Montana Academy of Sciences | UM Research View

June/July 2000

THIS ISSUE:

Research
NCUR Notes: Students showcase research and creative efforts at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research.

Biological Sciences
Dog Days of Summer: Aimee Hurt's bear scat study was made possible through IBS-CORE, a program that funds projects for undergraduate researchers.

Science
Montana Academy of Sciences: High school students and professionals from around the state are "part of a community," thanks to this science organization.

Joint effort: Astronaut Jerry Ross gives a tour of the International Space Station.

Briefs
Lost in Space Camp: Kids learned about rockets, teachers received GIS training and the public saw stunning NASA images at the Big Sky Rendez-Vous.

Rediscovering Lewis and Clark: A UM program will host a new National Lewis and Clark Education Center.

Out of the Classroom, Into the Field: Teachers spend part of their summer at UM, learning research skills in the Montana Teachers Investigate Ecology Project.

Exercising Minds: Montana students win big at Detroit's International Science and Engineering Fair.

INDEX:
Archives

Col. Jerry Ross' UM talk was sponsored by MAS.

Montana Academy
of Sciences
Students, professionals
'part of a community'

by Caroline Lupfer Kurtz
They are polished, intent, eager to explain hypotheses and methodology and examine critically the work of others. They present papers with titles like “Extension of a Theorem of Kiming and Olsson for the Partition Function” and “Search, Discovery and Characterization of a Lytic Bacteriophage that Infects Eschericia coli.” They could very well be future Nobel laureates from Montana.

“They” are 34 high school students from Missoula, Kalispell, Hamilton, Butte, Anaconda, Helena, Three Forks, Ekalaka and Colstrip who presented results of scientific studies alongside undergraduate, graduate and professional colleagues at the 59th annual meeting of the Montana Academy of Sciences. The meeting was held in April at UM in conjunction with the National Conference on Undergraduate Research.

Established in 1940, the venerable academy quietly encourages interest and participation in the sciences throughout the state and, in general, promotes public understanding of science and its contributions to society. Most of its members have come from Montana colleges and universities and from independent research organizations such as the International Heart Institute, the Rocky Mountain Laboratory and the McLaughlin Institute. In recent years the academy has worked hard to boost participation by high school students.

“We try to make it a positive, supportive experience for students,” says Diana Lurie, an assistant professor of pharmaceutical sciences at UM and current president of MAS. “There really is no other forum like this.”

The academy has been successful, she says, at bringing students together from all over the state and making them feel part of a larger intellectual community in Montana.

There are nine sections of the academy: biological sciences; environmental sciences and engineering; mathematics, statistics and computer sciences; molecular and cellular biology; neurosciences; pharmaceutical and toxicological sciences; physical sciences; social sciences; and the teaching of science and mathematics. High school students participate via the Junior Academy, although some exemplary papers are chosen to be part of the senior sessions.

Jim Harkins, a science teacher at Big Sky High School in Missoula, has been instrumental in encouraging student members.

Interested students submit papers to Harkins in advance of the MAS meeting, and he forwards them to UM professors Vicki Watson and George McRae for review and evaluation.

“Their feedback is an invaluable part of the students’ learning and research experience,” Harkins says.

“The students get really excited doing this,” Harkins says of the MAS meeting. “It’s the only time they get to present their work to an interested audience, where they aren’t being graded. They really like that.”