Botany and Physics meet at the NYBG

Every year since 1992 the New York Botanical Garden puts on the Holiday Train Show that features model trains and trolleys winding their way though New York area landmarks.  The models, handmade by Paul Busse and his group from Applied Imagination, are constructed from sticks, bark, stems, and seeds among other natural materials.  We have visited this evolving seasonal exhibit for years and are always pleasantly surprised, minus the crowds of course (they get smaller ounce you get past the beginning).

The bridges zigzag throughout the entire exhibit and are very sturdy and well built.  An engineering marvel put together with twigs and such.  Other models show intricate craftsmanship and authenticity as the models represent what original building looked like when first constructed.

For more pics: Train Pics

Hey any mycologists out there!  Are these edible?

These neat looking bright orange mushrooms are growing on the side of my house in a recently planted field of pachysandra.  I am a self proclaimed bio bozo and have no clue.  About all I know about mushrooms is they are a fungus and get their nutrients from decaying organic matter since they lack chlorophyll.  My wife, the much better biologist in our family identified the fungus as either Jack O`Lantern or Orange-latex Milky.  The Jack O'lantern is poisonous while the Orange-latex Milky is edible.  I think she wants to know whether to put them in the family salad or just my salad...

Is America's Mediocre (At Best) Science Scores Due To Not Using The Metric System?

In my opinion, the answer is yes, in part.  We spend the first couple of weeks of chemistry class going over measurement in general.  Over half of that time is spent on the Metric System some of which they already 'learned' in other science courses.   I put learned in quotes because many students were not comfortable with it since they do not use it once they leave the classroom.

I use analogies to describe concepts, as most science teachers do.  For example, when talking about the fundamental concept of density which is mass divided by volume, common units for chemistry are grams per cubic centimeter (g/cm3).  I may ask a student to estimate the density of water using those units, they would at a loss, however, if I said use pounds per cubic feet (lbs/ft3) they would probably have a guess that is close to the answer of 63 lbs/ft3.  This makes analogies that much harder to because then I have to have the students convert these units to the Metric System.  This is where I lose a significant number of students as it adds another layer of mathematical minutia that would not exist if we were using the Metric System.  Incidentally, it is not an accident that the density of water in the Metric System is 1.0 g/cm3 but the reasons why the Metric System is so much better is a discussion for a later post!

Most (or maybe all) of my students from other countries perform much better than the U.S. born students.  A few years ago a former student moved to CT from Albania.  She joined the class after the first marking period and barely spoke any English.  I was thinking to myself "how is this student going to function not speaking English?"  However, it soon became apparent that I when started putting equations on the board, she saw and understood the familiar units and ended up being the curve breaker.  Her math skills along with her knowledge of the Metric System allowed her to succeed.

SUNDIALS AT THE GARDEN

SUNDIALS AT THE GARDEN

While camping in Western MA we went to Berkshire Botanical Garden where they had a wonderful special feature on sundials.  Through the gardens there are sundials made of stone, bronze, iron, and other materials.  

Fig 1

 

                  Fig 2

(DSC_0032_01, a photo by kurt zeppetello on Flickr.)

The spherical sundial in Fig 1 shows the time at 2 o'clock while the time on the permanently displayed sundial in Fig 2 indicates the time as 1 o'clock even-though they were taken almost at the same time.  Since this event is scheduled from June 23 - October 15, only the 'temporary' sundials are set to Daylight Savings Time.  The others are set to Eastern Standard Time.


My favorites are:

 

All of the sundials can be viewed on the following link: Berkshire Sundials 

The Ancient Art Of Brewing And The Chemistry Behind It!

According to archaeological evidence, brewing was first done by people living in ancient Mesopotamia around the 5th millennium B.C.  The oldest beer recipe comes from a 3900-year old Sumerian poem honoring the brewing goddess, Ninkasi.  More recent, however, is my summer break which allows me time to experiment with brewing.  This year I decided on a blueberry concoction since I have been seeing fresh fruits all over the place.  As added bonus, my son who loves doing things in the kitchen, assisted me with this endeavor.  Last month we made strawberry ice cream from our excess handpicked strawberries - look for a "chemistry of ice cream post" later in the summer.


The ingredients consist of four main parts:
1) malted grain - barley, wheat, oats, corn, or rice that is soaked with water until germination begins.
2) hops - the flower of the humulus plant that is used for aroma and more importantly adds bitterness which balances the sweetness of the malt.
3) yeast - a type of fungi which converts fermentable sugars into alcohol.
4) water - H2O.


Our Ingredients:

As you can see I cheat a little bit as I brew from a kit (Mr. Beer).  They have numerous recipes and suggestions to choose from.  The brew that we are making is based on the recipe for Jazzberry Ram but we are substituting blueberries in syrup for raspberries in syrup (I like blueberries more).  

Step 1 - Decontamination:

All equipment must be cleaned and sanitized before fermenting.  The cleaner contains sodium percarbonate (2Na2CO3*3H2O2) which is a white solid that releases the oxidizing agent hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) when dissolved in water.

Step 2 - Create the Wort:

The wort is the term used for the mixture that is the unfermented beer.  In our case we first boiled water (4 cups) and mixed the Booster from the kit which consists of dextrose (C6H12O6) and maltodextrins (a polysaccharide consisting of multiple dextrose units).  The Booster provided additional fermentable and unfermentable sugars to the wort.  We also added a packet of Saaz Pellet Hops to give a spicy flavor to the wort.  As the powder is added to the water it forms a cool looking soft crystalline mass and before dissolving completely.




After boiling, we added a can of Linebacker Doppel Bock from the kit which is a gooey mixture of already malted grains and hops.  This is the wort.

Step 3 - Final Mixing:

To the decontaminated fermentation chamber (keg) we added cool water (4 quarts) from the faucet.  The water has to be cool as the hot wort could damage the plastic keg.  You might be tempted to use distilled water or water purified by reverse osmosis but it lacks important nutrients for the yeast.  On that note, however, make sure your water is not polluted and tastes good.  We then added the warm wort mixture and the can of blueberries to the keg holding the cool water.  Next we added more water to the mixture until the total volume was 8.5 quarts.  Finally we added the small packet of dry yeast, stirred the wort, and placed it into to the basement so it can ferment.

Fermentation (what's cooking in my basement):
Fermentation is a metabolic (biological) process by which sugars are converted ethanol and carbon dioxide.  The chemical reactions look like this:

1)  C12H22O11    +    H2O    +     Invertase        =>        2C6H12O6
     (sucrose)                        (enzyme in yeast)              (glucose)


2)  2C6H12O6    +    Zymase        =>        4C2H5OH    +    4CO2
     (glucose)        (enzyme in yeast)         (ethanol)         (carbon dioxide)


According the reactions shown above, one mole of sucrose produces four moles of ethanol and carbon dioxide.

The End! Or until bottling...


Sources:
wikipedia - Good general info for initial an source.
Maltose Express - Good local source for serious brewing.
GlenRo - Good local source for general info.
Mr. Beer - Good source for info and for brewing without leaving your house.

What is a Flame

Ben Ames, 31, from Kansas City, Mo and current physics graduate student at University of Innsbruck in Austria answers this question in the following link:  
[click the link and enjoy]


What is a Flame.

The explanation is the best I have heard due in part to its visual graphics using Legos and its simple explanations.  The video was developed in response to a contest put together by Alan Alda who is currently involved with and a founder for the Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University.  The selection took place at the World Science Festival in New York.  

For more information: In Winning Definition of ‘Flame,’ Jargon Melts Away by Kenneth Chang, NYTimes and The Winning Answer to a Burning Question at NPR.

Green Flame Reaction

I performed a favorite demonstration for my students recently where a white powder (boric acid) is mixed with small amount of methanol in a flask and then ignited, the result is an eerie green flame.   This year, however, I experimented with the time I let for the reaction to take place.  The results were noticeable.

Video 1 shows the first trial where boric acid and methanol were mixed for approximately 45 seconds before it was ignited.  The green flame lasted approximately 1 second the flame is much more green in person).

Video 2 shows the second trial where the mixture was shaken for approximately 74 seconds and then ignited.  The green flame in this trial lasted approximately 3 seconds.

I varied the reaction times for two other classes and obtained similar results.  So there you have it, vigorously shaking the mixture for longer times leads to a longer burning time for the green boric acid ester.

Boric acid has a wide range of uses other than serving as neat demos for chem teachers such as rat poison, antiseptics, acne prevention, and others.  Boric acid trimethylester (trimethyl borate) is used as a solvent for the production of waxes and varnish and such.

For those interested, the reaction is as follows:

 H3BO3 + 3CH3OH => B(H3CO)3 + 3H2O

This demonstration was modified from Bangs, Flashes, and Explosions – Illustrated Guide to Chemistry Demonstrations. ©2005 Chris Schrempp and ExploScience.com.

Afternoon Horseshoe Crab Tagging!

My family and I spent the afternoon, more like a half-hour due to thunder, tagging horseshoe crabs at Sherwood State Park in Westport, CT.  We met in the parking lot for the Park Nature Center with members of Sacred Heart University's Project Limulus who gave a brief introduction and provided instruction.  Project Limulus is a horseshoe crab research project that relies on collecting raw field data such as appearance and size.  Our group did manage to collect and tag some crabs before the thunder.

Horseshoe crabs have been around for well over 300 million years which means they were around when trilobites still roamed the oceans and somehow made through the mass extinctions at the end of the Permian (252 mya) and the more famous but less deadly Cretaceous (65 mya).  They have green blood as they use hemocyanin which is copper-based to carry oxygen rather than hemoglobin which is iron-based like most other animals on Earth.  Another interesting tidbit about horseshoe crab blood is that it contains special cells (ameoboctes) which attach to bacteria and prevent it from entering the body.  Anyway, the activity was both fun and educational.  Thanks Project Limulus.

Thermite vs. a Hamburger

The thermite reaction releases 852 kilojoules (kJ) of energy whereas a hamburger typically has only 600 Calories (Big Mac has ~600 Calories).  Looks like thermite wins!  Good  news for summer grilling.  Either way I am having a burger tonight!

However, a calorie is defined as the amount of energy need to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water 1 degree Celsius.  In the food business, for some reason, they use Calories, notice the capital 'C', therefore 1 Calorie = 1 kilocalories = 1000 calories.  Are we in the clear yet since it is 852 kJ vs. 600  Calories?  Not really as 1 calorie = 4.2 Joules or 1 Cal = 4.2 kJ which means the 600 Cal must by multiplied by 4.2 in order to convert this to kJ.  When we do this the the 600 Cal is equivalent to 2520 kJ.

The thermite reaction is shown below.  It is a reaction between powdered aluminum and iron powdered iron III oxide (rust).  To get the reaction to occur it must be heated to around 2200 degrees Celsius which is why an ignition reaction must first be used.  I used a mixture of potassium chlorate and sucrose plus a few drops of sulfuric acid.

Video 1) Thermite Ignitor (KClO3 + Sucrose + Sulfuric Acid)

Video 2) Thermite

The good thing about having the AP Chem Test first is it leaves more time at the end of the year to perform neat demos.

What you can do with a nitrile glove and a pressure chamber:

Having fun with the gas laws.  The air inside the gloves expand as the air is evacuated from surroundings!  This is an example of Boyle's Law where the volume of the glove expands as pressure in the chamber is decreased as temperature is held constant.

For Edline Users!  

It is possible to insert graphs, pictures, or diagrams into Edline quizzes.  Shown below is a partial quiz I created on Edline where questions 14 - 16 require a phase diagram (PD water.dox).  The phase diagram pops up for the students to use for the questions.

To insert the file in a quiz or assignment, 1) create the quiz using the Quiz Builder.  2) Next click the at position where you want insert the file and 3) select Hand-Out (file attachment handed out by you).  Save your work normally and your done.

Thanks goes to Mike Sirowich (Physics Teacher) for explaining this to me, although Mike Oberdick, Tech Integration Specialist at our school probably has this on his blog (Tech Messages)!

Today Seymour High School welcomed the ASA High School Tour, in partnership with the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and the U.S. Marine Corps, which brings the world’s best BMX riders to high schools across America show it's cool to be smoke free.

Although it was raining the show went on anyway, in the Gymnasium of course.  It was well done and Mike Sirowich, the physics teacher, was there with his ruler and stopwatch calculating velocity and maximum height measurements.  His students will have to calculate such things next class.

The half-moon was visible for the entire day here in CT.  What more needs to be said?  It should be visible for some portion of the day everyday except during a new moon or full moon, if you know where to look.  However, some days the reflected light of the moon passes through the scattered blue light of Earth's atmosphere better than others.  For more on this click on the link: Why do we see the moon.

300 mm

















    55 mm

More lunar pics as well as other photos by the blog creator (ME) can be seen: Pics

What is the difference between baking soda and baking powder and what is there use in cooking and baking?  These questions were answered in the latest Common Formative Assessment (CFA) that our chemistry students took.  CFAs are one of the latest tools that our district is requiring we do.  Ideally they are supposed to drive education by assessing students learning on topics before testing them to gage their understanding.  We used to call these quizzes but in the new age of teaching we have a new acronym.  The experts tell us that CFAs should be designed to be shorter than quizzes and may be verbal.  However, we have to keep track of the results in a predetermined format is very time consuming.  Fortunately Chris Pagliaro, a social studies teacher at SHS, made it easier to keep track.  In addition, we are now doing CFAs to assess reading comprehension in all of our classes - CFAs on Steroids!  Why do all this?  To prove we are teaching of course.  If my tone sounds like I do not really care for these, you should hear what my students have to say about them.  Enough of my rant about CFAs.  Besides, I actually learned something about baking from from developing this latest reading CFA with Tony Ciccone.

The article we used for the reading CFA was from our textbook, Chemistry - Matter and Change, McGraw-Hill 2008.  The article, Acid-Base Reactions on the Rise, describes the two questions from the first sentence of this post.  Baking soda and baking powder are both considered be leavening agents.  A leavening agent is an ingredient that causes batter to rise during cooking or baking.  Baking soda is composed of sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) which is a base.  When mixed with an acid, even a weak acid, reacts to form bubbles of carbon dioxide (CO2).  When using baking soda for cooking, it is usually added last to the batter.  That is because the other ingredients are often acidic and will produce the carbon dioxide bubbles as soon as the baking soda is added to the batter.  Mildly acidic ingredients used in cooking and baking include vinegar, chocolate, honey, lemon juice, milk and many others.  Some batters, however, are mildly acidic and, therefore, must be made acidic.  This is where baking powder comes in.  It turns out baking powder is a mixture of sodium bicarbonate and a dry acid (cream of tartar - potassium bitartrate or acid of calcium phosphate - calcium dihydrogen phosphate) and starch.  So that's it!

I attended an AP Chemistry short course offered by the College Board a couple of summers ago at Saint Joseph's College of Maine.  The instructor, Cheri Smith, from Yale Secondary School in British Columbia was phenomenal.  One of the things she shared with us was a Free Response question history (shown below).  I have been adding to it.  What is helpful is that the types of questions are defined, thus making it useful for predicting what the questions will be like on the new test.  No one really knows what they will ask for sure, but it is fun trying to guess and the students have fun trying to guess as well.  Not to mention getting them engaged.    

The yellow highlighted boxes indicate questions we have gone over.  Two different versions of the Free Response session are given.  This was started in 2002 as a result ______?  That is a question I ask my students.  Most of us in our forties did not have such things when we were young.

I have attached a link to where the Free Response History spreadsheet can be downloaded.  Feel free to use it and add to it.

Birds Of Prey

Birds of Prey

DSC_0026_01, a photo by kurt zeppetello on Flickr.

On Saturday April 7, 2012 the Webb Mountain Discovery Zone in Monroe, CT held their annual Egg Hunt for children.  A very different egg hunt than most egg hunts as eggs are colored to resemble wild avian eggs and are hidden along the many trails in the Discovery Zone.  Following the Egg Hunt was a demonstration by the Connecticut Audubon Society.  Three Birds of Prey were displayed: 1) Broad-winged Hawk, 2) Peregrine Falcon, and  a 3) Barn Owl (additional pics).  All three of these birds were injured in some way and, therefore, would not survive in the wild.  All three of these birds have interesting stories to tell and I recommend visiting the Audubon Society to learn more about these and the many other birds in CT.  Great job by Webb Mountain Discovery Zone.

I was listening to NPR Science Friday yesterday and Alan Alda was the feature guest.  He was describing his current work Visiting Professor and as a founding member of the Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University.  He set up a challenge were a scientist has to explain to an 11-year old what a flame is.  Below is my submission to the Flame Challenge.  I have had this question from students before but they are a little older so I simplified it somewhat.  Does this make any sense to anyone?  Eleven or not?


Fire, or a flame, is a plasma, that is, the fourth type of matter.  All matter starts out as a solid when it is cold enough (ICE).  In a solid particles are in a fixed position and touching each other.  If you increase the energy, the matter can be in liquid form where particles are moving but still in contact with each other (WATER).  Adding more energy, matter converts to a gas where particles moving and are not in touching each other (AIR).  Finally adding even more energy, matter converts to a plasma  where some electrons normally bound to an atom are freed so you have a mass of free electrons and atoms with missing electrons zooming around (FIRE).

Fire is produced as a result of a type chemical reaction known as combustion.  Combustion occurs when compounds combine with oxygen to form new compounds.  Most commonly, combustion occurs when hydrocarbons (compounds containing carbon and hydrogen, GASOLINE) and oxygen react and produce carbon dioxide and water.  In order to turn on the combustion reaction, activation energy (MATCHES) must be added to the system.  Once it is on, heat and light are produced and it continues until one of the reactants is used up or removed.  

During the reaction, enough energy is produced to free some of the electrons from atoms.  However, these free electrons and atoms with missing electrons are not happy being apart and quickly combine to form new compounds.  They form new compounds because matter wants to be stable and carbon dioxide and water are more stable than oxygen and gasoline.

Now the tough part:
Electrons are located in regions surrounding the central portion (the nucleus) of the atom.  These regions, also known as shells or energy levels, represent an approximate distance away from the nucleus of the atom.  The higher the shell, the higher the number.  Each shell can hold only a certain number of electrons so when a shell is full, the remaining electrons have to go to a higher level (THINK OF A LADDER).  When electrons are knocked out of their shell they are said to be excited (THINK OF THEM BEING AT A PARTY).  Electrons poop out pretty quickly and want to go back to their place in shell of an atom (HOME TO BED).  When electrons go back down to the lower shells of an atom, they give off light.

5 Questions With . . . Sociology’s Daniel Long on Education Reform

Daniel Long, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Wesleyan University, was invited to testify in front of the Connecticut General Assembly's Education Reform Committee in February.  His answers to these five questions are well thought and make good sense.  Given the proposed Education Plan, it seems they did not take his advice...

5 Questions With . . . Sociology’s Daniel Long on Education Reform

Molecular Models Competition.  Who will win...

Find out Monday.  In the meantime I just get buried by molecules.  Help!

On the trail of the Sugar House

My family I have been visiting sugar houses this time of year since we moved to the heart Maple-Sap collection-land, New England.  This year we decided hit Flanders Nature Center in Woodbury Connecticut.  The surrounding farm land was purchased in 1926 by a wealthy NY family and eventually turned into a nature preserve from 1963 with the inception of the Flanders Nature Center, Inc. to 1973 with the first land grant.

Native Americans from this region were the first groups known to have collected maple tree sap and produce maple syrup.  News to me!  This was going on long before the Europeans arrived.  As the very knowledgeable Flanders volunteer explained, the Native Americans collected the sap by cutting a V-shaped incision on the tree and setting buckets under the incision.  Since they did not have metal containers to boil the water away and concentrate the maple sugars, they set hot rocks into the hollow log containers.  If it was cold enough at night, they would let the surface freeze and remove the ice which also concentrates the syrup solution.  Once the syrup was produced, they could store it birch-bark buckets and use it for cooking.

Legend has it that the first production occurred by accident when a tomahawk was thrown into a tree with a hollow log under it.  The next morning the hollow log was filled with what the natives thought was plain water.  A hunting party came back with a deer.  Logically, they cooked the venison in the special water and a new recipe was born...

For more photos click on the link: Maple

Of course forest hiking is available.

Thanks Flanders Nature Center!