June 8, 2015 at 3:36 p.m.
RHS grad serving as science coach at LUHS
RHS grad serving as science coach at LUHS
By By Michael Strasburg-
Frost, who graduated from Rhinelander High School and earned his associate degree at Nicolet College, is part of the American Chemical Society's science coach program.
ACS science coaches are chemistry professionals who share their expertise with an elementary, middle or high school teacher over the course of the school year. In doing so, they enhance science education and secure a $500 donation for the school.
During Frost's second year at LUHS, several of the accomplishments he has guided students through have come to fruition. One student's research was presented at a national conference and over 70 students - along with Frost, former LUHS teacher Joy Pitzer and a UW-Whitewater professor - contributed in a study that was published in a peer-reviewed academic journal earlier this year.
Bringing NMR to science class
Frost first began volunteering at LUHS during the 2013-14 school year. He creates special lab experiments that the students carry out in class. Some of these experiments allow students to use equipment to which they would not otherwise have access.
Many of Frost's experiments require the students to use an nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy machine. Frost began using NMR with high school students after he was contacted by Jessica Bonjour, a professor at UW-Whitewater.
"She originally brought me into the fold to help her train her high school teachers around the Whitewater area," Frost said. "In doing that work, she wanted to help teachers form a simple lab for students who would be able to use instruments that the school would never be able to afford otherwise."
The special compact NMR machine that Frost uses at LUHS is valued at $30,000.
Last May, Frost - along with Pitzer - conducted the NMR lab with LUHS students to see how their scientific understanding benefited from the lab and the use of advanced instruments.
"They learned a lot I think," Frost said. "Normally you aren't exposed to NMR as a technique until your sophomore year organic chemistry course in college, so they got exposed very early, learned a lot and got a heads up."
With the results from the lab, the students, Frost, Pitzer and Bonjour collaborated on an article about the study and prepared to submit it for publication.
"Our class was basically the data that this professor needed," Pitzer said. "She had written up the skeleton of the labs and then we went through afterwords and wrote that the students really had trouble with this, this and that in terms of the comprehension of the wording."
"Then we went through with Jessica in order to streamline [the lab] and make it easier for students to understand," Pitzer said.
The article was published in The Journal of Chemical Education this January.
National conference presentation
At the same time that he was working with students in class labs, Frost was conducting a special research project with one student, Vansh Jain, outside of class.
"Vansh is extremely intelligent and great to have as a student, but our level is not much of a challenge for him," said Pitzer. "So when Dr. Frost came along, they were the perfect pair - here's somebody that would love to challenge Vansh. That's what this was all about: an extra challenge, independent study."
"Dr. Frost and my teacher - who was Ms. Pitzer at the time - we did a project using NMR, which is a technology that Dr. Frost specializes in," Jain said
For the project, Jain used Frost's NMR machine to detect levels of methanol in vodka.
"It was a simpler project, but it helped me understand how the technology works, and more than that how a proper research project is done," said Jain.
NMR technology functions similar to an MRI machine except it scans chemicals rather than human bodies.
"What Dr. Frost helped me do was understand the technology behind it and how to read the data which comes out of it," Jain said.
"This was a great opportunity for Vansh to learn some new science that would really challenge him because he got exposed to a lot of things that the high school just doesn't have access to and doesn't have the time to expose the students to," said Frost.
"It was interesting to watch that relationship ... it was very much student-directed where [Vansh] wasn't spoon-fed," Pitzer said. "Sometimes we have a tendency as teachers to spoon it in and I knew that this wouldn't be that way if he worked with Dr. Frost. Vansh just took it and went."
In addition, Frost was able to better understand the technology he works with as well.
"At the same time, we [Thermo Fisher] had the opportunity to get another body on the project ... we got to find out what the lower limit of detection was for the machine," Frost said. "Vansh got to learn a whole bunch of things and we got to apply it to a relevant industrial problem."
After finishing the research, Jain created a research poster and presented his conclusions in August at the 2014 Biennial Conference on Chemical Education at Grand Valley State University in Michigan.
"The BCCE is the premier conference in the United States - arguably the world - on chemical education," Jain said. "A lot of high school teachers do attend. I don't know if there are any - maybe a handful - of high school students."
"We've never created posters like this," said Jain. "This is what a lot of college level and beyond researchers do and I've not been exposed to this way of conducting an experiment."
Despite Jain's previous inexperience, his research spoke for itself, Frost said.
"It was very well received at the conference," Frost said. "A poster presentation is the most common way that scientific information is passed along at a chemical conference ... it's not just college level students and graduate students that present this way, it's oftentimes prestigious faculty."
Jain, who is just finishing his junior year, plans to continue his research next year by studying fruit juices instead of spirits, which are more complex in their composition.
"I think the process itself was a big learning experience and I'll be able to use it beyond high school and into college," Jain said.
Frost recently worked with LUHS science classes on another NMR lab project as well. He is set to return as a science coach at LUHS for the 2015-16 school year.
Michael Strasburg may be reached at [email protected].
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