The Newsletter for Science in Motion at Susquehanna University

Volume VII Issue 8 April 2008

 

Director's Column

Tuesday, March 4th, I accompanied Greg Stout on a visit to Pam Ulicny’s class at Tri-Valley Junior-Senior High School. The students performed Gram Stain analysis of various bacteria. They were able to see a different staining pattern for Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria as well as determine the shape of bacteria as being either round (cocci), rod-shaped or spiral.

Tuesday, March 11th, I accompanied Jaclyn Todd on a visit to Jodi Schmidt’s class at Shikellamy High School. The students performed the Pressures Underfoot experiment. Several very nice footprints were obtained that Ms. Schmidt proudly displayed on the classroom wall. By the end of class, students were able to demonstrate the relationship between force, area and pressure.

Greg Stout assists Tri-Valley students with Gram Stain analysis.	Madge Schworer and John Slotterback assist North Schuylkill students with Crime Scene PCR.

Wednesday, March 12th, I accompanied Madge Schworer on visits to both John Slotterback’s and Kelly Boyer’s classes at North Schuylkill Junior-Senior High School. Ms. Boyer’s class performed both Monitoring EKG and Investigating Heart Rate experiments. There was much discussion among students regarding the various EKGs and heart rates obtained by students especially regarding how heart rate changed between exercise and rest. Mr. Slotterback’s students performed Crime Scene PCR while reporters from the Pottsville Republican & Herald took photos and interviewed students. A wonderful article was published in the Republican & Herald on Thursday, March 13, 2008. Page 3 showed students preparing their samples for the thermocycler and discussed the experiment along with the Science in Motion program. Thanks for the positive press!

Every teacher served by Science in Motion was sent a letter requesting that you write your local legislators supporting continued program funding for 2008-09. The request was sent with a list of Pennsylvania Senators and Representatives broken down by school as well as their addresses and fax numbers. A sample letter is available on the SIM Web site to get you started. Please send letters to your legislators as well as a copy to the SIM office. I will begin visiting legislators very soon, and it is extremely helpful if I have copies of letters from constituents to show during my visits.

It is once again time to sign up for the SIM Summer Workshop. You will find a registration form for the workshop accompanying this newsletter. If you are interested in attending the workshop on Monday, June 16th through Friday June 20th, please fill out the form and return it to SIM. The registration form must be returned to SIM to hold your spot for the workshop. The workshop will be held at Susquehanna University Fisher Science Hall. All teachers will receive 30 Act 48 continuing professional education hours and a $500 stipend for attending all five days of the workshop. This workshop is especially beneficial for new teachers who have not used SIM before and want to learn what experiments and equipment we offer.

 

Madge Schworer, Biology Mobile Educator Says…

It has been a busy month for the Biology SIM van. Mary Dahlmann at Shikellamy High School brought the Crime Scene Investigation lab to her biology students the end of February. We began with Fingerprinting, ran DNA Fingerprinting gels, and added Blood Typing to solve the murder of Mr. E. Coli. We still had one snow day in the time period but students were able to work hard to finish the collection of data. Next was a trip to Selinsgrove High School to do the Primary Productivity lab with Paulette Armbruster’s AP Biology students. February visits ended with a trip back to Shikellamy High School with Jen Gurski’s Biology students looking at How Does Temperature Affect Poikilotherms? giving students the excitement of working with the cold-blooded crickets and collecting data with the Vernier carbon dioxide sensors. Back at Selinsgrove High School with Paulette Armbruster, CP Biology students collected data on rates of Photosynthesis in the Vernier DPIP Photosynthesis lab using the colorimeters. At Danville High School, Sonia Crane’s Biology classes performed the pGLO Bacterial Transformation lab as well as the Electrophoresis of Restriction Digests of Lambda DNA in a multi-day visit. Linking these labs gives students a good overview of molecular biology techniques in use today. This type of lab continued with a visit to Angela Farronato at Mt. Carmel High School. AP Biology students worked through the pGLO Bacterial Transformation lab with glowing results. Moving on to North Schuylkill Junior-Senior High School, SIM director Courtney Thomas accompanied me to John Slotterback’s Genetics and Biotechnology class to do Crime Scene PCR and to Kelly Boyer’s Anatomy and Physiology class to do EKG and Heart Rate and Exercise. The PCR lab is a multi-day project including setting up reactions, running agarose gel electrophoresis on the products, and analyzing results. I next spent two days at Tri-Valley Junior-Senior High School with Pam Ulicny. Seventh Grade Life Science students had their second experience using the computers to collect data with How Does Temperature Affect Poikilotherms? and the Academic Biology classes began a forensics unit with Hair Analysis and DNA Fingerprinting. Pam has an imaginative crime scene with her students each year and we are happy to provide part of this experience for the students. She also borrowed the Spec 20s for another part of her crime scene lab. Students ran the agarose gels for DNA but will have to wait until the end of the crime scene to analyze results. I made my first visit to Beth Myers’ AP Biology class at Hughesville High School with the Primary Productivity AP lab. The month came to a close with electrophoresis: Shelia Furr at Shikellamy High School requested the protein fingerprinting lab Something Fishy about Evolution for her Organic Chemistry/Biochemistry classes and Bob Hartman at Shamokin High School requested DNA Fingerprinting for the Biology classes.

Hughesville AP Biology students set up Primary Productivity Lab.

Equipment loans included the protein electrophoresis lab Species Substitution, the blood typing lab Transfusion Confusion, and human physiology labs for Joshua Greene at Bloomsburg Christian Academy. Karen Avery at Milton High School borrowed the Primary Productivity AP lab and Mary Dahlmann at Shikellamy High School borrowed the Leica light microscopes for her study of mitosis. John Hernandez at Sunbury Christian School borrowed the cricket respiration lab and the Hand Dynamometers for the Grip Strength Comparison and Grip Strength and Muscle Fatigue labs.

My schedule is completely full for April and May visits. Thanks again to teachers and students for their flexibility in all the changes brought about by those weather delays and closings. Hopefully weather factors will be a memory as we move on in the spring schedule.

 

Jaclyn Todd, Chemistry/Physics Mobile Educator Says…

Hi everyone! I hope your year is progressing well and you are finding Science in Motion helpful in your classes. I started this month by taking a trip to see Sue Steiner at Millville High School. Her students used our Vernier Gas Pressure Sensors to perform the lab Boyle’s Law: Pressure-Volume Relationship in Gases. Her students used the sensors to determine the relationship between pressure and volume of gases. Her students also performed the lab Pressure Temperature Relationship in Gases where they studied the relationship between the temperature of a gas sample and the pressure it exerts. Then I headed over to Shikellamy High School to visit the students of Jodi Schmidt. Her students performed the lab Pressures Underfoot. The students were able to calculate their foot pressure while standing and while walking. They calculated their individual foot area using our forensic ink and forensic developing paper. They were also able to watch a virtual step as they walked across our hi-tech Novel Foot Pressure Platform. This is always a favored lab with students! Angela Gockley brought Science in Motion into her Lewisburg High School classes this month as well. We performed the lab Ball Toss with Video Analysis with her physics students. The students collect position, velocity, and acceleration data as a basketball travels straight up and down. Then they use a Video Analysis program after videotaping themselves doing the experiment. They are able to then coordinate the lab graph generated through LoggerPro with their actual real-time video so they can watch what happened graphically as the lab progresses. It’s very interesting. We were able to do two labs with Angela’s chemistry students because of the block scheduling. We started with the lab Endothermic and Exothermic Reactions. The students observed and took temperature readings for the chemical reaction between citric acid and baking soda as well as for hydrochloric acid and magnesium. They were asked to evaluate which was an endothermic and which was an exothermic reaction. The students enjoyed the bubbling and smoking of the reactions and most students correctly identified the energy transfer. Then we did the lab Energy in Foods. We investigated the energy content in everyday foods such as tostitos, fritos, circus peanuts, and cashews. The students had fun burning the variety of food items and capturing the heat released.

Lewisburg students investigate the energy in foods.

John Hernandez utilized SIM this month in his physics classes at Sunbury Christian School. His physics students did the physics crime scene lab The Case of the Clumsy Construction Worker. They also did the lab Simple Machines. They experimented with inclined planes, pulley systems and levers. I was then off to visit the physics students of Tracy Hepner at Selinsgrove High School. Her students performed the sound wave lab Tones, Vowels and Telephones. The students analyze the frequency components of a tuning fork and their own voices in this lab. The lab also reveals how the telephone company uses frequency’s to determine which numbers we dial on the telephone keypad. The students enjoy being able to use their cell phones to uncover the mystery. Colleen Ruths at Shikellamy High School also utilized the sound wave equipment in her physics classrooms this month. Her students did the lab Tones, Vowels and Telephones. Her students also did the lab Sound Waves and Beats where they measure the frequency, amplitude and period of sound waves from tuning forks. Then they observe the beats between the sounds using a Vernier microphone. They brought in their own instruments to study in the lab Mathematics of Music. The students were also able to do the lab Speed of Sound. In this lab, the students use our Vernier microphones to measure how long it takes sound waves to travel back and forth in a long hollow tube. This information is used to determine the speed of sound. Danville High School’s Brandon White put our dynamics tracks and carts to use this month. His physics students performed the lab Impulse and Momentum. The students measure a cart’s momentum change and compare it to the impulse it receives. They also performed the lab Momentum, Energy and Collisions. In this lab, students measure the energy changes that occur as carts collide. They classify the collisions as elastic, inelastic or completely inelastic. Joshua Greene of Bloomsburg Christian School had his students use our GPS units again this month.

Don’t forget to get your reservation forms for the remaining days of the spring semester in before it’s too late. If you plan to request a drop-off, be sure to get those reservation forms in as well to ensure that you can reserve the equipment. Feel free to e-mail me about any specific days or labs. Hope to see you soon!

 

Greg Stout, Mobile Educator Says...

Cold weather and high water continued to wreak havoc with our CBC water quality program schedule, requiring us to rearrange various stream visits. The end of February found me traveling to meet with teacher Greg Laubach and his Central Columbia High School students at our Ten Mile Run stream site. Greg and his students triumphed over some really brutal weather and completed their sampling and analyses in record time. Wind chill factors were so low that water was freezing within our wash bottles and tubing for our peristaltic pump and on table tops, waders, etc. Needless to say, yours truly darted for the nearby McDonalds for a hot cup of Joe after the school van departed.

My first trip in March was to Tri-Valley High School; a week later than originally scheduled due to – guess what – snow/sleet/freezing rain! Teacher Pam Ulicny and her students worked their way through Wards Gram Stain Lab in which they utilized various stains in an attempt to identify three gram positive and gram negative organisms. The first part of this lab involves learning how to conduct the gram stain; the second key skill being taught is how to use a brightfield microscope effectively. Both of these skills require some effort!

Sampling of stream water from Hemlock Creek by Bloomsburg High School students.	Loyalsock High School students conducting Vernier Primary Productivity lab.

By the week of March 10th, stream levels had receded somewhat and Old Man Winter was taking a short nap. We were able to complete four CBC stream visits that week – which presents a bit of a challenge for me in trying to provide dry waders to the students. I started the week off with a trip to Sunbury Christian Academy where teacher John Hernandez and his students met me at Lithia Springs Creek. That same day I packed everything up and headed for Gordon, PA, to meet teacher John Slotterback and his North Schuylkill High School students at Little Mahanoy Creek. The next day I was off to Hemlock Creek near the Bloomsburg Fairgrounds where I joined up with teacher Doug VanBrunt and his Bloomsburg High School students. Finally, teacher Mary Dahlmann and her Shikellamy High School students met me the following day at Little Shamokin Creek outside of Sunbury. Students in all four schools did an excellent job of staying on task and completing their sampling and monitoring assignments. I’ll step out on a limb here and also say that I believe they also had a good deal of fun in the process but.... we’ll promise not to tell!

Right after Easter, I traveled to Loyalsock Township High School and facilitated Vernier’s Primary Productivity lab with teacher Kindra Brelsford’s students. We closed out the month of March with two additional CBC stream visits. The first was to Limestone Run with Karen Avery’s Milton High School students and the last was to Shamokin Creek with teacher Sheila Furr’s Shikellamy High School students.

I still have available dates listed on our Web site, so please feel free to submit reservation forms accordingly. Go to http://www.susqu.edu/sim/services.htm for more information .

 

Experiment of the Month

Wards Gram Staining and Bacterial Morphology Lab Activity

The manner in which bacteria respond to Gram staining and their cellular morphology are two basic yet very important steps in identifying them. This lab activity includes cultures that can be stained to illustrate the differences among them.

Organisms (Bacillus cereus, Escherichia coli, etc.) are cultured overnight and then subjected to crystal violet, grams iodine and finally a counter-stain (safranin). The result is either a gram positive (purple) or gram negative (pink) color which allows for differentiation and identification.

Day 1 of this two day lab involves preparation of slides of the cultures (smears) followed by gram staining. Day 2 of the lab involves using light microscopes to determine the gram reaction (color of the stain) as well as observing the morphology, or shape, of the bacterial cells. Examples of these would be rod shaped “bacilli” or round shaped “cocci”.

These two pieces of information are then used to identify an organism. Escherichia coli, for instance, is a gram negative bacillus whereas Staphylococcus epidermidis is a gram positive cocci which grows in “chains”.

 

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