Mr. Timothy McLinden, chemistry and physics teacher at Catholic Central High School in Springfield, Ohio, is the recipient of a $3500 grant from the Central States Section of the Combustion Institute to develop combustion science-based learning materials to advance science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning for high school students. Mr. McLinden’s proposal was reviewed by a panel of combustion science experts from around the country and selected based on its high rankings among several merit-based criteria. His proposed materials intend to augment his first-level chemistry class by increasing emphasis on real-world combustion applications, introducing students to pre-mixed versus diffusion flames, laminar versus turbulent flames, flame speed dependency on fuels, average chemical formulas for in-use fuels, and determination of combustion-based parameters (e.g., air-fuel ratio) from actual measurements. He intends to use the funds to purchase unconventional instruments for high school chemistry laboratories such as CO2 and O2 probes. Mr. McLinden will be teaming with combustion scientists at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio to develop the materials. Mr. McLinden expects the course improvements to increase students’ exposure to real-world applications and enhance their knowledge of applied chemistry and environmental science. He will be recognized at the Central States Section of the Combustion Institute’s 2012 Technical Meeting, held April 22–24 in Dayton, Ohio.

The Central States Section of the Combustion Institute, founded in 1966, provides close and frequent contact among Combustion Institute members residing in the geographic area of the Central United States (i.e., Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin), promotes science and application of combustion, and provides a single forum whereby the diverse scientific and engineering disciplines can be brought together to interchange information related to combustion science and applications. The Combustion Institute is an educational non-profit, international, scientific society whose purpose is to provide and disseminate research in combustion science. There are 34 sections of the Combustion Institute (one of which is the Central States Section). The main activity of the Combustion Institute is the International Symposium on Combustion. The symposia attract members of the Combustion Institute as well as others interested in combustion from around the world. The synergism produced at these symposia makes them the principal forum for presenting and integrating combustion research results.

The Central States Section of the Combustion Institute’s Call for Grant Proposals is targeted for high school teachers to develop and introduce a combustion science-based (i.e., applied chemistry) learning module into their course curriculum. Combustion science deals with fast exothermic oxidizing reactions that occur in the majority of energy, industrial, transportation, and fire suppression-based applications. Combustion science is a broad field consisting basically of chemistry, thermodynamics, heat transfer, and fluid mechanics. There are four major objectives with this program:

  1. to expose high school students to the present and future challenges of combustion science research and development of technology,
  2. to augment high school teachers’ current and on-going efforts to enhance STEM-based curricula,
  3. to coordinate a mentor / mentee relationship between combustion researcher and teacher, and
  4. to invest in the education of potential future combustion scientists and engineers.

Contact: Timothy J. Jacobs, tjjacobs@tamu.edu, 979-862-4355

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