Jason DeFuria | New Science Teacher

STEM Digital, Day 3

June 26, 2013 by Jason DeFuria

Infrared image outside the Integrated Sciences Building at UMass Amherst

We started out the day by learning how to use Movie Tracker. Movie Tracker is much like the ADI software. Movie Tracker was really interesting to use, and would be particularly interesting for a physics classroom. We analyzed different items, including calculating acceleration due to gravity..

After learning movie tracker, we started a series of ozone experiments. We used homemade (called Shoeinbein Strips) and store bought ozone strips to test the amount of ozone found around locations of our choosing on campus. My group decided to test ozone around refrigeration and air conditioning units found near Worcester Dining Common on the UMass Amherst campus, varying time as well (1 hour versus 2 hours).

One of our test sites

Our test strips set up at UMass Amherst

Our results for the ozone experiments supported a claim that there would be no difference between ozone absorbed by shrubs and ozone absorbed by larger trees.

Results of our Ozone test

We spent the rest of the day playing in the infrared– using cheap webcams and home-made infrared googles.. Note- do not look at the sun or you will go blind.

Filed Under: UMass STEM Digital, UMassK12 Tagged With: infrared, ozone lab

STEM Digital, Day 2

June 25, 2013 by Jason DeFuria

Our Bromo-thymol blue setup, graded by amount of Carbon Dioxide.

Today is the second day of this week long course, and again it started with a variety of breakfast items. We started right at 9 am, analyzing color, which was a great review of the biology of the eye and how it relates to digital cameras.

Jennifer Wellborn presented her Skin Color lab, a unit that she collaborated with her grade level team to teach the kids some of the social constructs, which I thought was impressive. The students would use the ADI software to analyze their skin color, and come to the realization that no two people are the same.

Debbie Carlisle and Steve Schneider then presented about air quality, specifically in regards to Carbon Dioxide. We went to the lab and use Bromo-thymol blue (which I’ve used in class) as an indicator, and made a series of tests to create partial color changes. Bromo-thymol blue turns to a yellow color when exposed to an acidic environment. Aqueous Bromo-thymol Blue will bind with Carbon Dioxide to create carbonic acid. The lab was a really interesting spin on activities that I already do in my classroom, and could link with the Carbon Cycle. We were easily able to analyze the color intensity of the solutions that we created.

Our lab space for the Carbon Dioxide experiments.

Finally, Steve Schneider talked at length about Digital Camera Basics, explaining how different aspects of how digital cameras work, from sensors (CCD vs CMOS), Focal Length, ISO settings, and White balance, amongst other digital camera uses.

Preparing the Bromo-thymol blue solution

Filed Under: UMass STEM Digital, UMassK12 Tagged With: Bromo-thymol Blue, Carbon Cycle, Labs

STEM Digital Day 1

June 24, 2013 by Jason DeFuria

The first day of STEM Digital was a great experience. Mort Sternheim greeted us, and there was a lovely breakfast provided for us during registration.

We started the day with John Pickle explaining how to use the ADI software to analyze a leaf, using basic measurement and area techniques. I became excited, because I believe this software will be very useful in measuring the pH in a few laboratories that I run.

Jennifer Wellborn, of Amherst Middle School, explained how she uses the software in her classroom with a few assignments, including with diffusion and crayfish. We set up these experiments in the lab, to let them run the course of the week. I am interested to see whether the crayfish turns color based on its environment.

We went on to talk about albedo and climate change. Our assignment was to take a picture of white printer paper and measure the reflected light, comparing it with a darker medium (grass).

Steve Schneider presented how to measure angles with the ADI software, guiding us through Earth and Space Science. We tried to measure angles of people’s faces, and see the basis of facial recognition software.

Finally, Dave Reckhow talked about water quality and water treatment, focusing on natural organic matter in water. We set up leaf leaching experiments, to focus on analysis later in the week.

Looking forward to Day 2 tomorrow!

Filed Under: UMass STEM Digital, UMassK12 Tagged With: ADI, Digital, STEM

Weather & Climate- SESS #1

January 26, 2013 by Jason DeFuria

I participated in the UMass STEM Saturday Engineering & Science Seminar this morning. The description of this seminar was as follows:

“January 26. Air Pressure, Clouds and the Weather. Laura Schofield, Ipswich
schools. Predict the weather by understanding air pressure and clouds.
Participants will be presented with content to strengthen their own
understandings as well as student friendly materials from the National
Weather Service and NOAA. Topics covered will include Clouds, Air Pressure
and Weather Systems. The presentation will include tutorials, hands-on
analysis of current weather data using online resources and materials that
support nonfiction reading and writing skills which address ELA Common Core
Standards.”

Laura Schofield did a fantastic job of explaining the materials and used time very wisely. We started out the morning learning about the basics of air. Upon this knowledge, we learned about air pressure and how it affects weather and climate. The major theme of this segment of the lesson is that air is 3 dimensional, and interacts vertical as well as the horizontal way (wind) that we think about.

There was a great activity on low/high pressure areas and how it relates to the weather. This activity has a practical application in my classroom, as I can directly tie it into the Carbon cycle.

The second segment of class, we talked about air pressure and how it relates to the creation of clouds through the water cycle. We worked in groups of 4 and did the experiment with the 2 liter bottle, thermometer, a few drops of water, and a match. This activity shows the conditions required for clouds to form, and again could be used in my classroom very easily.

The third lesson of class used materials from The WeatherCycler. The WeatherCycler was great; the materials were well thought out and easy to understand. The only part that would keep me from adopting them in my classroom would be the price.

There were other great teachers there, and it reminded me how much I miss being in a highly collaborative environment, just like the RET experience I had this past summer at BU.

Filed Under: Curriculum, Featured Tagged With: Biology, Classroom, Clouds, Curriculum, Learn Weather, Weather, Weathercycler

Day 24- Pedagogy/Starting Wrap Up

August 3, 2012 by Jason DeFuria

Today started off great because it was the first day that I didn’t arrive at 7 am, so I was able to sleep in!. We met in groups with teachers from our subject areas, and talked about our lesson plans. It was great and reminded me of grad school; we used a rubric and thoroughly reviewed other’s plans.

We were asked to think about 3 questions:

How has this experience changed your perspective of research?
How has it impacted your idea of your own competence in research?
How do you envision changes in your own classroom as a result of this experience?

From my experience of research during my undergraduate days, I wasn’t a huge fan. It seemed like research wasn’t very relevant, and that you would have to spend years doing others research before you can get to something meaningful. The Boston University Photonics RET has changed my perspective and made me feel research can be fun and you can do your own research. I feel like I am at a level of research that I wouldn’t have achieved without completing this program.

My classroom is also a changed place because of this experience. I envision having a classroom in which students do more individual research as opposed to already created laboratories. I will also be using the Lesson Plans that we developed this summer to get more of a physics approach into my intro Biology class.

Otherwise, we worked on our powerpoint presentations, which we will be presenting on Wednesday morning, and our posters, which will be presented from 3-5pm on Thursday.

Lunch was provided and we had the opportunity to talk with the REU’s; Undergraduates who were completing summer research experiences. They were completely awesome at being able to talk about what they wish they had learned about Science in high school. I will take back their lessons (scribbled on pages in my notebook) and apply them to my classroom.

Fjodor and I completed a rough outline of our powerpoint, with the plan to finish it up Monday. I can’t believe I only have 5 more days left in this program!

Oh yeah…and Stephanie made this. While I’m not a Physics teacher, everything else is accurate

Filed Under: BU Summer RET 2012, Featured, RET Tagged With: Biophotonics, Boston, Boston University, BU RET, BUSAT

Day 23- Balloon Recovery #2

August 2, 2012 by Jason DeFuria

I started out today early because I wanted to beat traffic into the city. So I was into the Photonics center at BU around 7:30 am. I happened to check out the map and see that our balloon was still transmitting it’s GPS location, so that was an awesome sign.

We had a follow up interview with Leslie Friday, and she brought with her Syndey (her last name I completely missed), who took photos of us and we talked at great lengths about the Balloon Launch. It was nice to get to talk about the experience so quickly after it happening. We told Leslie and Syndey that we would be retrieving the Balloon during the afternoon and keep them updated.

I then set up a Dropbox Shared Folder so everyone would be able to access each other’s pictures.

We then left for Dover, Vermont, and stopped at the Leominster Home Depot along the way. Nate brought in his fishing pole. We bought a snow roof rake, a saw, some really heavy duty rope, some thinner rope, and hooks.

We went out and used my bow and arrow to try and arc over the payload line. I made it the first shot, and we had tied the fishing line to the arrow so we had a line over that we could pull back with the heavier duty rope. We were at this for a couple of hours, but it was too high in the tree.

We ended up having to cut down the tree. I felt a little guilty, but it would provide opportunities for other types of plants to grow in the space that now allowed the sun to hit the forest floor.

The payload was stuck still in another tree, but we were able to use the roof rake to scoop it down.

We went out for dinner and drinks to celebrate, and looked at the pictures. Amazing. I’m excited to sort through these. Here’s the preview:

Filed Under: BU Summer RET 2012, Featured, RET Tagged With: Biophotonics, Boston, Boston University, BU RET, BUSAT, RET

Day 22- Balloon Launch & Recovery Attempt

August 1, 2012 by Jason DeFuria

Today we launched our 1200 gram balloon from Mt. Greylock State Reservation in Lanesborough, MA. We launched right near the visitors center, in a big field.

We started the day by loading everything into my car, while the other cars took the passengers. Here’s a picture to show you how crowded it was.

It took us about 3 hours to convoy out there, and I insisted that we stop for coffee because many of us were running on very little sleep. We arrived at the launch site around 11:30 am, and started the process of assembling everything.

Nate started filling the balloon while Fjodor and I worked on assembling the payload packages. I turned on the cameras and started the script (which takes pictures every 5 seconds automatically) and the Arduino to start logging temperatures.

Fjodor worked on testing our communication systems via aprs.fi, and everything worked out. We assembled everything and launched around 1:25 pm. Jean started the cutoff mechanism right around 1:10, so 3:17 would be the time where the mechanism starts cutting through the rope and releasing it from the balloon.

Here’s a video of the actual launch!

Balloon Launch 8/1 BUSAT

We were using our smartphones and Nate’s callsign to track where the balloon was in real time by using aprs.fi It worked out great, and we received signal that it reached 95,000 feet and landed in Dover, Vermont.

We ended up tracking it into the woods, and found the Balloon, but it was in a tree. We didn’t have a way of getting it down, so we had to leave it there and regroup. It ended up being right off of VAST trails in Vermont, which are public land, and it was high up in a tree that we weren’t worried about something happening to the balloon.

On the ride home, we formulated a plan using a bow and arrow attached to fishing line. If we shot that over, we could tie rope to where the arrow was, and pull a heavier duty string over the tree to pull it down. We stopped in Gardner, MA, where I grew up, and picked up my bow and arrow, with the though of going back out tomorrow to retrieve our payloads.

Filed Under: BU Summer RET 2012, RET Tagged With: Biophotonics, Boston, Boston University, BU RET, BUSAT, High Altitude Balloon Launch, Research

Day 21- Hours of Work Come Together

July 31, 2012 by Jason DeFuria

Today was an incredibly long day- I got to work for 7 am and started working on fixing the code that wasn’t working. I was still having problems, but I knew that around 9 am I would be able to get some help.

I worked on doing final soldering and hot gluing of our circuits, so everything would be ready to put into the boxes as soon as I figured out the code issues. I ended up working with David C. from the lab, and we were able to get the code working.

We had a last minute meeting to talk about everything that needed to be done during the afternoon. We divided up jobs and went work assembling the boxes and make sure everything would hold up to the rough winds of space.

I had to run out to the hardware store and Radioshack for last minute supplies like tubing and batteries. Everything went well, it just took a ton of time to assemble everything. Here’s a picture of the box that contains our temperature sensors and our cameras, which are under the duct tape.

Tomorrow we need to weigh the boxes so we can find out how much lift that we need and design a counterweight before driving to Mount Greylock.

Filed Under: BU Summer RET 2012, Featured, RET Tagged With: Biophotonics, Boston, Boston University, BU RET, BUSAT

Day 20- Writing Code/ Building Boxes

July 30, 2012 by Jason DeFuria

Today I spent a majority of the day writing code for our Arduino, which had the sole job of saving the temperature sensor data. I spent hours reading articles about how to save to an SD card, but it wasn’t working as expected, and I had 5 different temperature sensors that I needed to save the data from.

During this time, my lab partner was assembling the payload boxes across the street, so that we would just have to put our electronics in it.

We had a brown bag lunch where everyone talked about their subsystem documentation, as it was due by 3 pm today to Nate so he could put it all in a document to send for review.

We then had a brief meeting to talk about progress on assembling everything, and we were feeling pretty good about what we had to do.

In the afternoon, I went back to trying to code for the Arduino to save the temperature data. I was having a ton of problems with it, so I had a lot of guys from the lab help me out with writing the code. It ended up being after 7pm and everyone had to leave, so we figured that we could finish it the next morning.

Unfortunately, my partner wasn’t as productive as I had hoped, and only assembled one box- and took off early, which was a little frustrating. I hope tomorrow goes smoother!

Filed Under: BU Summer RET 2012, RET Tagged With: Biophotonics, Boston, Boston University, BU RET, BUSAT, Research, RET

Day 19- Labs with Teachers/ Lesson Plans

July 27, 2012 by Jason DeFuria

Today started off with running the laboratories with running the temperature sensor laboratory as well as the Monte Carlo Method laboratory with the teachers. The temperature sensors that were built were hot glued together and will be flown on our high altitude balloon next Wednesday.

The Monte Carlo method is a way of predicting, using known data (like NOAA weather data in our case) where an object has the greatest probability of landing. In our case, we can predict landing sites based on known weather patterns and a known launch site (Mt. Greylock).

We approximated landing sites, the cluster near the Vermont/NH border is a launch from Mt. Greylock, while the pins at sea were from a launch from the Photonics center in Boston.

We spent the rest of the day talking about what lessons we will take back to share with our students. I will take back the importance of collaboration and maybe the use of lab notebooks. Also, I will take back the perspective of being someone who has lived in the city- completely different from my life in Western MA.