ASMSA awarded new grant

A new grant awarded to the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts will allow students to study nanoparticles during their junior year.

The Society for Science & the Public recently announced ASMSA was awarded $3,500 for research equipment. The grant was among six awards totaling $20,000 for science research teachers to help them purchase equipment and services for their classrooms.

Brian Monson, physics and chairman of ASMSA’s Science Department, applied for the grant for a capstone research project traditionally reserved for seniors. The Society has granted $120,000 to 29 teachers of science, technology, engineering and mathematics in 2017.

“I am honored and excited to be awarded this STEM Research Grant,” Monson said. “Thanks to the equipment and sup-

plies we will be able to acquire, we can expand the ASMSA research program and open up new areas of science to our students. Nanoscience is a rapidly growing and exciting field and I’m delighted to be able to offer research opportunities to my students in it.”

Monson has taught at ASMSA for 17 years. He has received several grants in support of the school’s program, but the latest award is the first he has received from a national organization.

“We are trying to shift our research program,” Monson said. “We have always been really good at research.”

ASMSA is among several residential STEM institutions to require research projects for graduation. Students work during their junior and senior years on their Fundamentals in Research Methods projects, known as F.I.R.M.

Monson said he hoped to advance the research lessons earlier in students’ careers. Eight ASMSA students earned their way to the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair this year and five won prizes.

“That kind of award comes late in their career and it does not really help them get into college that much,” Monson said. “We are trying to shift it, so they can get into some competitions earlier in their senior year. One way to do that would be to get some equipment and things and start with the juniors.”

The new equipment and nanoparticle studies aligns with Monson’s Applied Research Methods class in which students learn about research and laboratory sciences. He said students will need extensive training to be able to use the equipment and design experiments.

“Students come in here knowing very little about lab science,” Monson said. “A lot of high schools do not have the opportunity and their teachers do not have the training to do a lot of high level labs.”

Monson said geoscience and chemistry instructor Lindsey Waddell and her Research in the Park partnership with Hot Springs National Park served as a prototype for their nanoparticle research. Waddell received several grants for equipment. Physics instructor Jack Waddell will also make use of the new equipment for his classes.

Nanoparticles are defined as ranging in size from one nanometer to 100 nanometers. A single nanometer is equal to the length of one-billionth of a meter.

ASMSA students will work with nanoparticles from materials such as cobalt, copper and fluorescein. Researchers from the University of Iowa College of Pharmacy recently used nanoparticles to treat endometrial cancer.

“They have a variety of interesting properties because they are so tiny,” Monson said. “They become quantum things rather than microscopic objects when they get that small.”

Monson said he hopes the new research projects will lead to new opportunities for ASMSA students.

“My hope is that after the end of their junior year I can try to find them a physicist, engineer or someone who might maybe work with them over the summer between their junior and senior years to make their projects really competitive,” Monson said.