The Newsletter for Science
in Motion at Susquehanna University
Volume VI Issue 10 June 2007
Director's Column
We still have openings for physics and chemistry teachers interested in attending the SIM Summer Workshop.
I just received word from the Chesapeake Bay Commission that the grant for the SIM-SRBC Water Quality Project has been renewed for 2007-2008! Please contact me if you are interested in joining the SIM-SRBC Water Quality Project.
Wednesday April 25th, I met with State Representative Karen Boback (R-117). Newly elected Representative Boback was well informed about SIM from Representative Mike Fleck. As an educator herself, Representative Boback immediately saw the value of the SIM program and is now a proponent.
The same day, I met with State Representative Neal Goodman (D-123). Representative Goodman was interested to learn more about the SIM program. He told me to speak with Senator Rhoades regarding SIM funding and to tell the Senator he thinks SIM is a “great idea”.
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| Dr. Courtney Thomas, SIM, and Senator Robert D. Robbins. |
I also met with David Broderic, Executive Director of the Senate Education Committee, standing in for State Senator James Rhoades (R-29) later the same day. Mr. Broderic told me he was quite certain Senate Bill 472, to put SIM in the PA School Code (line item in the State budget), would move forward out of the Senate Education Committee this session. If this bill becomes law, it won’t guarantee annual funding for SIM, but we believe it is a step in the right direction.
State Senator Jake Corman (R-34) was also able to meet with me that day. Senator Corman praised the SIM program for making “financial good sense”. While he can’t guarantee funding for the SIM program this year, he does support funding for the program.
Wednesday May 2nd all eleven SIM sites displayed equipment at the Capitol Building to raise awareness of and encourage 2007-2008 funding for the SIM program. Shikellamy students Kay Kocher, Josh Leitzel, Amanda August, Meghan Drumheller, Kristi Getz, Tyson Harvey, Tim Furr, Caleb Ammon, Mike Murphy and teacher Sheila Furr joined SU-SIM for the event. A press conference, arranged by Senator Robert D. Robbins’ (R-50) staff kicked off the day.
Monday May 7th I met with Alycia
Laureti, research analyst for State Representative Mike Hanna
(D-76). She was very interested to learn about the Science in Motion
program since Representative Hanna serves on the House Education Committee.
Madge Schworer, Biology Mobile Educator Says…
Another year of Science in Motion biology visits is almost complete. Kathy Bower and Jocelyn Bailey brought the Primary Productivity and Effects of Temperature on Poikiotherms (Cricket Respiration) labs to biology classes at Milton High School. On Day 1 of Primary Productivity students worked to set up the light and dark tubes with a Chlorella culture adding the screens that would vary the intensity of light for the algae and measured the initial dissolved oxygen values. On day 2, groups took turns taking final dissolved oxygen readings while working on the Cricket Respiration lab. It was an extremely busy day but students collected much data that would be analyzed with their teachers after my visit. I really missed having Mrs. Bailey’s expertise and enthusiasm but greatly appreciated Mrs. Bower who was everywhere and the substitutes who plunged in to help. At Shamokin High School the AP Biology students taught by Bob Hartman also completed the Primary Productivity lab as their AP test loomed ahead. Switching gears, I visited Sheila Furr and her Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry classes at Shikellamy High School with the protein electrophoresis lab Something’s Fishy about Evolution. The classes did a terrific job of working efficiently to extract the fish proteins and load the vertical polyacrylamide gels in the 42 minute period. They were rewarded the following day as Mrs. Furr led them through the analysis portion of the lab looking for common proteins and relating them to branches of evolution. A final trip to the CP Biology classes at Selinsgrove High School taught by Paulette Armbruster found us working with the Vernier Photosynthesis lab tracking the rate of photosynthesis using color change reflecting reduction of DPIP measured using the colorimeters and computers. As in many classes in the region these students have become familiar with many methods of data collection and have become comfortable with the computers and sensors that support their growing understanding of important concepts. Al Zelnick at Line Mountain High School brought the Science in Motion physiology materials to his classes. AP biology students completed Heart Rate and Exercise and measured blood pressures. The biology classes used a station approach to do EKG, Grip Strength, and Heart Rate and Exercise activities. The day provided a great introduction to the physiology activities. Sonia Crane at Danville High School requested the Crime Scene PCR lab for her Forensic Science class. Working around AP testing the students were introduced to PCR and the thermal cycler and analyzed the products using agarose electrophoresis. Returning to Shikellamy High School and Sheila Furr’s Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry classes, we performed the Enzyme Activity lab as pairs of lab groups tested the effects of variation of pH, temperature, substrate concentration, and enzyme concentration on the activity of potato catalase. Returning to Milton High School, Science in Motion again provided the Separation of Alcohols by Gas Chromatography, Pressures Underfoot, and DNA Fingerprinting as a part of the yearly Milton Crime Scene that featured the “murder” of Jocelyn Bailey and the ultimate “arrest” of student Katelyn Williams. This is a highly anticipated event for the whole school and was well covered in local media.
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| Selinsgrove CP Biology students set up the Vernier |
Shikellamy Biochemistry students look at the effect of substrate concentration on the activity of the catalase enzyme using the Vernier gas pressure sensors and computers. |
Science in Motion loaned equipment
for the pGLO lab to students in Steve Tressler’s classes
at Montoursville High School, EKG lab equipment
to Angela Farronato’s Anatomy and Physiology classes
at Mt. Carmel High School, and Digital Microscopes
to Sheila Furr at Shikellamy High School and
Angela Farronato at Mt. Carmel. Mobile Educators
from across the state gathered in late May at Juniata College for a workshop
focusing on revising and improving lab handouts and sharing together. At Susquehanna,
we are looking forward to our annual Summer Workshop in June. This has been
a productive and satisfying year as we continue to bring new labs and old
favorites to the students and teachers of the Central Susquehanna Valley.
Thanks for a great 2006-2007 school year!
Jaclyn Basgil, Chemistry/Physics Mobile Educator Says…
The school year is coming to an end. I’d like to say thanks to all of the wonderful teachers who I had the opportunity to work with this year. I look forward to working with many of you again next year. Feel free to send me any suggestions or ideas that you may have thought of for the upcoming school year.
This month began with a visit to the physics students of Jocelyn Bailey at Milton High School to perform the lab Speed of Sound. Her physics students used our Vernier microphones to measure how long it takes sound waves to travel back and forth in a long hollow tube. This information was used to determine the speed of sound. Joshua Greene’s Bloomsburg Christian High School physics students used our Atwood’s machines along with our Vernier photogates to study the relationships between the masses on an Atwood’s machine and the acceleration. Martha Kanaskie’s students at Millville High School used our Vernier Geiger counters to study radiation this month. Our popular liquid nitrogen demonstrations were performed in front of large audiences of students by Tracy Hepner of Selinsgrove High School. Tracy performs an array of experiments and makes liquid nitrogen ice cream at the end of her shows! Joshua Greene of Bloomsburg Christian also used our liquid nitrogen materials to perform studies into cryogenics with his chemistry classes.
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| Jocelyn Bailey's physics students at Milton High School produce sound waves to study the |
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The Chemistry Crime Scene
equipment spent a week with Erica Merriett and Deb
Slattery’s chemistry classes at Danville High School
where students attempted to solve the crime: Who stole the Bucknell
Bison mascot uniform? Students performed a variety of crime scene investigations
over the course of the week such as melting point analysis, fabric analysis,
infrared spectroscopy and paper and gas chromatography using high-tech equipment
in a forensic manner. The chemistry crime scene was also performed this month
at Selinsgrove High School with the students of Tracy
Hepner. My last visit of the year was to Knoebel’s Amusement
Park with students from the classes of Mark Peterman from
Loyalsock Township High School. We had fun performing the
experiments in the Knoebel’s Physics Day packet. Danville’s
Jack Deal and Mike McDevitt as well as Bloomsburg
Christian’s Joshua Greene also used the Knoebel’s Physics
Day equipment at the amusement park this month. I look forward to seeing many
of you in June at our annual SIM summer workshop.
Greg Stout, Mobile Educator Says...
Our Chesapeake Bay Commission sponsored water quality monitoring project continued this past month with six stream visits completed from May 1st through May 16th. High School students from Bloomsburg (Doug VanBrunt), Milton (Karen Avery), North Schuylkill (John Slotterback), Central Columbia (Dana Hock & Greg Laubach) and Selinsgrove (Tracy Hepner) conducted their latest round of sampling and analyses of their respective streams. In addition to performing on-site measurements for pH, D.O., temperature, conductivity and flow rate, students collected samples which were prepared (filtered, acid treated) and sent to the PA DEP lab for inorganic analyses.
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| Central Columbia students sample water from Green Creek. |
In the middle of May I traveled to Southern Columbia High School to work with teachers Steve DeLong and Warren Merkle. On two successive days, different sets of students conducted water quality experiments using SIM laptops and Vernier probes/meters. Analyses conducted were Stream Flow, pH, Temperature, Ammonium Nitrogen, Nitrate, Dissolved Oxygen, Total Dissolved Solids and Turbidity. The second part of each day was spent donning hip waders and using bait and kick nets to conduct macroinvertebrate surveys of nearby Roaring Creek.
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| Southern Columbia students perform chemical analyses (left) and conduct macroinvertebrate surveys (right). |
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Later in the month I was able to facilitate two Biology labs; one on Crime Scene Investigation and one with Bacterial Transformation. Jim Terwilliger’s Meadowbrook Christian School students conducted the DNA Fingerprinting lab to match DNA collected at the crime scene against that collected from five suspects. In the other lab, Tri-Valley High School (Pam Ulicny) students used BioRad’s p-GLO lab to insert Green Fluorescent Protein into E.coli bacteria.
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| Tri-Valley students conducting p-GLO lab. |
Experiment of the Month
Vernier Picket Fences
The physics experiment of the month
features our new Vernier Picket Fences. The lab is #5 in the Vernier Physics
with Computers manual and is called Picket Fence Free Fall.
We are all aware that only force acting on an object in free-fall, disregarding
any air resistance, is the Earth’s gravitational force. We also know
that this gravitational force is constant near the surface of the Earth. We
designate this acceleration as g, otherwise known as the acceleration due
to gravity on Earth. We must be sure that our physics students also have this
crucial knowledge. There are a variety of ways to measure g. This lab offers
an extremely precise and efficient way to teach this concept. The lab materials
will be used to accurately measure the acceleration of a freely falling object.
The freely falling object is called a picket fence. The picket fences are
long rectangular plastic bodies with alternating black and clear bands. The
acceleration of the picket fence is measured using Vernier photogates. The
photogate has a beam of infrared light traveling from one side to the other.
The photogate can detect whenever this beam is blocked. As the picket fence
falls freely through the sides of the photogate, the black bands block the
infrared light. The computer will measure the time from the leading edge of
one black bar blocking the beam to the leading edge of the next one. The timing
will continue until the entire picket fence has traveled through the photogate.
The students will be given the distance from one edge of a black band to the
same edge of the next band. The program will calculate the velocities and
the accelerations for this motion and produce graphs. The students will analyze
the distance vs. velocity and the velocity vs. time graphs produced to determine
g. We will be featuring our new Vernier picket fences as well as this lab
at our summer workshop in June.
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
