The Education Department in conjunction with the Sciences and Math Departments was awarded a Noyce Grant of $1 million from the National Science Foundation. This grant supported the creation of an enhanced program to prepare STEM teachers to be highly qualified to teach biology, chemistry, math, and physics in high-need science and math classrooms. Under the auspices of this grant, six Geneva students were awarded scholarships for the 2020-2021 school year. They were Drew Cramer, Amy McAfoose, Dionna Pearce, Peyton Schell, Emily Shuttleworth, and Garrison Wieland. During the school year, they have worked with science and math professors as well as education professors to complete research and teaching-related activities that will prepare them to be more effective teachers when they graduate.
To practice teaching, the Noyce Scholars tutored 23 students for a total of 211 hours, and they attended four Collaborative Professional Development Circles where they met with eight STEM teachers from New Brighton Area School District, a partner school in addition to eight Geneva professors. At these meetings, the topics that were addressed included:
Highlights from the Smithsonian Science Action Planning Institute: Professor Kathy Austin
POGIL: An Inquiry-Based Method: Dr. Rodney Austin
Motivation and Classroom Management in the STEM Classroom: Ms. Erin Fritz
Noyce Research Projects: Noyce Scholars
The scholars each worked on a year-long research project as listed below.
Disease Spread Math Model: Drew Cramer & Dionna Pearce with Dr. Mark Tronzo
The purpose of this project is to continue to develop a mathematical disease spread model as well as find values for the parameters in the model. This model considers not only the usual variables in a disease spread model but also the effects of vaccinations. This model consists of a system of ordinary differential equations.
Eigenvalue Inclusion Set: Emily Shuttleworth with Dr. Mark Tronzo
Eigenvalues are used in Linear Algebra and other math-related disciplines in characterizing matrices. Computers have the ability to solve for these eigenvalues directly but are prone to errors when dealing with large matrices and matrices in which entries are complex. The eigenvalues that computers calculate may or may not be correct depending on whether or not the matrix is ill-conditioned. The purpose of this project was to investigate different methods of bounding eigenvalues without having to calculate the eigenvalues directly. If the resulting boundary was shown to include the origin, then an eigenvalue may exist at the origin and, therefore, the matrix may not have an inverse. A smaller inclusion set may exclude the origin, and, therefore, guarantee that the matrix has an inverse.
Using Applied Math in Chemistry TTHM water Research Testing: Amy McAfoose & Peyton Schell with Dr. Rodney Austin
Geneva College has teamed up with the Beaver Falls Municipal Authority (BFMA) to conduct this project with the funding of the Robert noyce teaching scholarship, A national science foundation grant. The BFMA adds Ammonia and chlorine during their water disinfection process. This addition of chlorine can lead to the production of trihalomethanes. While the bfma tests the water to make sure it is safe for public consumption, students at Geneva also test these water samples in order to monitor the growth of these trihalomethanes over longer time periods and provide additional feedback. High levels of TTHM have been linked to an increase in the risk of cancer. The maximum contaminant level of the TTHM in the Disinfected water is 80 ppb. BFMA routinely finds values below the 80 ppb.