for undergraduate research, most think of STEM—science, technology, engineering, and math. But that definition is too narrow—for a number of reasons, one of which is that all of our students need some fluency in science: how it works, how it’s conducted, what it means, what are the limits and what is the purpose. Nothing helps to answer these questions better than the
process of science and research itself.
Mary Phillips. The photographs below are courtesy of Mary Phillips, Southeast Campus biology professor.
Moreover, our institutions and the entities that govern
them are not designed to support this kind of work—however
much they tout and champion the cause. US education remains a
behemoth—cumbersome systems ingrained in an antiquated
edifice—lumbering toward what we can only hope is improvement.
student, Kelly Markwardt, presented their research poster on Conservation Biology Research and Community Service Projects. Conservation biology research students are required to work on various research projects, such as biosurveys of the Cross Timbers
and dendrochronology studies of ancient trees. In addition, the
students are required to participate in community service projects. Kelly Markwardt is designing and developing a butterfly
flowerbed for the West Campus Child Development Center. This
flowerbed will showcase native plants with textures, smells, colors, and pollinators.
Dr. Diana Spencer, Biotechnology Coordinator, and
five of her Molecular Biology
and Techniques students ─
Hunter Bearden, Andrew
Teaching is harder these days—for a myriad of reasons. Brown, Mang Chang, Bobby
And with all the buzz around and about education, I am drawn to Daughtery, and Minji Sohn ─
presented their poster on Mothe bottom line—analysis, application, evaluation, synthesis,
lecular Scatology Using DNA
problem solving, information literacy, and creative thinking.
Barcoding: Genetic IdentificaTeachers use these skills to make classrooms relevant
tion of Zoological Specimens
and dynamic and to help our students bring their own critical
and Diet Using Mitochondrial
thinking to life.
and Plastid Loci. The students
For our students, facing a global economy and the prob- extracted DNA from feces of
animals housed at the Tulsa
lems of the 21st Century—pummeling our shores and drying up
Zoo. They amplified and sethe heartland—creative thinking, cross-discipline thinking, and
Sasha Townsend
quenced particular bar-coding
problem solving should be at the center of what we do in the
genes and analyzed the seclassroom. I will be the first to say this 3-prong approach to
teaching is much harder—much harder to plan, prepare, roll out, quences using five separate bioinformatics tools.
and manage.
Patty B. Smith, West Campus biology professor, and her
The next five years are crucial.
Footnote: As I write, Channel 6
reports that Oklahoma’s legislature is working to pass a bill that
will exempt students from science curriculum that conflicts
with the student’s beliefs.
Kelly Markwardt and
Patty B. Smith
“
Research is
Teaching”
TCC Well Represented at Oklahoma
Research Day
Dr. Vladimir Kozhevnikov, Metro Campus physics professor, and three of his students Sasha Townsend, Jon Snellgrove and
Tyler Nitsche, presented their research poster on Size and Mass of
Cooper Pairs in Superconductors. The size (distance between electrons in a Cooper pair) and mass of Cooper pairs were measured
using low-energy muon spin rotation spectroscopy (LE-uSR) and
polarized neutron reflectometry (PNR). This project is funded by
the National Science Foundation.
Many former TCC research students presented their current research posters at Oklahoma Research Day. Presently, these
students are conducting research at four-year universities, such
(Continued on page 4)
Dr. Patty B. Smith
Thirty-five faculty, students, staff, and administrators
attended and / or presented posters at Oklahoma Research Day
on March 8 of 2013. Dr. Doug Price, Dean of Global and Engaged
Learning, and Angela Summers, Faculty Director of the Center for
Excellence in Learning and Teaching, arranged for bus transportation to the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond. The bus
transportation was funded through the Office of Global and Engaged Learning and Faculty Innovation Grant (FIG) for Undergraduate Research and Scholarly Activities awarded to Patty B.
Smith, Dr. Diana Spencer, Dr. Bryan Coppedge, Dusti Sloan, and
Andrew Brown, Bobby Daugherty,
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