The Newsletter for Science in Motion at Susquehanna University

Volume VII Issue 7 March 2008

 

Director's Column

It is that time of year again when I make a request of the teachers served by SIM. As you already know, 2008-09 funding for SIM was once again NOT in the Governor’s budget and our local legislators work very hard to put funding for SIM into the state budget every year. There isn’t a line item for SIM in the state budget, so every year we must advocate for continued funding. This year is no different. Since so many teachers depend on SIM experiments to teach their courses, I ask that you take a few minutes to send a letter to your local legislators. When I visit legislators asking them to put funding for SIM into the state budget, they always ask if any teachers in their district are using the program. I show them statistics of how many teachers and students are served in their district, but the legislators are much more impressed by receiving letters from constituents themselves. To make the letter writing process as easy as possible, you will find a sample letter on the SIM Web site (under Links) as well as a list of legislators broken down by school district and contact information for each legislator. Please take a few minutes to send a letter to your representative and senator and send a copy, e-mail or fax (570-372-2791) is fine, to SIM.

Are you interested in taking your students on a field trip to the capitol building and showing support for SIM? The annual SIM Capitol Day is Tuesday, May 6, 2008. Any science teachers interested in bringing ~6-8 secondary science students (variety of biology, chemistry, and physics students) to the capitol during this event, please contact me at thomasc@susqu.edu. SIM will reimburse schools $100 for travel costs and lunch will be provided for the teacher and students.

 

Madge Schworer, Biology Mobile Educator Says…

Snow and ice has certainly been the watchword for this month! Delays and closing have played havoc with all our schedules. The end of January found me at Lewisburg High School in Jeremy Lauver’s class working with the AP Biology students on Electrophoresis of Restriction Digests of Lambda DNA (AP Lab #6B). Nina Green at Montgomery High School invited me for a first SIM visit to do DNA Fingerprinting with her biology classes. The AP Bio students and teacher Lee Robinson joined in with this activity as well. I took the pGLO: Bacterial Transformation lab to Bloomsburg High School and the AP Biology class taught by Jim Dodge. At Mt. Carmel High School the AP biology students performed the PCR Crime Scene with teacher Angela Farronato. Also at Mt Carmel, Pam Hooper’s students measured velocity of various cars in the lab Indy 500. The snow made the visit to Danville High School and the Forensic Science class taught by Donna Wood a short one with Fingerprinting. It was back to Montgomery High School and Nina Green with the lab Human Chromosome Spread. Paulette Armbruster’s CP Biology classes looked at Investigating Enzyme Activity at Selinsgrove High School. At Berwick High School AP Biology students produced glowing bacteria in the pGLO lab and then Bio 1 students investigated Limitations on Cell Size using the Vernier conductivity probes and agar cubes with teacher Allison Spencer. Finally we spread the lab Something’s Fishy about Evolution over two days with Pam Ulicny’s biology classes at Tri-Valley Junior-Senior High School to accommodate the snow delays.

Equipment loans included Bo Meyer at Williamsport High School and the PV92PCR lab, Dan Smith at Juniata High School with digital scopes for his mitosis labs, Heidy Oldt at Midd-West High School with Photosynthesis and Respiration, Angela Gockley at Lewisburg High School with melt-temps, and Kathy Bower at Milton High School with EKG and Heart Rate and Exercise. A special thanks goes out to all the teachers who worked so hard to keep me posted with snow delays and closings and were flexible as we tried (and are still trying) to accommodate the schedule changes brought on by the weather. Spring – come soon!!

 

Jaclyn Todd, Chemistry/Physics Mobile Educator Says…

The weather has once again made the scheduling process at Science in Motion a little more interesting to say the least. Luckily, I have been able to keep most of you on track so far this season. This month began with a trip over to Tracy Hepner at Selinsgrove High School. Her students performed the lab GC of Alcohols. Her students analyzed various compounds using our gas chromatographs to determine their various components. Jack Deal of Danville High School 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. Danville High School’s Brandon White also performed these labs with his physics students this month. In addition, Brandon’s physics students utilized our low spring constant springs to perform the lab Simple Harmonic Motion. The students use a Vernier motion detector to determine the amplitude, period, and phase constant of a mass and spring system in simple harmonic motion. Joshua Greene of Bloomsburg Christian High School had his students use our GPS units again this month.

Brian Leslie of Mt. Carmel High School brought Science in Motion into his conceptual physics classrooms. His students did the lab Sound Waves and Beats where they measure the frequency, amplitude and period of sound waves from tuning forks. They also observe the beats between the sounds using a Vernier microphone. The students also performed the lab Tones, Vowels and Telephones where they analyze the frequency components of a tuning fork and their own voices. The lab also reveals how the telephone company uses frequency’s to determine which numbers we dial on the telephone keypad. Joshua Greene of Bloomsburg Christian High School also performed some nuclear chemistry labs this month. Montoursville High School’s Dan Tucker borrowed our Jugs radar gun. My last visit this month was to Angela Gockley of Lewisburg High School. She brought SIM into her chemistry classes to put our FTIR’s to use. Her chemistry students used our Fourier Transform Infrared spectrophotometers to examine organic compounds using Infrared Spectroscopy in the lab FTIR of Organic Liquids. They also did the lab Determination of Trans-Fatty Acids by IR Spectroscopy where they determine different types of fatty acids in food samples such as Crisco shortening, butter, margarine and olive oil.

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

 

Greg Stout, Mobile Educator Says...

Other than the Super Bowl and Valentine’s Day, I really do not like the month of February very much. They say that climate runs in cycles and I will attest that the weather for Feb ’08 was similar to Feb ’07. I had quite a few stream visits cancelled due to nasty weather or high/fast water conditions. Our scheduled water quality monitoring trips with Shikellamy (2 separate visits/classes), Bloomsburg High School and Bloomsburg Christian School had to be postponed until March.

Sunbury Christian Academy students determining flow rate of Lithia Springs Creek.

I was, however, able to meet with Sunbury Christian Academy students and teacher John Hernandez on February 5th and complete our stream monitoring of Lithia Springs Creek. We checked online radar projections, saw a window of opportunity and went for it. We were able to squeeze our sampling and analyses in between two rather significant downpours. The students did get a little wet, but I heard more laughter than complaints. I do feel fortunate that we were able to do this survey because the stream flow was at least 18 times greater than our previous three visits. Kudos to John and his students for persevering and prevailing in this endeavor.

Sunbury Christian Academy students and teacher, John Hernandez.

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 for more information. Oh, and...... Think Spring!

 

Experiment of the Month

What Chemicals Can Affect Biological Membranes?

The primary objective of this experiment is to determine the stress that various factors, such as osmotic balance, detergents, and pH, have on biological membranes. Membranes within cells are composed mainly of lipids and proteins and often serve to help maintain order within a cell by containing cellular materials. In the cells of plants, the tonoplast usually contains water. In beet plants, this membrane-bound vacuole also contains a water soluble red pigment, betacyanin, which gives the beet its characteristic color. When the cells are healthy, this pigment is contained within the vacuole; however, if the integrity of the membrane is disrupted, the contents of the vacuole will spill out into the environment and color it red. The intensity of color in the environment should be proportional to the amount of cellular damage.

Using beet cubes and Vernier Colorimeters, students test the effects of salt, detergent, and pH on the cell membrane. Using increasing concentrations of salt, students will see how osmotic stress affects cell membrane integrity. Similarly, increasing concentrations of detergents are tested. pH of the environment is a critical factor for living things and acid, neutral, and basic solutions are tested to determine the impact of the beet cell membrane.

Biological Membranes lab set-up.

Students set up a well plate with the series of test salt, detergent, and pH solutions and then add a freshly cut beet cube to each well. Following a 10 minute incubation period, the cubes are removed and the absorbance of each condition is read using the Vernier colorimeter. The absorbance reading can be plotted versus the concentration of each test group to monitor the extent of damage to the beet membranes.

In this lab students think about the cell membrane and discuss the characteristics of this membrane that would account for the results they see. In addition, they gain experience with setting up a test situation in a consistent manner and in using the colorimeter to collect data, and they must work cooperatively to read and record the absorbances within the time frame of the class period. This lab can usually be accomplished in a 40 minute period.

 

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