The Newsletter for Science
in Motion at Susquehanna University
Volume V Issue 8 April 2006
Director's Column
On Thursday, February 23, I met with several legislators to discuss funding for Science in Motion. First, I visited with Representative Russ Fairchild, R-85. Representative Fairchild suggested I solicit letters from high school graduates currently pursuing science degrees or working in a science field who used SIM in high school. Ideally, they will be able to write about how SIM visits inspired them to be scientists.
In the afternoon, I met with Representative David Millard, R-109. Representative Millard offered to propose an amendment to add funding for SIM back into the 2006-2007 state budget if it has not already occurred. He was surprised that Governor Rendell, who supports education, neglected to include funding for SIM in his budget.
Later that day, I also met with Representative Robert Belfanti, D-107. Representative Belfanti suggested I ask school boards in our area to adopt resolutions in support of SIM. He also mentioned that he would be surprised if funding for SIM was not in the final budget.
On Friday, February 24th, I met with Representative Merle Phillips, R-108. Representative Phillips believes that “SIM is one of the best education programs”. He also told me that “SIM is one line item going in” the budget! I told Representative Phillips that we greatly appreciate support from our legislators and with everyone working together, we hope to reinstate funding for SIM.
On Thursday, March 16th, I met with Representative Adam Harris, R-82. Representative Harris believes writing letters to the Governor is a good way to get SIM noticed and secure funding for next year. He was delighted that so many teachers are using SIM, and I explained we need increased funding to serve everyone who is interested.
To make writing letters to the
Governor and legislators as easy as possible, we have added a sample letter
to the Science in Motion Web site under “Links”. Feel free to use
this as a guide when writing letters in support of funding for SIM. Also,
SIM would greatly appreciate receiving copies of your letters to the Governor
and legislators. We want to make certain no letters fall through the cracks!
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Jocelyn Bailey, Milton Area High School,
was |
On February 28th, I accompanied Madge Schworer on a visit to Sheila Furr’s classroom at Shikellamy High School. Students performed the Limitations on Cell Size experiment that always yields excellent results. Each group produced wonderful graphs demonstrating the positive relationship between surface area and diffusion.
March’s winner of the T2 Palm was Jocelyn Bailey from Milton Area Senior High School. Jocelyn was grateful to win. Continue to submit your reservation forms for your chance to win.
I want to remind teachers, especially new teachers, to sign up for the week long SIM Summer Workshop from June 12 – 16, 2006, at Susquehanna University. Application forms were mailed out with the March newsletter. Please mail them back to Melanie Rohrbach or fax them to 570-372-2791.
Madge Schworer, Biology Mobile Educator Says…
The hint of spring is in the air and it is just great! March began with a trip out to Tri-Valley Junior / Senior High School. The Academic Biology class taught by Pam Ulicny investigated Something’s Fishy about Evolution as they performed the protein fingerprinting on a number of fish species to determine relatedness and to learn more about the separation of proteins using PAGE electrophoresis. In the same trip I worked with the Environmental Science classes, also taught by Pam, on Gram Staining of bacteria. March came in like a lion as snow and ice caused many schools to cancel classes. The following week was spent at Danville High School with the AP Biology class taught by Sonia Crane. Students began with the pGLO Bacterial Transformation lab and followed up with Agarose Gel Electrophoresis of Precut Lambda DNA, AP labs 6 A and 6 B. pGLO Bacterial Transformation was also on the schedule for the Advanced Biology classes at Juniata High School taught by Richard Burkholder. This group had just finished a loan using the Human Chromosome Spread lab as well. A Crime Scene was in store for students of Jim Perry and Jim Dodge at Bloomsburg High School. The adjoining rooms were hopping as students investigated fingerprinting, hair analysis, fabric analysis, blood typing and DNA fingerprinting in the quest to find the guilty suspect. A group of Line Mountain students visited the Science in Motion office to preview the same Crime Scene activities in preparation to serve as teaching assistants for the CSI scheduled for April with Al Zelnick. Last year the group was a great help in the classes and I’m sure this group will do just as good a job! Paulette Armbruster at Selinsgrove High School invited SIM to work with students in CP Biology on Genes in a Bottle. We had great success with extracting the DNA! Independent projects continue for students at Selinsgrove High School and at Shikellamy High School.
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Bloomsburg High School students
type crime scene blood in the Crime Scene Investigation. |
We are happy to be able to provide
equipment for the students to use. March will go out (hopefully like a lamb)
at Lewisburg High School as Geoff Goodenow’s
students in Advanced Biology work on a Crime Scene including PCR
as one of the elements and at Mount Carmel with Angela
Farronato’s students preparing Human Chromosome Spreads.
This school year is flying by! My calendar is basically full for the remainder of the year but email me requests for loans and I will do my best!
Jaclyn Basgil, Chemistry/Physics Mobile Educator Says…
Thanks to all of the teachers who have made it a pleasure to be a part of Science in Motion. I started out this month by visiting Wayne Creasy at Columbia Montour Vocational Technical School (CMVTS). We experimented with sound waves using our Vernier microphones. The students were able to create and observe beats between the sounds of two tuning forks. Danville’s Mike McDevitt put our GPS units to work this month. I visited the classes of Jocelyn Bailey at Milton High School this month to do the lab Newton’s Second Law. The students investigated the relationship between mass and acceleration using our Vernier Motion Detectors and dynamics carts. Sheila Furr’s students at Shikellamy High School experimented using Vernier Temperature probes to confirm Hess’s Law. Erica Merriett’s students at Danville High School measured the energy content of foods such as fritos, circus peanuts and cereal. A student at Selinsgrove High School performed the chemistry crime scene under the supervision of Tracy Hepner. Mike McDevitt also put our UV-VIS spectrophotometers to work this month at Danville High School. Students in Jodi Cramer’s Shikellamy High School class used our Novell Pressure Plate Platforms to determine the pressure their foot exerts as they walk across the classroom floor.
Brandon White utilized our Vernier photogates and dynamics carts to perform experiments at Danville High School. Shikellamy’s Sheila Furr made use of our chemical supply to perform a lab that investigates acid rain. I visited Wayne Creasy at CMVTS once again this month. This time we used the Vernier microphones to analyze the frequency components of a tuning fork and of the human voice. We also discovered how a touch-tone phone works!
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Students in Wayne Creasy's class at
CMVTS attempt to unravel the |
Next I headed to Muncy High
School for the first time this year to visit Robin Peterman.
Her students performed our popular Gas Chromatography lab to analyze
and determine the alcohol content in various solutions. Brian Landis
of Mifflinburg High School borrowed our Vernier
pH, Temperature and Gas Pressure sensors to perform experiments with his classes.
I headed back to Milton High School this month to visit the
classes of Jocelyn Bailey. This time the students used our
Vernier Motion detectors to analyze and graph their own movement. I headed
to South Williamsport for the first time to visit the chemistry
classes of Matt Eisley. The students performed our popular
FTIR lab to analyze organic liquids. Matt is also borrowing our GC’s
to do some gas chromatography experimenting with his classes. Also at South
Williamsport are the classes of Keith Cremer. Keith
borrowed our Vernier Circuit boards, current probes and differential voltage
probes for his students to experiment with and determine the relationship
between current, voltage and resistance. The students of Erica Merriett
and Brandon White of Danville High School
had an opportunity to work with our Vernier microphones in the lab Tones,
Vowels and Telephones. Brett Criswell at Central
Columbia utilized the services of SIM once again to borrow our new
series of Vernier Colorimeters to perform a lab that he designed.
Greg Stout, Mobile Educator Says...
In addition to our Mobile Educator classroom visits, don’t forget that we offer SIM equipment drops at your school. Some of you have already used our equipment or similar equipment at a vendor workshop and are comfortable with just borrowing our apparatus. If so, just give us a call or reserve this equipment online.
I had three drops this past month at Juniata, Selinsgrove and Williamsport High Schools. Teachers Richard Burkholder, Tracy Hepner and Bo Myers took advantage of our loan policy to conduct labs associated with Chromosome Splat, Liquid Nitrogen and use of Motic Digital scopes, respectively. On March 22nd, Montoursville High School teacher Steve Tressler and several of his students braved significant wind chill as we completed our fourth water quality survey of Muncy Creek. The students performed Dissolved Oxygen, conductivity, pH and temperature measurements onsite and collected samples for overnight shipment to the PA DEP lab in Harrisburg. If you are interested in finding out more about this CBC/SRBC/SIM cooperative program, please do not hesitate to contact me.
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Montoursville High School
students filter water from Muncy Creek to ship to PA DEP lab. |
Environmental Experiment of the Month
Conductivity Probe
Soil salinity is a measure of the saltiness of soil. Many plants have trouble growing in soil that has too much salt. High salinity soil makes it more difficult for plants to get water from soil and can interfere with their obtaining proper nutrients. Soil can become saline by the natural weathering of minerals, irrigation, or run-off from salted roads. Poor drainage and hot, dry weather also contribute to the build-up of salt in the soil. Sodium chloride, NaCl, is the most common salt, but others such as calcium chloride, CaCl2, and magnesium sulfate, MgSO4, are often present as well.
The Experiment of the Month highlights the Vernier Conductivity Probe which may be used to measure the salinity of soil samples. Soil salinity is determined by measuring the electrical conductivity of a soil-water mixture. The higher the salinity of the soil, the higher the conductivity of this soil will be. In this experiment, you will measure the salinity of soil samples and be able to predict plant response to salinity levels.
Save a Tree
If you wish to receive
this newsletter in electronic format, please send us your e-mail address at
sciencemotion@susqu.edu or phone
us at 570-372-4779.
Courtney
Thomas
Director, Science in Motion
570-372-4778
thomasc@susqu.edu
