A Summer of Discovery through Faculty-Student Research
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Conducting student research with a faculty member at Grinnell is a little like learning to ride a bicycle, according to Evan Stoller ’27.
“They’re guiding us along,” Stoller explains. “Just like riding a bike, they’re guiding you along until they push you off and you’re doing it all on your own.”
That’s one of the things Stoller appreciates most about his Mentored Advanced Project (MAP) this summer. Students are not just research assistants when they participate in a MAP; they play an important role in asking research questions and setting goals for the project.
“With the MAP program, you’re able to have a lot more independent, open-ended type of research where you are discovering stuff yourself,” Stoller says. “You are getting your hands dirty rather than just kind of following orders.”
The Tower on the Prairie
Stoller, Regann Fishell ’27, and Zhengxi (Michael) Li ’26 are all conducting a MAP with Associate Professor of Chemistry Evan Couzo this summer titled “Building Grinnell College’s Atmospheric Measurement Station.”
In June, the team erected a 30-foot-tall atmospheric measurement tower at the Conard Environmental Research Area (CERA), Grinnell’s 365-acre environmental research station. They have plans to install an air pollution monitor for fine particulate matter, also known as PM2.5.
Couzo, an atmospheric and environmental scientist, plans to use the data in his teaching as well as research. “I’ll have students interact with the data, do some data analysis, try to understand trends,” he says. “From the classroom perspective, there’s a lot of wealth to be gained from that.”
Besides providing fodder for teaching and research here at the College, the data will also add to the cumulative total of scientific knowledge. Couzo plans to make the data publicly accessible on the web, so other researchers can download the data and work with it on their own computers.
Student Research
Each student on Couzo’s team is also conducting their own independent project. All three are environmental studies concentrators, and these projects help them explore their multifaceted academic interests.
Fishell, a physics/studio art double major from Phoenix, Arizona, is using geographic modeling to backtrack air masses in time to see where they were in the past. “My project is looking at … how storms that have entered Iowa have changed over time,” she explains.
Li, a biological chemistry major from Beijing, China, is studying mercury in rainfall. He hopes to learn if researchers can use the PM2.5 data as a predictor of the mercury level in the rainfall. It’s an important issue, he says, because mercury is toxic. “It can take years to leave our bodies, or it could stay forever if an individual is heavily poisoned,” Li says.
Stoller, a biological chemistry major from Greensboro, North Carolina, is analyzing a large dataset provided by Kuwait’s version of the EPA (KEPA, Kuwait Environmental Public Authority) to screen out dust storms from PM2.5 measurements. “We’re trying to block these out to figure out where the anthropogenic pollution in Kuwait is coming from,” he says.
Gifts Make It Possible
In a challenging research funding environment, Couzo is grateful for gifts to the College that make the MAP program and other research activities possible.
“First, thank you!” he says, when asked what he would like to say to donors. “With the funding landscape for the sciences, now and for the foreseeable future, it’s going to be difficult to find the funds necessary to continue doing high-quality research.”
He also recognizes that Grinnell’s faculty-student research is exceptional. “We would expect this at a big research university,” Couzo says. “But, in Grinnell, population 10,000 or whatever, it’s great that we’re able to do this with our students.”
The Fun Factor
Not everything students learn is purely scientific. For instance, Couzo’s students got hands-on experience using tools and teamwork to build the tower at CERA.
Couzo is also on a mission to expand his students’ musical horizons. All summer, he’s has been playing some of his favorite music for them while they work, everything from the Beatles to the Pixies and Bob Dylan.
“You know, college is about learning, and we are the experts,” Couzo says jokingly. “So, we should tell them what they need to know.” At the end of the summer, the students get to return the favor by playing their music for him.
Most of all, Couzo says, he just loves conducting research, especially with students. “It’s just fun. It’s nice to let them experience what it’s like to do science, that very imperfect process.”