Last Blog for Course Credit

I performed the "Holiday Trees" lab with my chemistry students. Unfortunately, I was not able to ask for ASU input and review of such class as I am at the mercy of a rotating lab schedule and needed to get the lab in quick.

The lab was an actual introduction to solubility curves so its placement in my curriculum will change for the next school year. All crystals formed and students were able to make hypotheses regarding the evaporation rate in our great state of AZ which they did on their own- (wow- learning that was NOT planned!).

Students took their trees home -lab performed this past Wednesday 12/12/07. This lab was done using materials purchased through MSTF.

Students also created a microsilicate garden and we explored properties of several compounds. We were also dealing with rather minute quantities for a high school lab and I was able to share anecdotal stories with my students regarding the quantities that were used when in the Fromme lab and also bring back the vials of Photosystem I and II that I had shared previously with them.

Indeed, the learning is cyclical and continues to go on. This experience has enriched my life and my students lives so much and allowed me to truly share lab experiences with my students and most of the students seem to love my class because of it! After all, chem is still considered a HS elective and I have 35 students in my class. Not one drop and more kept requesting me!

In the end, the desire and zest for science will benefit the community of ASU, the USA, and ultimately the world!

I took pics but they are all on my low-end cell phone so if I ever find out a way- if it is even possible- to post those here, I will.

Thank you CRESMET for this wonderful opportunity!

Updated MSTF Fall Hours

The list below shall serve as a log of time used that perains to educational curriculum aligned with my MSTF project:

General Timeline for Biology:

8/20- 8/24/07 Macromolecule Intro- Week A
9/24- 9/28/07 Photosystem II Proteins- Week B
10/1- 10/5/07 Photosynthesis- Week C
10/8- 10/19/07 Comparison of Cell Respiration to Photosynthesis- Week D

Hours After 3PM Week A 4 hours
Hours After 3PM Week B 4 hours
Hours After 3PM Week C 4 hours
Hours After 3 PM Week D 5 hours

Lesson Plan Sample to be emailed.

Chemistry:

Crystals and Solubility Curves to be completed in December. Invite will be given for "Xmas tree Lab"- crystal creation.

Parents

Parent Night went especially well due in large part to the information I gave them regarding lab experiences available to a select number of high school students. Dr. Petra
Fromme made it quite obvious that she would be very willing to take on specific high school students and allow them to work in her lab. I mentioned the gravity of the work I was doing in light of the potential energy sources available through this research. Parents were quite intrigued and interested themselves in this work and potential economic ramifications it would also have. I received many positive comments from parents which is like liquid gold to a teacher.

School

At long last...I am into my thrid week of school and have just touched upon the topic of macromolecules and will soon be venturing into cell respiration and photosynthesis. Unfortunately, my focus has been a bit inundated due to abnormally large class sizes of 40 students. I would never even think of doing experimental science due to the space alone! I anticipate that my school will rectify that soon or increase my pay. I have shown the students GFP which they were interested in the novelty of and in its real-world applications. My chemistry class will have fun with the actual crystallization as I have a larger space for that and a slightly smaller class of 33- Sad to say, that 33 is what I deem small. However, teachers are ever the reconfigurers and I am in the process of performing activities that will address my work with ASU.

One exciting surprise is how well my background is supplementing my classes that I am teaching at ASU. The extra exposure to chemistry and molarity makes it easier for me to explain to my students and a lot more exciting!

I plan on doing the reading in the spare 15 minutes I have every day to finally be done just before the due date. Tonight is open house and if I have extra time- I am certainly thinking of sharing my stories with the parents!

7/20/07

7/19/07

Today, we did chromatography with various plants today- native AZ plants, yellow plants, purple plants in order to ascertain their pigments, absorption, and cholrophyll. Interestingly, we found out that raddichio was treated rather harshly and thus, has its white- bleached like color has no more chlorophyll. It was at this point that I started making connections with my previous studies on folivory and howler monkeys behavioral adaptations to a diet rich in mature leaves. It was a conversation that sparked and renewed my previous interest in my undergraduate honor's thesis that had me perform a comparative study on three primate folivores. We also found out that we could each take back 2 vials of GFP each!

7/18/07

Today, we earned the PSI crystals in the cold room yet again and found out that we had one vial of crystals from the seeding crystals that was large enough for x-ray diffraction. Dr. Fromme was quite impressed. We were also informed that our phyocyanin crystals were being measured and analyzed at Berkeley due to their clarity. Additionally, we placed our isolating GFP through a nickel column and allowed it to drip out as the truly isolated GFP. This took several hours even beyond our time there but in the end, we will be bringing back the GFP that will glow with a black light- a sure way of grabbing students attention! In Wachter's more bio-type lab, there is a lot of waiting which allowed us to go back and forth.