2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

NSF IUSE: Art + Engineering: Translating Local Mineral Research to a High School Classroom

Presented at NSF Grantees Poster Session I

South Dakota Mines (SDM), a STEM-focused campus, is uniquely situated at the foothills of the Black Hills. The region is geologically rich with its abundant clays and shales. Within a ~50 mile radius one finds urban, forest, ranching and tribal lands. Consequently, the local high school student population is equally diverse, with a relatively high percentage of first-generation college, rural and Native American (Lakota) students. Douglas High School has a student population that represents this diversity. In this regard, SDM hosted a high school STEM teacher from Douglas High School through a NASA Research Experience for Teachers as part of a research internship. The teacher conducted research on ceramic glaze formulations using 100% local materials from the Black Hills. The teacher also successfully modified the formulations of local minerals to develop a ceramic coating (glaze) and will translate this understanding to her high school Chemistry classes. The translation will cover kinesthetic topics that include utilizing the potter’s wheel, kilns, and the Scanning Electron Microscope at SDM. Finally, the research findings, and translation to the curriculum will be mapped to meet the SD Department of Education Standards.

Authors

Dr. Katrina Donovan http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0410-7847 South Dakota School of Mines and Technology [biography]

Dr. Katrina Donovan received her B.S. degree from South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in 2010. She received her Ph.D. in Materials Science from Oregon State University in 2019, studying the microfluidic investigations of capillary flow and surface phenomena in
porous polymeric media for 3D printing. She worked for multiple years at HP, Inc. in the 3D Printing Department. She is currently a Lecturer at South Dakota Mines and Research Scientist at Dragon Materials, LLC, an engineering consulting firm. Her research involve experimental design and technique development for soft materials, complex fluids, and surface phenomena. She a wide range of experience in rheological, thermal, structural, and molecular characterization that she leverage fundamentally for academic purposes as well as industrially for applications. As her three patents can show, designing experiments and creating novel techniques to answer fundamental questions that drive applications and technology forward captivates her interest. She has volunteered countless hours to the community, led multiple STEM Education grants that engage the local K-12 schools of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, and has submitted proposals that engage even more tribal communities.
Dr. Jon J Kellar South Dakota School of Mines and Technology [biography]

Kellar is the Douglas Fuerstenau Professor of Materials and Metallurgical Engineering at the SD School of Mines and Technology. He has been on the faculty since 1990, and in 1994 was selected as an National Science Foundation Presidential Faculty Fellow a

Note

The full paper will be available to logged in and registered conference attendees once the conference starts on June 22, 2025, and to all visitors after the conference ends on June 25, 2025

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