The State of the State Budget - Nothing yet
As far as I know there has been no movement in any direction. We have had several representatives and senators sponsor a house bill and a senate bill to try to get us funded. I am not sure where those are in committee yet. I will let you all know when I know. We are still optimistic, as several teachers from the workshop have booked the vans already.

July 2003 - We will be here
Susquehanna University has graciously agreed to cover our personnel costs for the month of July. If you need to talk with Mike, Melanie or me, we will be around. Hopefully, we will have a budget soon.

Mike McDevitt, Chemistry Mobile Educator Says…
I just returned from a two day sharing workshop with many of the chemistry and biology mobile educators from the many Science in Motion Universities from across the state. The professionalism and the willingness to help and share was a truly rewarding experience. A few of the ideas and experiments that were presented are listed below. If any would be helpful to your curriculum, we can easily add it to the Susquehanna Equipment and Experiment list.

Plasmolysis of Elodea
Experiments with Palm Pilots
Heat of Fusion of Ice (Vernier)
Melting Point Apparatus
Spectral Curve of Autumn Leaves
Hyperchem CD’s and Activities (molecular building/drawing software)
Paper or Thin Layer Chromatography

If any of these or other ideas can help your program, just inform Science in Motion of your interest and we will get working on your suggestion.

Chemistry Experiment of the Month
“Liquid Nitrogen Demonstration”

FACTS:

Nitrogen:
1. Gas at room temperature
2. Colorless
3. Atomic number = 7
4. Molecular formula N2
5. Molecular weight = 28 g/mole
6. Gas density 1.25 g/l
7. Boiling point –195 0 C
8. Melting point –209.9 0 C
9. 78 % atmosphere

Comparative Temperatures:
1. Boiling point of water 100 0 C 212 0 F
2. Freezing point of water 0 0 C 32 0F
3. Carbon dioxide freezing point - 76 0 C - 109.70 F
4. Boiling point oxygen -182.96 0 C - 297 0 F
5. Boiling point Nitrogen -195.8 0 C -320.5 0 F

DEMONSTRATIONS:
Thermal Insulating Ability of a Vacuum in A Dewar flask
Expansion due to Phase Change…………………………………………….balloon inflation
Charles’ Law………………………………………………………………...balloon contraction
Gas liquefaction…………………………………………………...air liquefies within a balloon
Conductivity Enhancement……………………………………………………....flashlight bulb
Superconductivity (Meisner Effect)………………………………………....levitating magnet
Solid-Thermal expansion/contraction…………………….metal ring and ball bimetallic strip
Gay-Lussac’s Law…………………………………………………………..egg in/out of a flask
Solids at Low temperatures (molecular compaction)……………………………………many
Expansion due to Ice formation…(Onions, grapes, marshmallows, bananas, strawberries)
Musical Enhancement due to low temperature (molecular compaction)…………..lead bell
Loss of Elasticity……rubber bands, rubber, racquetball, rubber, policemen, rubber tubing
Kinetics/CollisionTheory……………………………………………………………...glow sticks

Science in Motion Adds Palm Pilots
The ultimate in portable science experiments is now available at Science in Motion at Susquehanna. Palm Pilots are wonderful mini-computers that collect data and then hot-sync the collection to a laptop or stand-alone computer in your classroom. They can be used anywhere electricity is a challenge. Palm Pilots can be teamed with Vernier interfaces and Vernier probe ware to create a go anywhere science laboratory. We have available 10 Palm Pilots with dedicated logger-pros that can be used in a variety of outdoor applications. Physics Day at an amusement park, on-site Water Quality Monitoring, Solar Experiments, and in the field plant/photosynthesis investigations are just a quick list of possible Palm Pilot applications.

Can these be useful in your curriculum, summer science camp, or Water Quality Monitoring student groups? If yes, let’s get together and develop protocols and activities that can be used by your students. This summer would be a great time to work out (and avoid) the bugs.

SIM Adds Physics Equipment
The following is list of the physics Vernier probes and related Sargent-Welch related manipulatives.

Vernier Probeware
8 student force sensors
8 force plates
8 motion detectors
16 photogates
8 light sensors
8 UVB probes

Novel Ergonomic Force Plates
We have also added 2 Novel force plates that can actually create a force/pressure map of your foot/hand print. They can be used to detect abnormalities in one’s foot strike or stride. They could also be used to improve diagnose or improve athletic performance. They are excellent for demonstrating the relationships between surface area, force and pressure in a meaningful way.

Manipulatives (from Sargent-Welch)
16 500 g hooked masses
8 1000g hooked masses
40 .5N slotted weights
8 harmonic motion springs
8 mass hangers: 500 g capacity
8 inclined planes
8 sets friction blocks/ samples
8 kinetics cars
4 drilled ball sets

Summer Workshop - A great time for learning and sharing – Mike reports
I remember being totally exhausted at the end of Susquehanna’s first Science in Motion Summer Teacher Workshop in 2002. However, the 2003 version of the workshop provided new challenges both mentally and physically. This year the workshop emphasized both biology and chemistry with a hint at some physics activities. I remarked last year that I never saw so many people work so diligently every minute of everyday for an entire week. This year’s crop of educators proved to be equally hard working and efficient.

Highlights of the week included a daylong CSI-Susquehanna experience, an afternoon snack of liquid nitrogen ice cream, and a weeklong bio-remediation experiment involving the pollution fighting properties of duckweed. I believe the week can be summarized accurately with a comment from a participant’s exit survey, “The best conference I ever attended.”

If you have never participated in our teacher summer workshop, please make plans for 2004.

Jan Reichard-Brown
Director, Science in Motion
570-372-4778 or reichardbrown@susqu.edu