiting and Retaining Females in Computing through Commu-

nity and Leadership Building” proposed by Karen Thessing,Yu Sun,

and Chenyi Hu. This year only five projects were selected across

the nation. The Computer Science Female Scholarship will be

awarded each semester. To apply for the spring 2013 award

online, please visit: http://uca.edu/computerscience.

College of Natural Sciences & Mathematics Newsletter College of Natural Sciences & Mathematics Newsletter

Dr. R.B Lenin received a $9,000 subcontract from UAMS to identify an optimal scheduling

policy to achieve minimal waiting time while optimizing healthcare resources using MedMod-

el software. He has been working with the OB/GYN Department at UAMS to model and devel-

op computer simulation models for flows of outpatients at the Freeway Clinic (FWY) and Fi-

nancial Parkway Clinic (WLR), Little Rock, Arkansas, since Summer 2011. Presenlty this work is

in the validation process. The validation is done using the collected data from these clinics

utilizing patient tracker system. The data consist of arrival time of patients, waiting times of

patients at different locations, such as lobby, exam rooms, ultrasound rooms, lab, and

amount of time spent by resources, such as front desk staff, nurses, doctors, and lab techs at

different locations with patients. A mathematics graduate student, Xiawei Hu, is involved in

this project. The results of this study will be a part of her thesis work.

http://uca.edu/computerscience


The Fifth Annual Mathematics Science and Information Technology Academy, known as MSIT Academy at the University of Central Arkansas, was held during the month of July 2012 in the UCA Mathematics and Computer Science Building. The Academy was partially supported by a grant from the Arkansas Sci-ence and Technology Authority and orga-nized by Dr. Ramesh Garimella, Chair of Mathematics Department, and Dr. Umadevi Garimella, Director of the UCA STEM Insti-tute. Twenty-five high school students from Bella Vista, Conway, Fayetteville, Jonesboro, Little Rock, Vilonia, Benton, Morrilton, and Highland (Illinois), participated in 2012 MSIT Academy @ UCA. This year, MSIT had two activities – Cryptology and Computer Applica-tions. Sixteen students took part in Cryptolo-gy and the others in Computer Applications.

The Cryptology activity was presented by Drs. Ramesh Garimella and R.B. Lenin. Undergraduate UCA students Thomas Deathridge and Brandon Ashley provided support for the activity. A great deal of cryptography depends on number theory, especially clever manipula-tions of large integers, modular arithmetic, and use of software such as Excel, Maple, and Mathematica. In this program, students were introduced to the essentials of number theory and cryptography. Participants learned several types of encryptions and decryptions methods such as Caesar cipher, affine cipher, multiplicative cipher and RSA Encryption.

The second activity, the Computer Applications, was

presented by Dr. Mark Smith (UCA Computer Science

Department) and assisted by Dr. Clarence Burg (UCA

Mathematics Department) and graduate students Bran-

don McVay and Vinh Lu. The participants implemented a

fully functional iPhone App pertaining to a graphical

game. The students were first introduced to the Mac

OS and the XCode Objective-C development tool before

developing the App. The students next implemented the game App by utilizing the iPhone's Core Graphics and Touch Screen

capabilities. Applied mathematical theory, software engineering principles, and iPhone programming techniques were blend-

ed together in completing the fully functional App. Each day of MSIT started at 9:00 a.m. and ended at 4:30 p.m. The

lunchtime activities included a visit to the UCA Planetarium, a presentation by Professor Ben Cash (UCA Biology Department),

and a presentation by Dean Steve Addison about the STEM programs in the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. In-

formation about future MSIT @ UCA programs may be obtained from 501-450-3147 or [email protected].

Cryptology participants working on a project, in front (L to R):

Dawn Le, Jordan Lynn, and Juan Melendez.

Computer Applications: (L to R) Jean Burg, Austin Lawrence, and Vinh Lu

(UCA graduate student)


Dr. Patrick Carmack, Assistant Professor of Mathematics, and his co-PI at University of Texas South Western

Medical Center, have been awarded a two-year R21 NIH (NIBIB) grant totaling $392,057 with $91,034 coming

to UCA. They are conducting novel research into statistical methods to greatly reduce the volume of data in

brain imaging and to combine multiple imaging streams to arrive at more powerful analyses and individual

diagnostics. Dr. Carmack has made significant in-roads over the last few months developing a scale independ-

ent measure of information that was dubbed as MEE (measure of equivalent exchange). UCA mathematics

graduate student, Rebecca Smith, is working with Dr. Carmack in this line of research, which will serve as the

basis for her Master's thesis. Meanwhile, the PI at UTSW in Dallas has been researching a new false discovery

rate (FDR) method that they have dubbed sFDR (subspace false discovery rate) that spends the false discovery

rate in an intelligent manner in spatial problems so that the FDR bound is far sharper than applying ordinary

FDR in these types of problems. Combining the two lines of research, they will identify important areas of the brain associated with

the experimental protocols using sFDR and then greatly reduce the number of data points from those regions by applying MEE. The

distilled dataset can then be fed into more traditional multivariate statistical procedures.

Dr. Jean McGehee, Associate Professor of Mathematics, conducted ge-

ometry workshops for teachers in central Arkansas from July 9th-11th

and July 16th-19th in the Department of Mathematics at UCA. Follow-up

workshops will continue later this fall. The workshops were part of a

$49,921.00 project, “Geometry and the Implementation of the Common

Core Standards,” which Dr. McGehee received from the Arkansas De-

partment of Higher Education. The goals of the project are to acquaint

teachers with the Geometry Common Core State Standards concepts,

improve teachers’ geometry content knowledge, and model geometry

“best practices” pedagogy that will include appropriate manipulatives

and instructional technology. Eighteen middle and high school geome-

try teachers attended the workshops.

The Math Department at UCA changed the calculus sequence (Calculus I, II, & III) from 5+5+3 to 4+4+4 credit hours. This change

will bring UCA in line with other major four-year institutions in the state such as UAF, UALR, ASU, ATU, as well as the region. This

will make transferability easier. To facilitate this transition as seamlessly as possible, the Math Department plans to phase out

5+5+3 calculus sequence in the following manner. New Calculus I (new # Math 1496) and Calculus II (new # Math 1497) will be

offered for the first time in spring 2013. However, for spring 2013 we will offer only old 3-hour Calculus III (Math 2371) course.

Starting summer 2013 Calculus I, Calculus II and Calculus III (new #Math 2471) will each be 4-credit hours.

Six students received the MA degree in Mathematics Educa-

tion at the 2012 August Commencement. Graduates, Ms.

Kasey Ballard and Ms. Martha Watkins joined the Depart-

ments of Mathematics, respectively, at Arkansas Tech and the

University of Arkansas at Fayetteville as full-time instructors.

Other graduates accepted jobs at high schools in Arkansas

and Washington State. So far this year, the department had

awarded eight graduate degrees, including both MA Mathe-

matics Education and MS Applied Mathematics, and expects

to award five more at 2012 December Commencement.

L to R: Dr. Garimella(Chair), Jennifer Wilcox, Martha Watkins, Felicia Doss (in front), Kasey Ballard, Rodney Warren, and Dr. Butcher (Math Faculty)

Recently Drs. Danny

Arrigo, Long Le, and

student Jason Tor-

rence, published an

article in the journal

Dynamics of Continu-

ous, Discrete and Im-

pulsive Systems. The

Article will appear in Volume 19, Number 4-5 (2012).

Article Abstract:

“Exact Solutions for a Class of Ratholes in Highly Frictinal Gran-

ular Solids”

The governing equations for the stress field for Coulomb-Mohr

granular solids are highly nonlinear and hence only a few analyti-

cal solutions are known. In the special case of highly frictional

materials (where the internal angle of friction is ninety degrees),

exact parametric solutions exist for plane and axially symmetric

ratholes in the form of wedge, quadratic and cubic profiles. In

this paper, we will show that in the highly frictional case, these

governing equations are in fact linearizable. In particular, we

consider power law ratholes superimposed upon a wedge hop-

per base. Two examples are considered where stress fields are

determined as the hopper wedge/cone angle is varied.

Dr. Jason Martin published a paper on con-

ceptual understanding of complicated

mathematical structures An article written by Dr. Martin, Assistant

Professor of Mathematics, entitled Differ-

ences between experts’ and students’ con-

ceptual images of the mathematical struc-

ture of Taylor series convergence has been

accepted for publication in the Interna-

tional Journal for Educational Studies in

Mathematics. It is currently online and will

appear in the printed journal at a later date. Dr. Martin's

study presented a framework for analyzing conceptual under-

standings of structural and operational components of com-

plicated mathematical structures. In particular, the frame-

work was applied to a mathematical topic that has mostly

been neglected in education literature, power series in the

context of Taylor series. Taylor series are frequently used in

physics and engineering to simplify complicated equations


using approximations and they play a foundational role in

the theory of complex analysis. This structure is complicated

for the calculus student first encountering Taylor series in

the sense that it brings together multiple concepts from cal-

culus into one mathematical structure. Dr. Martin's study

found that experts could move efficiently and effectively

between different ways of reasoning as different problem

tasks dictated. In contrast, many students tended to fixate

on one type of reasoning throughout most tasks and, in

many cases, this type of reasoning was grounded in formula.

He concluded that his study indicated that the gap between

expert and student reasoning in the case of Taylor series

existed primarily in graphical depictions and proper selection

and use of conceptual images. Therefore, this suggests a

direction for curriculum changes to better make explicit

those things that are a hallmark of expertise but students

tend to overlook.


The Department of Physics and Astronomy’s Dr. Carl Freder-

ickson and Nirav Patel, a recent Physics B.S. recipient, led the

groups of rising 4th, 5th, and 6th graders on a weeklong explo-

ration of rockets in one of four courses for this year’s UCA

Challenge. The UCA Challenge provides 4th– 6th grade stu-

dents interested in science an opportunity to spend a week

on UCA’s campus exploring different science topics with a

UCA faculty member and UCA students. The Physics/

Engineering option this year was rocketry.

The class began on Monday by exploring Newton’s Third Law using

balloons as rocket engines. Students spent the first day building a

balloon-powered rocket. At the end of the first day was the bal-

loon rocket race. Each lab-group attached their balloon rocket to a

string and launched them up and down the hallway in Lewis Sci-

ence Center.

Over the next two

days, the relation-

ship between weight and thrust was explored using water bottle rockets. The

students spent Tuesday observing how the amount of water in a 2-liter bottle

affected the altitude it could reach. This information was used on Wednesday

to try to maximize the height water bottle rockets,

which they had put together, reached when they were

launched. Each group of engineers was able to design

and construct what they though would be the best

rocket. There were many designs but on the whole

each rocket included fins and a nose cone. Some of

them included other embellishments that added a

sense of variety. The students worked with Nirav to

launch their rocket.

On Thursday and Friday, attention was turned to

launching model rockets. On Thursday, the classes

spent time studying the thrust produced by the various

sizes of model rocket engines that are available. Using

a Vernier Software force probe and a special mount

designed by Dr. William Slaton in the Department of Physics and Astronomy,

students were able to measure the thrust produced by a rocket engine when it

was ignited. The students were able to track the force that the engines produced over time and to see the impulse produced

by the engine, near the top of the rockets trajectory, when the recovery system (parachute) is deployed.

During the final day of the UCA Challenge, the class launched

model rockets in the parking lot behind the baseball field.

Each group of students had completed the construction of a

model rocket the day before. While the construction of these

rockets was much more controlled, the embellishment of the

rockets again showed the diversity in the students. With a

burn ban in place, the Conway Fire Department provided a fire

engine and its crew to observe the flights. The original crew

was only supposed to help with the launches from the first

class. They had so much fun that they stayed for the entire

day. All but two of the rockets were recovered. Two of them

ended up in trees near College Avenue. Students ended the

week looking forward to next summer’s UCA Challenge when

they will be studying robotics.


(Continued) UCA Challenge Class Shoots for the Stars


UCA STEM Institute and STEM Residential college worked together to

offer several activities on renewable energy with a focus on solar pow-

er geared to Conway public. VICTER Power box was developed and

supported by ASSET Initiative, an National Science Foundation project

administered by the Arkansas Science & Technology Authority.

At the Conway Ecofest, an interactive, educational festival to demon-

strate and gain a better understanding on our impact on the environ-

ment, several kids from the community learned about renewable ener-

gy by building solar cars, fans, and circuits. STEM residential college stu-

dents and STEM Institute staff worked with kids to teach hands-on, en-

tertaining education about green energy. Using real circuit components

that snap together, kids created working electronic circuits and devices,

to illustrate different sources of electricity. Children received concrete

education on how electronics and green energy work.

UCA STEM Institute Offered Renewable

Energy Activities at the Conway Ecofest


The UCA Physical Plant completed two remodel projects in the

Department of Physics and Astronomy over the summer. The

first project is part of the decommissioning of the accelerator

facility. The access between the target room and the accelerator

source room was sealed to allow for the removal of the target

room (LSC 007) from the University’s radiation license. The tar-

get room will be re-tasked as an acoustics lab. Drs. Addison,

Frederickson, and Slaton will use this space to work with stu-

dents on research projects. This will allow the department to

relocate the biophysics research activities to the current acous-

tics lab in LSC 173.

The second project was the complete remodeling of instruction

laboratories in LSC 159 and 161. These laboratories are used for

Physical Science, Descriptive Astronomy, Applied Physics labora-

tories, and some upper division courses. The old configuration

in these rooms consisted of a two long fixed tables with sinks on

each end. They were not configured for the small group work

that is required in these courses. The remodel of this space re-

moved the long fixed tables and replaced them with moveable

furniture that will provide room for a group to gather around an

experiment and promote a collaborative learning environment.

Electric power outlets were installed in the floors to provide flex-

ible sources of power. A new sink and eyewash/safety-shower

station was installed in each room to enhance laboratory safety.

The remodel also included upgrades to the technology in the

rooms. Each of the rooms is now equipped with a SMART Board

presentation system. The remodeled space will allow the de-

partment to continue to improve out curriculum and serve as a

model for new space that could be built in the future.

Barbara Clancy (Biology) was appointed by the

National Science Foundation (NSF) to serve a

three month term (August - November 2012)

on a virtual review panel for NSF Advances in

Biological Informatics Career Awards, under

the Division of Biological Infrastructure. Be-

cause this is a virtual panel, Dr.Clancy is able to participate from

UCA, interacting with NSF program officers and other panelists

using videoconferencing and NSF’s Interactive Panel System.

According to NSF, virtual panels enhance the participation of

panelists because often teaching schedules do not permit skilled

panelists to be physically present at the time of the meetings.

This is something Dr. Clancy completely agrees with, and she is

finding her current service experience to be a positive one, par-

ticularly when compared other review panels where travel

sometimes tended to disrupt teaching time. The Career Awards

support early career development activities of teacher-scholars,

and are considered to be one of NSF's most prestigious awards.

On June 15-16, 2012 Will Slaton and three undergraduate Phys-

ics majors, Justin Mann, Matt Sisson, and Jerrod Ward, attend-

ed the 10th Meeting of the MidSouth Chapter of the Acoustical

Society of America at the US Army Engineer Research and De-

velopment Center (ERDC) in Vicksburg, MS. Highlights from the

meeting include a guest lecture by Dr. Charles Ross, who dis-

cussed how acoustic shadows may have influenced some

battles during the Civil War. Acoustic shadows are regions

where sound from an explosion or small arms fire is not heard

due to refraction, diffraction, or absorption effects. Conversely,

these same acoustic phenomena can also cause sound to be

louder in regions where it is unexpected. In an era without in-

stant communication, battle plans often hinged upon auditory

cues. If these cues are absent or misplaced then the battle may

go awry. Meeting attendees were also treated to live small and

large arms fire demonstrations as well as various sizes of C4

explosions carried out by ERDC technicians. The meeting

wrapped up with a detailed tour of the National Park Service's

Vicksburg National Military Park. Presentations at the meeting

covered the acoustic spectrum: ultrasound to infrasound! More

information about the MidSouth Chapter may be found here:

http://www.acosoc.org/RegChapters/MidSouth/


Dr. Rahul Mehta and Nirav Patel (a spring 2012 Physics B.S. recip-

ient) attended the 22nd International Conference on the Applica-

tion of Accelerators in Research and Industry (CAARI) in Fort

Worth, Texas on August 8th-9th. Dr. Mehta chaired a session titled

“Teaching with Accelerators – 2” on Wednesday, August 8th that

included four 30-minute, invited talks. Nirav Patel presented a

poster (co-authored with Dr. Mehta and Gregory Sheffer, anoth-

er UCA student) titled, “SEM Study of Elements Present in Bones

Subjected to Microgravity with Shear Modulus Analysis.” The

study measures the variation in carbon, oxygen, phosphorus, and

calcium in the leg bones of rats using the Electron Dispersive

Spectroscopy (EDS) feature of the College’s Scanning Electron

Microscope (SEM). They are also measuring physical properties

of the bone, in particular the shear modulus. Shear stress and

strain can be introduced to an object by applying a force perpen-

dicular to a cross sectional area vector while the other face is

held constant. The changes in mechanical properties can suggest

changes in the chemical structure of bone, which may provide an

explanation for the loss of bone mass when bones are intro-

duced to microgravity.

Physics Education Research Dr. Andrew Mason, Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy, attended two Physics Education Re-

search (PER) conferences this summer. The first conference was the “Transforming Research for Under-

graduate Science Education (TRUSE) Conference,” held on June 3-7, 2012, at the University of St. Thomas

in St. Paul, MN. It was the second of two federally funded conferences aimed at fostering cross-

disciplinary STEM education research collaborations within the sciences (the other having been held in the

summer of 2010 in Maine). The conference featured STEM education researchers from all science fields:

physics, math, chemistry, biology, computer science, and geology.

Dr. Mason presented a poster about one of several anticipat-

ed projects that involve the use of developed computer

coaches for introductory first-semester physics courses. UCA

science education major, Mishal Benson, co-authored this

poster along with Dr. Mason’s collaborators at the University

of Minnesota, Twin Cities: Leon Hsu of the Department of

Postsecondary Teaching and Learning, and Kenneth Heller

and Qing Xu of the Department of Physics and Astronomy.

Mishal spent the summer creating a prototype coach, based

off a set of already-existing computer coaches, that investi-

gates a physics problem with a setting in biological physics.

Members of the UCA Physics and Astronomy faculty are cur-

rently evaluating the prototype. The second conference Dr.

Mason attended was the 2012 American Association of Phys-

ics Teachers (AAPT) Summer Meeting and Physics Education

Research Conference (PERC), held jointly at the University of

Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA.

Dr. Mason presented a poster for the PERC section of the con-

ference that focused on another plan for the computer coach-

es, this time describing their potential use in a high school

physics class setting. The co-authors for this poster were also

Benson, Xu, Hsu, and Heller. This fall semester Ms. Benson

and Dr. Mason will be interviewing high school faculty with

respect to the utility of computer coaches in a high school

physics classroom, with the possibility of adding to the study

by interviewing high school students as they use the coaches.

The potential benefit is that students will enter college and

university physics programs with more preparedness for un-

derstanding a problem solving framework, and also that

teachers may be aided in instruction with a tool that allows

them to more easily connect a problem solving framework to

the introductory curriculum. Dr. Mason will also be working

with Dr. Uma Garimella of UCA’s STEM Center on this project.


Ten weeks of summer research at the University of Illinois provide invaluable knowledge

While temperatures soared outside, UCA rising senior Ashley Hicks, was keeping things cool in the lab. As part of the University of

Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) Physics REU, Ms. Hicks had the opportunity to work side by side with graduate and post-

doctoral students in the Dr. Dale Van Harlingen’s (DVH) group for ten weeks. Her work was on a project investigating high-

temperature superconductors – which, despite the name, only work at temperatures way below freezing.

“Superconductivity was a subject I had no knowledge of before my time in Urbana,” said Ashley, “but I feel like I’ve learned a lot.”

Ashley, whose primary research at UCA is in chemistry and molecular acoustics, was stepping out on a limb by applying to be part

of a condensed matter group, but the risk paid off. Ten weeks later she’s obtained valuable skills like how to prep materials for

creating superconductors, and how to characterize them at low temperatures using liquid helium.

“The REU program definitely helps us grow as scientists,” said Ashley, “And working alongside graduate students and post-docs

was helpful. They were always there to answer questions, and I had a lot of questions!” Aside from her research, she participated

in REU sponsored talks and seminars and a trip to Fermi National Laboratory. The group of students also socialized outside of the

program, spending their weekends kayaking, visiting museums in Chicago, or just watching movies.

“It was a really awesome experience and a great way to spend my summer.” Ashley said. “The REU has really sparked an interest in

both superconductivity and UIUC as a grad school,” She said, “I want to come back, and I want to see where the work that the DVH

group is doing goes.”

Ashley’s summer research was funded by National Science Foundation Grant No. 1062690 and the EFRC Grant No. A 2779 DOE BNL

150252. The Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program of the National Science Foundation supports active research

participation by undergraduate students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The Department of Physics at the

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has hosted annual summer REU student participants since 1993.

Fermi National Laboratory

In September, Drs. Ginny Adams, Sally Entrekin, and Ben Cash attended the Arkansas Wildlife Action Plan biannual meeting. The

purpose of the meeting is to update the state on the status and outcomes of recently funded projects and to update the funding

priorities for the plant and animal groups in the state. The meeting is attended by a variety of state and federal agencies as well

as faculty from universities around the state. Dr. Adams and Dr. Entrekin, each presented on their research dealing with the

impacts of natural gas drilling on streams in the Fayetteville Shale of Arkansas and received positive feedback on their re-

search. UCA was also highlighted in two other presentations for contributed research.

Senior physics major, Matt Hankins, spent his summer working on the FORCAST instrument of the SOFIA (Stratospheric Obser-

vatory for Infrared Astronomy) Project as part of a research experience for undergraduates hosted by Cornell University in

Ithaca, New York. SOFIA is the largest airborne observatory in the world, studying the universe at infrared wavelengths, capa-

ble of making observations that are impossible for even the largest and highest altitude ground-based telescopes. It is a part-

nership of NASA and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), consisting of an extensively modified Boeing 747SP aircraft carrying

a reflecting telescope with an effective diameter of 2.5 meters (http://www.sofia.usra.edu/Sofia/sofia.html). The FORCAST

(Faint Object Infrared Camera for the Sofia Telescope) instrument will be the main facility camera for SOFIA when it is commis-

sioned next year.

Over the past couple of years, the FORCAST instrument has been brought aboard SOFIA, for testing and modification. During

the test period, observations of around ten objects of

interest were made to show the scientific capabilities of

the instrument. Matt worked on processing the data from

one of these observations, “The object, well, really ob-

jects, I was looking at was a stellar cluster in the galactic

center region. The stars in this grouping are all abnormal-

ly massive stars. I started the summer focusing on the

largest star in the group, known as the Pistol Star (the

dusty region around it kind of looks like a handgun, thus

the name). The Pistol Star is special because of the cur-

rent evolutionary stage in its life cycle and its extremely

high luminosity.”

Abnormally massive stars undergo a stage in their life

cycle known as the Luminous Blue Variable (LBV) phase.

During this phase, the star will undergo violent and rapid

mass loss. The mechanism by which this occurs is not well understood, but in the case of the Pistol Star it has lost ~10 solar

masses since going into its LBV phase. With only a handful of known LBVs in our galaxy, any information that can be gleaned

from observations can tell us a lot about this rare phase of stellar evolution. Matt worked in modeling the infrared emission

from the dust around the Pistol Star to try to determine properties of the star like temperature, luminosity, composition, and

size. He also looked at five other unusual stars in the cluster believed to be binary Wolf-Reyet and O/B star systems, though

only two of the objects have actually been resolved and confirmed to be so.

Support for the Matt’s REU program was funded through the NSF Grant DMR 1063059 and MRSEC DMR 0520404.


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