Dan Moreno, who teaches general science and chemistry at Menominee Indian High School, recently returned from a six-week stay in the desert of southern Arizona.
Moreno was a participant in an innovative program taking place at the University of Arizona called “Research in Optics for K-14 Educators and Teachers,” or ROKET for short.
Hosted by the Center for Integrated Access Networks, a National Science Foundation-funded engineering research center at the University of Arizona in the College of Optical Sciences, the program invites educators of Native American students to participate in a hands-on research project in a top-tier research laboratory at the university.
Additionally, the educators participated in a number of Native American directed classes and workshops to further apply and enhance their understanding of STEM topics to their Native American students.
Moreno worked with Dr. Jeffrey Pyun and graduate students to perform research on variables of sulfur polymer systems, and attempted to synthesize and analyze novel sulfur polymers for use in infrared optical applications.
For his participation, Moreno received a stipend, his travel and housing were supported, and he had a budget to purchase supplies for his classroom for the 2015-2016 school year.
Moreno will apply his experiences in the classroom through a lesson plan investigating the chemistry of dyes. His class will use spectroscopy to identify traditional plants used for natural dyes, including the wood sorrel plant used for yellow dye in Menominee culture, and will be able to analyze and describe the chemical composition of natural and synthetic dyes, as well as compare and contrast their different chemical compositions.
For information about CIAN and the ROKET program, visit http://blog.cian-erc.org/roket.