Photos by Megan Moses Above, graduate student Jeff Turner, left, guides Franklin Alternative Middle School students through a science experiment. Left, a seventh grader tests soil samples as part of the FAMS Student Scientists project.

Seventh graders play active role in EMSI research

By RANDY GAMMAGE, onCAMPUS staff

Student Scientists at Franklin Alternative Middle School (FAMS) are teaming up with researchers from the Environmental Molecular Science Institute (EMSI) at Ohio State to study pollution in their own back yards.

In the process, the middle school students are learning that science is a viable career option for them, and that scientists don't necessarily look like Albert Einstein.

"In our first meetings with these kids, a common remark was that they never realized that scientists were real people," said Paula Mazzer, EMSI post-doctoral researcher. "The overall stereotype of a scientist conveyed to us was that of an old, nerdy-looking guy."

EMSI is funded by the National Science Foundation and one of only five such institutes in the country.

FAMS Student Scientists is an outreach program started by EMSI in collaboration with a seventh grade class at FAMS, a Columbus public school. The program allows students to analyze soil in their neighborhoods and perform individual experiments on the breakdown of a contaminant by soil microbes.

"We were simulating what would happen if their back yards became polluted," said EMSI Director and Professor of Chemistry Patrick Hatcher.

The EMSI research group consists of Hatcher, Mazzer, graduate student Jeff Turner, and Program and Outreach Director Megan Moses. They served as consultants, teachers, mentors, researchers and role models as they led 30 students through a series of experiments that began in October 2002 with a collection of soil samples from near their homes.

EMSI then analyzed the soil for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), a common class of pollutants in urban environments, Hatcher said. Next, the seventh graders traveled to Ohio State for a workshop, where they learned to design a scientific experiment, including formulating a hypothesis, as well as selecting variables and controls. They then designed their own experiments to answer parts of the research questions.

A seventh grader tests soil samples as part of the FAMS Student Scientists project.

Back at FAMS, science teacher Scott McComb guided the students in writing proposals outlining their individual projects, and in conducting their experiments. Throughout, EMSI researchers performed critical lab analysis and provided students with data each week, and continued to interact through regular e-mail messages, telephone calls and site visits.

The project was created after McComb attended an EMSI evening seminar and heard an open invitation for public school teachers to develop collaborations with its scientists. A plan was devised to involve his seventh graders in real-life research.

"Science in the past has always been taught through cookbook labs, where you follow a recipe and get a predetermined result," McComb said. "This has been a unique opportunity for my students to come up with their own questions and come up with their own answers that are helpful to others, in this case the Ohio State researchers."

The collaboration is not only getting his students more excited about science, but McComb also said they are learning that science can be a messy, unpredictable project.

At the beginning of the experiment, students placed dirt samples, water and a pollutant in 60 separate glass jars, each representing a different microcosm. They then looked at how variations of temperature, light and location affected the break down of contaminants in the soil.

"If you can make these bacteria more effective, there is the potential to use them to get rid of some types of pollution," Mazzer said.

At the end of the experimental period, there was another workshop to help the seventh graders prepare their projects for a science fair. FAMS students presented their experiments during a March 13 dinner program in McPherson Laboratory for students and their parents, Columbus schools' personnel, EMSI scientists and Ohio State faculty and staff.

Select students also will participate in EMSI's annual workshop poster session on June 11.

Hatcher said it was rewarding to watch the students' confidence grow as they became involved in an actual Ohio State research project.

"There was a move from a level of apprehension and timidity when the project began, to a level of comfort and accepting us as scientists and a member of their own team as the project progressed," Hatcher said.

For details about EMSI or other outreach programs they are involved in, visit the Web at www.chemistry.ohio-state.edu/~zhzhou/columbus_schools.htm.

Nussbaum Delivers Research Lecture

By Kevin Fitzsimons Martha Craven Nussbaum, center, talks with President Karen Holbrook and Bradley Moore, vice president for research, after her lecture March 13. Nussbaum, a widely recognized lecturer on law, philosophy and women's studies, presented "Gender, Development and the Capabilities Approach" as part of the University's Research Lecture Series. She received a Doctor of Humane Letters honorary degree at the close of the program.

Coursework helps restore Olentangy River

By SHANNON WINGARD, Media Relations

Giving students the chance to help restore a portion of the Olentangy River is one of the goals behind a service-learning project at Ohio State.

The Olentangy Technology Transfer, Education and Research (OTTER) Project is a collaboration between four service-learning courses at Ohio State to help design a stream restoration project that reflects the needs of the University District community, the Friends of the Lower Olentangy Watershed and the city of Columbus.

Water samples indicate that the two-mile stretch of the Olentangy River that runs through Ohio State's campus is one of the most impaired sections of the waterway, said Timothy Lawrence, coordinator for CampUShed, a program that promotes the collaboration between the academic and service sectors of the University to address environmental issues on campus.

"With its expertise, Ohio State is in a very good position to take on projects like this one," Lawrence said. "When the project is completed, the Olentangy River could be a place for the University to congregate."

Lawrence said the section of the Olentangy River that divides the campus into two halves -- west and main campuses -- has a lot of sediment and lacks the diversity of fish, mussels and other aquatic species found in other parts of the river.

"Ohio State is working with the Columbus community to deal with this environmental issue," Lawrence said. "Allowing such interaction between the University and the community is extremely important."

The city of Columbus, in a settlement with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, has proposed consideration of the Fifth Avenue dam's removal, said Herb Asher, a University liaison for the Columbus community. As a first step in the process, the Army Corps of Engineers will be conducting a feasibility study to determine how the dam's removal would affect the Olentangy River and its surrounding areas. If the study suggests that the dam should be removed, the river's water flow will improve, but the landscape will be affected as the river goes through a transition period. Those involved with the project are working with the community to make the transition as smooth as possible.

"This project gives Ohio State a chance to work closely with the community and to give the community an active voice in the process," Asher said. "Restoring the Olentangy River could make the area much more attractive to the community."

Removing the dam would adversely affect the Ohio State men's and women's crew clubs, who practice on the river. Asher said an alternative practice site would need to be found before the University could support removal of the dam. The University is working with the city on this issue.

The project is divided into four focus areas, each of which coincides with an Ohio State course:

• Ecosystem Management Policy (Natural Resources 835) -- promotes group discussions with Ohio State students and the University District community to determine perceptions of the Olentangy River and thoughts of dam removal.

• Planting Design (Landscape Architecture 633) -- examines planting design, its theory and practice, using themes of sustainable design, ecological restoration and community-based problem solving.

• Ecological Engineering and Science (Civil Engineering/Natural Resources/Food, Agricultural, and Biological Engineering 618) -- collaborates to create designs for proposed restoration, recreation and education projects on the river; students will design a scenario in which the Fifth Avenue dam both remains in place and is removed.

• Community Education (Natural Resources 715) -- gathers community feedback for the proposed restoration designs and shares it with contributors.

According to Jay Martin, professor of ecological engineering, the project combines the University's missions of teaching, research and service.

"Ohio State has the opportunity to accomplish its goals through this project," Martin said, adding that the professors involved will help the students learn about river restoration while benefiting the community.

"Students are more eager to participate if a project affects campus," he said. "Our goal is to provide the best opportunity for students to benefit."

Deborah Georg, who teaches the landscape architecture course, said her students' assignment is to design a landscape that "makes the space come to life and connects people to the river." Landscape architecture students and students from the ecological engineering class collaborate to design a landscape responding to restoration needs and the needs defined in community surveys.

She said the project has been a wonderful educational experience for her students.

"It is invaluable to see how the project could affect the community," Georg said. "Service-learning is a way to give the students the feeling that the project really means something. It is more than just an academic pursuit."

In addition to the OTTER project, Ohio State students and researchers are already working to improve the water quality of the river through the University's Olentangy River Wetland Research Park.

President's Salute

By Jo McCulty Professor Deborah Ballam serves lasagna to Megan Kiel, a junior majoring in marketing. Ballam hosted students from both the Honors Contract and Cohort programs in her home March 9 to brainstorm activities that would help raise scholarship funds for college-bound foster children in Franklin County.

Ballam, Gustafson among faculty who enjoy student support

By SARAH CROSS, Fisher College Communications intern

Among the University's top 200 students honored at the annual President's Salute to Undergraduate Academic Achievement Feb. 24 were 28 business majors selected by the Fisher College. While this recognition was a personal milestone for each, it also was a chance for the honored students to acknowledge faculty members who have had a significant impact on their college careers, by inviting a favorite professor to accompany them to the dinner.

Of the 10 faculty from the Fisher College invited, Deborah Ballam attended at the request of seven students -- the highest number of invitations extended to a faculty member this year, and possibly the highest in the event's seven year history.

Many of her students considered Ballam, a professor of the legal environment of business, at the top of their list, citing her unique teaching style and ability to get students excited about learning.

Melissa Koch, a finance major, was one of the seven honorees who invited Ballam as her guest. Koch credits Ballam with helping her and her classmates prepare for the business community after college, to think proactively and to give effective presentations. "She trains our brains to fit the business mentality," Koch said. "She has a very good way of giving us work without us thinking that we are doing work. She forces you to learn without even knowing it."

Koch said students notice that Ballam also is active beyond the classroom. "She cares about the University and that is reflective of her personality," Koch said.

A member of the Ohio State faculty for 23 years, Ballam designed and launched the college's Business Administration Honors Cohort about six years ago, and has been its director from the beginning. More recently, she co-founded the Honors Contract program at Fisher College.

"I wanted to create a program where students would work with, support and help each other learn instead of competing with each other," Ballam said. "I have 25-30 students a year in each of these programs and we are like family. I benefit tremendously from the experience as well."

Ballam starts the groups off each year with an orientation at Camp Mary Orton, giving the students a chance to get to know each other and to learn team building skills, which, Ballam said, helps minimize competition and sets the tone for the year.

Ballam said she has revised her teaching approach over the years to better reach her students. After seven years of teaching, she discovered that basic lecturing was not working and that the classes were not as much fun as they should be. So she put her lecture notes in a packet of handouts, and hit the high points during class while presenting business-related scenarios to drive home the issues.

But the real learning, Ballam believes, comes from student teamwork. She divides classes of 70 to 80 students into teams of four, and has found that this type of interaction is stimulating and really helpful in facilitating discussion.

Honorable mention

Terry Gustafson, an associate professor of chemistry in the College of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, garnered three invitations to the President's Salute.

Gustafson has been teaching at Ohio State for 14 years, and believes he earns the respect of his students by getting to know them for who they are.

"I value the fact that every student is important," he said, "and it is important for me to learn who they are and call them by name."

Gustafson teaches honors general chemistry, along with upper division undergraduate and graduate level courses in chemistry, and is also an adviser for many chemistry students. To get to know his students, Gustafson takes pictures of them and walks around during labs matching names to faces, communicating a sense of respect for them.

Gustafson is credited by his students for helping them realize their full potential, by learning their passions and trying to help them get there. Gustafson feels he is successful as a teacher and adviser, and wants students to be as happy with their future career as he is with his.

Yoshi Narui, a chemistry major, was influenced by Gustafson's enthusiasm for chemistry and was one of the students who invited him to the President's Salute.

According to Narui, Gustafson could influence anyone to become a chemistry major.

"He loves it so much," she said.

This excitement for chemistry rubbed off on Narui and she plans to go to graduate school to become a professor.

Gustafson said he tries to challenge students so that they will learn problem-solving skills and have the desire to understand the material. He views his career as a privilege and said Ohio State has remarkable and talented students.

"I want students to strive to be the best they can be and to remain teachable wherever they are," he said, remarking that "the beauty of science is the more you learn, the more you realize you don't know."

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