Science in Motion At Ursinus College

							                        Science in Motion - Ursinus College
                                     Newsletter
December 2009

                                                              lab or teachers can just borrow equipment to supplement
                                                              their own labs. You can borrow materials for one day or
We’re Back! - Thanks to YOU!                                  longer if necessary. We will provide instruction on the
Science in Motion would like to thank you for writing         equipment if necessary, help in class during the lab if
and calling your legislators in support of our program.       desired, or we will even teach the class. You can pick a
Your efforts were an integral part of Science in Motion       lab from those listed on the website or you can email us
receiving funding. Many programs were completely cut          with a topic and we will try to suggest an appropriate
from the budget but we survived thanks to you. Your           lab. There is no charge since we are funded by a grant
commitment to the program is greatly appreciated. We          from the state. Our office phone number is 610-409-
are anxious and excited to continue service to your           3000 ex2627 but we are rarely in the office so email is
schools.                                                      the best way to contact us.

                                                              Dr. Vic Tortorelli – Director
                                                              vtortorelli@ursinus.edu
      Scheduling a Visit- This Year
                                                              Ron Faust – Mobile Biology Educator
                                                              rfaust@ursinus.edu
We are finally ready to schedule. Since we did not know
what was going to happen to the program this year, we         Amy Beadle – Mobile Chemistry/Physics Educator
have not been accepting scheduling forms.                     abeadle@ursinus.edu
Unfortunately, if you already sent in a scheduling form,
you will have to resubmit. We will try to meet
everyone’s needs but try to be flexible and patient. We         What Is SIM And What Do We Offer?
expect a flood of requests. To schedule a visit or an
equipment drop off, go to our website.                        Science in Motion is a program that grew out of a
                                                              meeting of secondary school science teachers and faculty
http://academic.ursinus.edu/scienceinmotion                   members at Juniata College. The initial goal of the
                                                              meeting was to form a partnership to facilitate
On the home page, choose “Laboratory Experiments.”            interaction between the teachers and the college staff.
On the experiments page you will see a listing of labs we     As the partnership grew, the Juniata faculty became
commonly support. You can click on any of the                 aware of the science teachers’ many needs. The Juniata
experiments on the list and download copies of the            faculty realized that they were in a position to help
student lab sheets and teacher notes to determine if the      science teachers achieve many of their goals. Today
lab fits your needs. On the left side of the “Laboratory      there are 12 colleges throughout the state that are
Experiments” page is a link to a scheduling form. Fill it     involved in this outreach program. They provide access
out and click on send. This year it is especially             to scientific equipment that high schools often can not
important that you fill in all the information on the form.   afford. They also provide access to professional
Within a day you should get a response. Sometimes we          development for science teachers in their content area
will be able to provide exactly what you want.                through workshops. The program is funded by the
Sometimes we will suggest alternate dates that fit into       Pennsylvania Department of Education so there is no
our schedule. Please remember that we only allow              cost to school districts or teachers.
scheduling two months in advance.

If you are not familiar with the program, our goal is to
allow teachers to bring more technology into their
science classrooms with the least amount of extra effort
on their part. We serve as a lending library of science
equipment. We will provide everything needed to do a
New Things For Bio Teachers
          Complexity of Global Warming                        Feedback Forms – More Important Than
Last year, Ursinus students collaborated with Science in
Motion to create a lab on the “Complexity of Global
                                                              Ever
Warming.” Because of the demand for the lab, we now
have two complete lab set ups to send out.                    Our goal at Science in Motion is to try to meet your
                                                              needs whenever possible. One important factor in
The lab comes in five boxes. In each box there is data        continuing to provide those services is the feedback
collection apparatus and equipment to investigate one         form. These forms are essential for our record keeping,
factor linked to global warming. Computers and                our eventual reports to the state government, and our
probes are used to collect data. You will need only to        funding. Teachers MUST fill out a form whenever
set out the boxes and divide your class into five lab         they borrow equipment or have a mobile educator
groups. Once your students have set up their computer,        present. If you have equipment on long term loan, it is
they will watch a video made by the Ursinus College           your responsibility to send in forms whenever the
students giving background information and explaining         equipment is used for a lab. Just go to our website to
how to set up and collect data on one particular              the “Laboratory Experiments” page and on the left panel
environmental factor.                                         you will see a link to feedback and scheduling forms.
               Virtual Fly Lab
Want to bring the excitement of breeding flies during         http://academic.ursinus.edu/scienceinmotion
your genetic unit but don't want the mess or the
problems of dealing with escaped flies? Then virtual          HELP US HELP YOU
flies are for you. Determine the sex and characteristics
of the flies on a virtual microscope and get the results of
your crosses in an instant. Students choose parents,          We are excited to get back to work but I think you are all
count the offspring, and use Punnett squares to explain       aware that we will have our hands full meeting requests
the results of their crosses.                                 this year. A little help from you can save us a lot of time
                                                              and allow us to serve more teachers.

New in Chemistry and Physics                                  1. Send in a completed scheduling form to schedule a
         Vernier LabQuests                                    visit or equipment drop off.
Data collection and analysis can now be done using
Vernier’s LabQuest. The LabQuest takes the place of a         2. You MUST send in a feedback form for any visit or
LabPro/calculator or LabPro/computer combination. The         drop off. We know you are busy and it is easy to forget
LabQuest can be plugged in or powered by battery and          but we spend hours reminding teachers to send in forms.
easily prints to our provided printers. This compact
device will eliminate the hassles associated with the TI      3. Have students help us get equipment into and out of
calculators and will eliminate the need for laptops. Data     your school. It saves us time and energy and we will
can be graphed and analyzed on the LabQuest screen in         love you for it.
the same fashion as on a computer screen. They are user-
friendly and intuitive and I can’t wait to share them.        4. One way to help us out is either pick up your
                                                              equipment at the college or find a person from your
         Vernier SpectroVis                                   school who lives near the college and will serve as an
This new compact spectrometer reads wavelengths 400 –         intermediary.
725 nm and displays the color along with the wavelength
measurement. The SpectroVis can also be used with a           5. Have teachers at your school plan together. If several
fiber optic cable for emission spectrum studies. The          teachers plan to do the same lab, schedule it in one block
SpectroVis interfaced with the new LabQuest is a              of time instead of each teacher scheduling separately.
compact convenient method for performing visible range
spectroscopy. Go to                                           6. Be patient, flexible and understanding. With your
http://www.vernier.com/videos/play.html?video=16              help we think we can meet most of your needs
to see a video of the rate law determination of crystal
violet using the SpectroVis and Labquest.