This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
This project involves the renovation of Peterson Hall at Coe College, a small, private, undergraduate university in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Built in 1968, this building houses all of the science laboratories at the College. Problems with the existing structure include: cracking and separation of a wall on the third floor; erosion of window plaster and casings; windows that no longer open; frequent plumbing leaks; electrical capacity that is too low for modern research equipment and environmental systems; compressed air, steam and gas systems that do not work in many rooms; failure of air handlers to achieve climate control; lack of airflow isolation in rooms where trace-level analysis is performed; a hot water system, original to the building, that has exceeded its useful life; and stockrooms that lack proper storage and ventilation conditions.
The renovation is essentially a gut renovation of the interior of Peterson Hall. It will include: replacement of ceilings, flooring, lighting, some ductwork, windows, interior wall covering, door frames and some interior walls; refurbishment of electrical, plumbing, heating, cooling, air-handling, hood ventilation and temperature control systems; reconfiguration of lab benches & spaces; and network wiring. NSF is contributing part of the overall cost of renovating the building to cover the portion of the renovation that is associated with research and research training.
The following are examples of areas in which research is conducted in Peterson Hall and which would be strengthened by the renovation: the physics of oxide glasses and their structure-property relationships, including the study of superstructural groups in borate glasses, the structure of complex three and four component borosilicate glasses for radioactive waste incorporation, and the structure of a variety of new alkali and alkaline-earth vanadate glasses; the optical properties of heavy metal oxide glasses and laser induced recrystallization of lead, barium and other heavy metal vanadate glasses; research in musical acoustics; plant and animal ecology; microbial ecology of species that have the ability to use ferric iron and sulfur compounds as electron acceptors for growth in the absence of oxygen; the molecular alterations in murine microglia that occur following stimulation with pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines in conjunction with the application of gonadal steroids; patterns of gene expression in the salamander, Ambystoma mexicanum; the study of sea-worm biocements; the fate of agricultural chemicals in the natural environment; the electronic structure of glassy materials and the corrosion of glass surfaces; and the synthesis, structure, and reactivity of hypercoordinate group 14 compounds.
The award will help this liberal arts college to maintain a vibrant program of undergraduate research that provides an example of the way in which undergraduates can be given meaningful research experiences. In addition to providing infrastructure for research and research training, the renovation will provide a resource that will be used for summer research programs involving high school students, high school teachers, undergraduates and visiting faculty. It will support collaboration with faculty researchers in Japan, Canada, Italy, and England, and their students. It will facilitate public outreach events in science and mathematics aimed at elementary, middle, and high school students and the general public. It will provide much better resources for undergraduates form outside Coe who come to Coe for its Research Experiences for Undergraduates program.
The renovation of Peterson Hall of Science at Coe College is complete. The building was stripped to the studs and rebuilt and refurnished . The new building has a much improved infrastructure for undergraduate research including all new electrical, plumbing, and air handling. The building has improved scientific infrastructure as well including ample high-speed internet connections, 38 state-of-the-art hoods, a room designed for our laser equipment, a glass making facility with ample power and ventilation, a new molecular biology suite, a new organic chemistry lab, redesigned undergraduate labs, and a new electronics/modern physics lab. For this project Coe College agreed to provide scientic outreach programs. We have done this often in the new building. Examples include "Open Minds Open Doors," for middle school girls, "The Coe Playground of Science," and "Muscatine, Iowa Elementary Schools." Attendence for these is already above 2500. Research has begun in the new building. We give several examples here. In physics vanadate-based glasses have been produced for high energy physics detectors. Borate samples have been made for a thermdynamic and NMR study of an anomoly we found in glasses with just a few percent alkali oxide. A series of difficult high lithium content silicate glasses were roller quenched and used in a successful series of neutron scattering experiments. A paper was written and is in draft form on lithium borovanadate glasses. In biology work has begun on glia cells Paul Storer's laboratory has also benefited from the renovations of Peterson Hall. He uses the tools of molecular biology and cell culture to analyze the communication between the nervous, endocrine, and immune systems, focusing specifically on the role of brain glia in models of multiple sclerosis and migraine. This has allowed for the expansion of Paul's summer research program in different directions. For instance, Dr. Storer will be starting collaborations with laboratories in the Departments of Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Iowa focusing on the role of astrocytes in migraine, and also the Department of Neurobiology at Indiana University-Purdue University-Indianapolis,which will focus on the role of neurotrophic factors on the regeneration of injured axons of central nervous system motoneurons. The renovation has also allowed Dr. Storer to procure a grant from the Carver College of Medicine at the University of Iowa that gives access to a nationally renowned imaging facility to analyze immuno- labeling of cultured cells that will be established in our new tissue culture facility. The integration of the molecular laboratory with the tissue culture facilities, along with the established level of integral equipment that are housed in these labs, has greatly improved the research experience for upper level undergraduate students in biolgy. In biophysics simulations of protein and membrane structure and function are well along with a paper just given at the recent meeting of the Iowa Academy of Sciences. In chemistry research is underway on water quality in Eastern Iowa. Professor St. Clair's research has benefited a great deal from the remodeled space. He continues his work in water quality, which includes collaboration of over ten years with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and the Cedar Rapids Utility Department. This work, which focuses on source water assessment and urban monitoring, has resulted in over 28,000 pieces of data in the Iowa STORET database of water quality. It has also allowed him to establish a laboratory and develop expertise which has led to considerable expansion in the past year. The Coe Water Quality Laboratory was selected to provide chemical and physical watershed assessment for the newly established Indian Creek Watershed Management Authority in 2013. This program will include physical assessment of the stream as well as chemical parameters. Professor St. Clair was also a co-principal investigator on a successful NSF-RAPID proposal (#1263559: Using a drought-enhanced nitrate pulse to understand stream N retention and processing) with researchers at the University of Iowa and the University of Nebraska. This award, made in the fall of 2012, enables Coe students to gain experience with automated samplers and real-time nitrate monitoring instrumentation, as well as the opportunity to collaborate with hydrologists, biogeochemists, and engineers. Finally, Professor St. Clair was also involved in a recent successful proposal to the State Soil Conservation Committee for a project involving the installation of sampling access to drainage tiles which drain farmers' fields. The farmers will implement a variety of best management practices, and the Coe lab's analytical capabilities will be utilized to evaluate the effectiveness of the different BMPs. The prior base of instrumentation and expertise, augmented by the improved facilities, has resulted in an enhancement of scholarly activities.
