The Newsletter for Science
in Motion at Susquehanna University
Volume V Issue 7 March 2006
Director's Column
As many of you read in The Daily Item on February 9th, funding for Science in Motion was NOT included in Governor Rendell’s 2006-2007 state budget. Thus, I have begun my annual visits to legislators advocating for continued funding for SIM. Many teachers have asked how they can help ensure funding for the program. The advice I frequently offer is to suggest teachers write letters to Governor Rendell and solicit letters from students who used the program and parents stating how their child’s education has been improved through SIM visits. These letters can be copied to the legislators who represent your district, as well as mailed to Governor Rendell. Together we can help increase awareness of the wonderful impact SIM has on area schools and seek funding for the next fiscal year.
On January 26th, I had the opportunity to accompany Greg Stout on a Water Quality visit with Sheila Furr’s students from Shikellamy High School. The Water Quality Project is a joint effort between SIM and the Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC) and is funded by the Chesapeake Bay Commission (CBC). Mrs. Furr’s students collected data very professionally while braving the cold winds and higher than expected water level. The data from each visit is posted on the SIM Web site.
On February 16th, I had the opportunity to accompany Jaclyn Basgil on a physical science visit to Erica Merriett’s classroom at Danville High School. Mrs. Merriett’s students adeptly used three simple machines (pulleys, an inclined plane, and a first class lever) to learn how machines decrease the force needed to perform work.
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Martha Kanaskie, Southern
Columbia High School, was this month's winner of the T2 Palm Pilot. |
This month’s winner of the Palm was Martha Kanaskie from Southern Columbia Area High School. Martha was pleased to be a winner. Continue to submit your reservation forms for your chance to win.
It is once again time to sign up for the SIM Summer Workshop! You will find the registration form attached to this newsletter. Please remember to register early to ensure your place in the workshop as slots fill up very quickly!
Madge Schworer, Biology Mobile Educator Says…
February was an eventful and quite busy month. I began the month with a case of the flu followed by a long-lived cold! Tissues at hand, I made a visit to Tri-Valley Junior/Senior High School with teacher, Pam Ulicny. Pam’s seventh grade classes investigated Respiration of Sugars by Yeast using the carbon dioxide sensors and the laptop computers to test the respiration rate of several sugars as food sources. The tenth grade Academic Biology class learned a bit about bacteria and sterile technique in Bacterial Inhibition in which they tested the inhibition of bacterial growth by several antibiotics and several disinfectants. After a restful weekend, I visited Selinsgrove High School and the College Prep Biology classes taught by Paulette Armbruster for the lab Investigating Enzyme Activity. We looked at substrate concentration, pH, temperature, and salt concentration effects on the rate of the enzyme catalase, prepared from potatoes.
Next stop was a first visit for me to Southern Columbia High School with Martha Kanaskie and her AP chemistry class. Students extracted protein from several species of fish and ran vertical PAGE electrophoresis in Protein Fingerprinting. Kelly Boyer and Mary Beth Sugrue joined forces to run EKG and Heart Rate and Exercise in two rooms for the Anatomy and Physiology classes at North Schuylkill Junior/Senior High School. A visit to Berwick High School and the AP Biology class taught by Allison Spencer resulted in glowing bacteria in the pGLO Bacterial Transformation lab. The visit also marked a first time for yours truly to lock the SIM van keys inside the van - AAA to the rescue! Back to Selinsgrove High School and Paulette Armbruster's CP Biology classes to investigate The Effect of Temperature on Poikiotherms (Crickets!). The crickets were active and the students found definite changes as they modified the temperature environment of these cold-blooded organisms. Visits to Milton High School found me with Kathy Bower and her AP Biology class performing pGLO Bacterial Transformation and with Karen Avery and her Biology II class studying relationships of species of fish in the Protein Fingerprinting electrophoresis lab. It is definitely the season for electrophoresis!
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Martha Kanaskie, Southern
Columbia High School, and students extracting protein from fish muscle for electrophoresis. |
Greg Laubach, Central
Columbia High School, and students preparing to load sample of DNA electrophoresis. |
My next visit was to Warrior Run High School and Brad Peace to do the DNA Fingerprinting lab with his ninth grade biology and AP Biology classes. The excitement here occurred when dropping off equipment the Friday before the lab. I arrived approximately 5-10 minutes after the roof blew off of the Warrior Run Middle School. My electrophoresis power supplies also were a victim of the wind - two boxes blew off the cart, power supplies fell out, and the boxes blew into the roof debris. With the help of a couple of onlookers, we saved the instruments which proved to be quite sturdy as they still worked just fine! I continued at Warrior Run with pGLO Bacterial Transformation in the AP Biology class. Investigating Enzyme Activity was next at Lewisburg High School and Geoff Goodenow's Biology classes. This time we focused on altering pH and temperature in our quest for understanding of enzyme action. Greg Laubach (another teacher new to SIM) and Dana Hock at Central Columbia High School invited me to guide students through the DNA Fingerprinting lab. I finished the month with a trip to Shikellamy High School with the students of Sheila Furr in the Honors Chemistry and Biochemistry classes investigating Limits on Cell Size. In addition to the visits, Science in Motion provided equipment for independent project students at Mt. Carmel High School with teacher Angela Farronato and at Selinsgrove High School under the direction of teacher Tracy Hepner. In addition, the Science Club at North Schuylkill Junior/Senior High School is working on a Crime Scene with the help of advisors Kelly Boyer and Mary Beth Sugrue.
As you can see, it was a month
filled with variety and "excitement". Thanks to so many concerned
about my lingering sniffles. I seem to be in a much improved state now and
the Biology van is ready to take on another busy month!
Jaclyn Basgil, Chemistry/Physics Mobile Educator Says…
I hope everyone is having a nice year so far. I started out the month visiting Shikellamy High School’s Sheila Furr. Her students performed the Chemistry lab Determining the Concentration of a Solution: Beer’s Law. This lab uses our Vernier Colorimeters. Also at Shikellamy High School, Colleen Ruths utilized our Vernier pressure sensors, laptops and masses to perform a modified physics lab. Juniata High School’s Kelli Strawser welcomed Science In Motion into her Chemistry classes to perform organic analysis of liquids. Her students utilized our Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrophotometers which are frequently mentioned on the popular television show CSI. The students were able to determine the identity of unknown samples by comparing the wave-numbers of their peaks in the spectrum produced to a table of known values. Check out this month’s experiment of the month to read more about this experiment!
I had the pleasure of meeting Wayne Creasy who teaches at Columbia-Montour Area Vocational Technical Schools this month. Wayne borrowed our GPS units to introduce the concepts to his Chemistry classes. Next I headed to Jocelyn Bailey at Milton High School. We used our array of physics materials to demonstrate and experiment with three different simple machines. Danville High School’s Erica Merriett invited Science In Motion into her classroom to do the same simple machines lab. We explored pulleys, inclined planes, and first-class levers.
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Jaclyn Basgil, SIM, teaching
Danville High School students about Simple Machines. |
Jaclyn Basgil, SIM, teaches
Simple Machines using inclined plane to Danville High School students. |
Victor Colangelo of Shamokin High School put our circuit boards, differential voltage probes and current probes to use to perform the physics lab, Ohm’s Law. A student in Al Zelnick’s class at Line Mountain High School borrowed two photogates and a laptop to explore the velocities of paintballs. I visited Renata Luciani at North Schuylkill for our liquid nitrogen demonstration. Sheila Furr put our services to work again at Shikellamy. This time her students used our Vernier pH probes to test the conductivity of solutions and the effect of concentration.
I headed over to Berwick High School for the first time to visit the Chemistry students of Christine Dent. We investigated the energy content of foods such as tostitos, fritos, circus peanuts, cashews and cereal. The students had fun burning the variety of food items and capturing the heat released. Brett Criswell from Central Columbia High School used our Vernier Colorimeters in his Chemistry classes. His students experimented with Beer’s Law and conductivity. I headed back to Bloomsburg Christian School to visit Joshua Greene’s Chemistry classes. We used the Vernier pH probes to analyze the titration curves of strong and weak acids and bases. To end the month, I took these materials to Andrew Trgovac at Juniata High School.
Now it’s time to get ready
for March. Please feel free to send me an email if you have any questions
about SIM’s Physics and Chemistry equipment. See you soon!
Greg Stout, Mobile Educator Says...
On Valentine’s Day, Elizabeth Sterling and her Lewisburg High School students met me for their third survey at the Bull Run Creek. They conducted flow rate and four water quality measurements onsite while collecting samples for shipment to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PA DEP) Laboratories in Harrisburg, PA.
I traveled to Mt. Carmel High School on February 21st to connect with teacher John Tamblin and his students. From there we traveled to four streams to conduct flow measurements and/or collect samples for water quality measurements performed later in the day at their lab. Streams visited and evaluated were Shamokin Creek located in Strong, Roaring Creek in Bear Gap, Mahanoy Creek in Lavelle and a stream just below Wightman’s Dam near Centralia. Data was collected using Vernier probes and analyzed with Vernier Logger Pro software.
The next day I traveled to Lost Creek where I met Juniata High School students and teacher Andrew Trgovac. Mr. Trgovac was filling in for teacher Dan Smith who was unable to be with us for Juniata’s fourth survey of this creek. Flow rate and water quality analyses were performed as well as collection of samples for shipment to the PA DEP lab.
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Teacher, Elizabeth Sterling, and Lewisburg High School students conducting flow rate and water quality measurements in the Bull Run Creek. |
Mt. Carmel High School students perform water quality and flow rate measurements in the Mahonoy Creek. |
Water Quality measurements being performed by Juniata High School students. |
In addition to these visits and
several equipment drops, Science in Motion provided equipment for two Montoursville
High School senior projects under the tutelage of teacher Steve
Tressler.
If you are interested in setting up a visit and exploring Vernier’s Water Quality with Computer Labs or simply borrowing some of this equipment, please let me know. Or, contact me if you are interested in more information about the Chesapeake Bay Commission /Susquehanna River Basin Commission pilot program that Lewisburg, Juniata, Shikellamy and Montoursville High Schools are involved in this school year.
Chemistry Experiment of the Month
Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrophotometer - FTIR
The experiment of the month for February uses a well-known scientific instrument that has an amazing power! Give it a substance and it can impeccably identify the atoms inside. It does this by measuring molecular vibrations.
This lab is called Identifying Organic Liquids using Infrared Spectroscopy. The lab uses the Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrophotometer, or FTIR, to show students the procedure for collecting infrared spectra of 5 different liquid samples. The students compare peak values on the generated graphs, called spectrums, to a table of values and attempt to identify the unknown compounds in a forensic-like fashion.
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Jaclyn Basgil, SIM, and students from Shikellamy High School, use the FTIR to perform Organic Analysis of Liquids. |
A beam of infrared radiation is passed through an unknown liquid and this radiation is either absorbed or transmitted. Energy is absorbed when its frequency matches the natural frequency of the bond motion. The energy absorbed by the molecules may bring about increased vibration, stretching, bending or rotating. The FTIR measures the frequency of the energy causing the bond motion. Each type of bond absorbs specific wave-numbers of infrared light depending on its structure, nature of atoms bonded and effects of surrounding atoms.
In this experiment, various samples
will be placed into a beam of infrared light. Some of the light will be absorbed.
The absorption of infrared light will be indicated by a peak in the spectrum.
The students will compare the wave-numbers of the peaks to the table of known
values to determine the identity of the unknown samples. This lab gives excellent
results when performed properly!
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
SIM Experiments and Equipment for High School Students
Monday June 12 - Friday June 16, 2006
9am - 4pm
Melanie Rohrbach
or you may fax to 570-372-2791
Susquehanna University
514 University Avenue
Selinsgrove, PA 17870
or email to rohrbach@susqu.edu