Mr. Hailey’s Science Blog

Well we took the day off and went to visit Joe the chief engineer at the Delaware River and Bay Authority.  Joe briefed us for about 75 minutes on what the authority was doing, some of the long range plans and about how the twin bridges called the Delaware Memorial Bridge (DMB) were built. 

We then donned our bright yellow safety vests, hopped in some vans and headed over to the bridges.  We then split and Joe took us into the anchor.  The anchor is a cement structure where the cables are attached to steel structures anchored in cement.  We made our way slowly to the bottom (learning about how the bridge is constructed) of the anchor which is a solid cement block sitting about 10 feet above the water.  We then went outside to observe the pigeon poop and many chicken bones that the pigeons bring back from cherry island.  We then climbed about 150 -180 feet in minutes to get back up to the bridge.  It was quite a workout and one I do not wish to repeat often.  We then took turns taking the elevator to the top of the towers.  To do this you make your way through a series of hatches that reminded me of my days in submarines, and get in an elevator the size of a coffin.  The coffin/elevator takes you near the top where you climb a couple of ladders to stand on a platform where the red aviation lights are located.  It was a magnificent view standing roughly 440 feet up on top of the towers.  The day was clear and you could see Iron Hill, Mt. Cuba, Philadelphia and the Delaware Bay clearly. 

Too bad I forgot my friggin camera!  Oh well, I took a few snapshots of the view with my cell phone and hope they will do.

Toodles!

Ok, so Buma says he was thinking about the pdms process and comes up with an idea of using tape instead of an etched circuit board.  That starts me thinking and I decided to try various tapes, wire solder, thread and fishing line.  I forgot to bring the dental floss.  So we made up some pdms, created the tape, thread and fishing line “circuits” and are letting them dry now.

More later.

My favorite quote from Curly of the 3 stooges in the title.

Anyway, I guess I need to blog a little more since that is one of the expectations.  I’m not much of blogger or a talker but will try to discuss what we are doing and why.

What we have done so far

So, we took this circuit board that was coated w/copper and drew a “circuit” using an industrial strength sharpie.  (We used to call them magic markers!) Then using an etching compound (Ferric Chloride I think) we removed all but the copper that was under the sharpie ink.  (I believe this is a single replacement reaction where the copper replaces the iron and you get a CuCl waste solution with some iron.  Not totally sure so I need to do some research on this to relate it to my students.  This should be a good reference for the chemistry side of physical science.)  This took about 40 min of constant agitation.  We then rinsed off the etching solution and dried the circuit.  Buma and I did it first w/o heat then me, Madigan, Caitlyn and Allen tried it with heat.  At 65C it took about 20 min w/agitation and 30 min w/o.  I should also note that we cut the circuit board up into 1×2” rectangles so we can get a few trials under our belt and we also don’t need the whole sheet.

On the imaging side of things, Allan designed an LED imaging system based on the prototype that Buma designed.  We ordered the parts and hope to begin construction soon.  Team KC (Kevin and Caitlyn decided to go green and use the same prototype with a different laser.  A green one.  The laser is in and it’s powerful!  However the company forgot to send all of the batteries.

Meanwhile the REU’s have also been working on programs to synthesize the images.

We then prepared some PDMS compound to make our optofluidic channels.  There are two parts that you mix in a 10:1 ratio and then put under a vacuum to remove the air bubbles.  That process took about 20 min.  I made an aluminum “boat” to hold the circuit board and give it some walls to hold the PDMS from dripping off of the sides.  The PDMS then cures on the circuit board and around the copper leaving a channel where the copper had remained on the circuit board.  The PDMS will be transferred to a glass slide so that the channel is a channel!  Its also gotta be glass so light can travel through it.  Eventually this channel will have have water injected into it and we will view the water using a web camera and either a LED or laser to make images much the same way a pinhole camera works.

Problems

 Some of the problems we have to address are that the circuit board has to be polished to a mirror finish so that the PDMS can be removed w/o tearing as well as have the PDMS as clear as possible.  We ordered some acrylic polish and scratch remover to do this.  Also the aluminum boat idea has to be improved.  When the circuit board sits in the boat it needs to be level so that the PDMS is more uniform.  One possible solution is to make a “boat” out of milled Al stock.

Further research

Another thing that needs to be done is to research how we can use a computer and printer to print out the circuit pattern and then put that on UV sensitive coated circuit board so that we can get a finer channel.

Other concerns

Some of the other things we (Kevin Madigan and I) are doing is to create a fundemental shift in curriculum approach using the technology tools that we have been introduced to.  Our idea is to use an approach that both challenges our students to do outside research on their own and to get them to dig deeper into the curriculum.  We decided to do this by taking a part of the curriculum that gets left to the last minute (due to trying to cover so many topics demanded by the state) and make that a semester long research project done outside of class by our students.  This not only gives us more time to get deeper with the other curriculum but allows the students to be responsible for their own learning as well as teaching them to do research as part of a team, much like what we are doing this summer.

Our idea is to set up a wiki where the students get both direction and post their findings.  We envision this to be a site where 4 – 5 teams (5-6 students per team) per class create their own wiki on the topics assigned.  The topics are all state standards in earth science for 9th grade physical science and tied to each other.   The students will be able to see other student designed wiki’s in other classes so we feel that the students will be collaborating (hopefully not plagerizing) with a diverse population.  The students will also be working from a teacher designed wiki which should help them with the design and functionality of creating their own wiki.  The final assessment will be the wiki, a power point presentation and a student designed exam on the topics.  Along the way there will be milestones they will need to complete such as worksheets, online quizzes, test question submissions and formative assessments.

In addition to the wiki I (and possibly Kevin but he doesn’t know it yet) will setting up a Ning to add some bling.  Ning is a teacher moderated facebook like site that allows member invited participants to share and discuss their ideas.  We are hoping that this enhances the collaborative effort. 

One other idea we would like to incorporate is to have the students take turns in summing up what they learned in class that day or possibly week in a class blog.  This will be either be hosted by edublogs or Ning.  Each day or week (depending on how exhausted we get from reading this thing) a student will summarize the lesson(s).  We hope that this might keep the kids interested, up to date (absentees) and allow us to spot some misconceptions we missed in class or correct something we didn’t explain fully.

So that is where I’m at.  I have blisters on my fingers!

Yesterday we started on the research end and are continuing today.   I could really get used to the schedule although I think it would be tough to readjust come September.  So I think I will maintain my own schedule.  Left a little early yesterday to play softball with some grad students and professors.  Went home and read a textbook on optics, got here on Friday too early for the custodial crew so I found a nice quiet spot outside and continued my reading.  I am finally on my own computer so I am going to start an internet research path.

Today we learned some ethics from Tom Powers (veddy veddy interezding deescushun), talked to a guy about chip making, saw the robotics research(really cool) and had a heck of a lunch discussion about pizza.  Over all today was better than the previous two days although there was some interesting highlights.  The navy commander who shared his research was fascinating as was the two guys who made an I-beam from burlap and soybean resin.  The safety discussion was old because I’ve had it before numerous times since I come from industry.

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