CHAIRPERSON:  S. Mary L. Maier, Ph.D. St. Joseph's College 245 Clinton Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11205-3688
OTHER MEMBERS:  Mrs. Jean D. Delfmer,  Ms. Corinne Gamper,  Dr. Raifah M. Kabbani,  Dr. John M. Halpin,  Dr. Hiroko I. Karan,  Mrs. Joan Laredo-Liddell , Mrs. Nadia E. Makar,  Mr. Lewis Malchick, Dr. Margaret Mandziuk,  Dr. Thomas J. Quigley,  Dr. Patricia A. Redden,  Dr. Jill K. Rehmann, Dr. Angelo R. Rossi
 
 

The tenth annual science career program offered to middle school girls was conducted at St. Joseph's College on Saturday, April 23, 2005. Twenty-eight scouts and five leaders attended and found that this year's activities were enjoyable and instructive.  Because most of these scouts had not attended previously, the program included some experiments which had been presented during previous programs.

The program included a short presentation directed to the purpose of  "Expanding Your Horizons", during which the day's experiments were explained.  It was indicated that the program seeks to provide opportunities for participants to understand the need for careful laboratory work as scientists create new materials, test them for safety and lasting value.  Participants, including Girl Scout leaders, were equipped with program booklets of experiments, safety glasses, and plastic bags in which to place experimental products.  Scout leaders would arrange for a limit of thirty minutes in each of the four experimental laboratories; they were informed about the purpose of each experiment as they enjoyed the hands-on activities.  Lunch for all was arranged to follow the laboratory program.

The final page of the booklet provided an opportunity for the participants to evaluate the program and to consider the possibility of a future career in the sciences or health professions. CERTIFICATES  were mailed to scout leaders after completion of the program in order to continue the thought that there is value in expanding one's horizons along with education which could spark interest in careers in the sciences.
 

Expanding Your Horizons,   April 23, 2005
Coordinator: S. Mary L. Maier, Ph.D.
Chairperson, Chemical Education Committee

Attendance:  28 Girl Scouts from three troops and 5 Girl Scout Leaders
8 Science Majors, St. Joseph's College,   2 ACS members

Evaluation:  Positive reaction to all aspects of the program laboratory procedures were well directed and monitored participants performed experiments carefully and enjoyed outcomes discussion with participants after lunch was productive

It should be noted that partial funding of this program was provided by the Brooklyn Subsection, NY Section, ACS.
 
 

9:30am      WELCOME AND .INTRODUCTION TO THE PROGRAM:
                       Dr. Mary L. Maier, Chairperson, Physical Sciences Department,  St. Joseph's College

9:45am        NEW EXPERIENCES IN THE WORLD OF SCIENCE:
                      Dr. Margaret Mandziuk, Chemistry, Manhattan College,  Dr. Jill Rehmann, Chemistry, St. Joseph's College;  Schaeffer Charles;
                      Laboratory  Assistant, St. Joseph's College; Maribel Gonzalez, Bachelor of Science, 2005; Charanjeet Jassal, M.S., Smith and Kline,
                      Research; Poonam Jassal, Bachelor of Science, Biology;  Yen Phuong, Master of Science, Pharmacology; Gurjit Singh, Laboratory
                      Assistant, St. Joseph's College; Viktoriya Syrovatkina, Bachelor of Science, 2005; Melina Valencia, Laboratory Assistant, St. Joseph's
                      College

10:00am      EXPERIMENTS IN FOUR LABORATORIES:
                      A. Crystal Garden; Silly Putty
                      B. Your Personal Soap
                      C. A Different Mobile
                      D. T-Shirt Chromatography

12:00           LUNCH FOR ALL

12:45pm    DISCUSSION SESSION:  Evaluation of scientific experiences Consideration of the place of science in the world of today, in future
                     education

1:00pm     CONGRATULATIONS TO SCOUT LEADERS:   End of program

CRYSTAL GARDEN
Some crystals absorb something which looks like water and, as the liquid enters the crystal, it begins to grow. This experiment will give you the opportunity to see some of the beauties of the crystal garden. The liquid is actually sodium silicate, the same chemical that is present in glass, so it is sometimes called "water glass"
1. Pour the sodium silicate into your container, but do not fill the container. Leave a little room for the crystals which you will use to make your garden.
2. Use the tweezers to pick up one piece of crystal at a time and let it drop to the bottom of your container. Continue this until you have ten crystals in the container.
3. Watch for a while as the crystals begin to "grow" and create various colors of "plants" in your container.
This process relates to the topic of osmosis, when the crystals let the sodium silicate come in and begin to cause the crystal to grow. It is important to understand that the crystals are not dissolving in the sodium silicate solution, but they are letting the sodium silicate osmose or diffuse into the crystals.

"SILLY" PUTTY
We have done this before, but everyone liked it so much that we decided to do it again.
l. Use the white glue to place enough glue in your plastic cup to reach the blue line on the cup. Then add enough bottled water to reach the red line on the cup.
2. Carefully measure 4 milliliters of borax in the glass cylinder and pour it carefully into the plastic cup. Add a little bit of color and stir vigorously until it forms a solid ball. 3. There may be a little liquid left, but now you can take the ball from the plastic cup and roll it in your hands until it is a smooth ball.
4. Test this "Silly Putty" by
a. seeing if it bounces
b. holding it above the desk and letting it fall as if it were a liquid
c. as it falls give it a sideways "chop" and see if it breaks like a solid
d. watch to see it relax like a liquid when it reaches the desk
e. write on a piece of paper towel and place the putty on the printing; see if the print is picked up by the putty.

You can keep this putty as long as you like. It does not have to be refrigerated.

YOUR PERSONAL SOAP
Today you will make glycerin soap which is very good for your skin. You can make it your own by adding color and perfume of your choice.
Procedure (for 2 portions of soap)
l. Weigh 20 grams of Ivory soap flakes into the glass beaker.
2. Use the 25 milliliter cylinder to add
a. 25 milliliters (ml) of glycerin
b. 15 ml of ethyl alcohol
c. 15 ml. of pure bottled water
Mix with your glass stirring rod gently.
3. Place the beaker on the hot plate. You and your partner can take turns stirring (ask a laboratory assistant to check that your hot plate is not too hot).
4. After about M minutes the soap mixture should be almost clear. If it begins to bubble too high in the beaker, use the tongs or a paper towel to place the beaker on the desk until the bubbles go down.
5. It will be almost finished, so stop stirring. Put it on the hot plate and let it heat until it looks almost clear.
6. Pour half of the soap into each mold. Add 5 drops of color and a couple of drops of perfume to each portion.
7. Write your name or initials on your container and place it on the tray on the carrier: When the soap is hardened, you can place it in your bag.

Questions
1. Which of the reasons below is the best reason for saying that glycerin is good for your skin?
a. Glycerin mixes with soap flakes.
b. Glycerin is thick, not runny like water.
c. Glycerin attracts water.

2. Soap is made from fat and lye (which is like oven cleaner). How would you know that soap is not just fat?
a. Soap floats on water.
b. Soap removes oil from skin and hair.
c. Soap makes bubbles in water.

3. Why do you think some kinds of soap are more expensive than others?

A DIFFERENT MOBILE
A mobile is a good example of one of Isaac Newton's Laws of Motion. The way that Isaac would teach you this law is that "a moment is the weight of an object x the distance to the fulcrum". Most of us would find it more as part of our experience if we thought of a seesaw. If a heavy person is on one end of the seesaw and a thin person is on the other end, we always seat the thin person at a longer distance from the seesaw support.

Experiment
Today we are going to make a mobile from a straw, pipe cleaners and beads. We will place one pipe cleaner inside the straw; the straw will be the support of our hanging mobile. Then we will attach pipe cleaners with beads at whatever places we think look nice. You can cut the pipe cleaners if you wish or use them doubled. The main purpose of this experiment is to make certain that, when the mobile is hung from the top hanger, it balances.
Maybe you could use this mobile as a home decoration or as a gift if you think it looks attractive. Isaac Newton never made a mobile, but he would be impressed that the law he wrote could be used to make something artistic.

Questions
1. Can you think of one other activity which obeys Newton's Law to `keep your balance"?
2. If you were carrying a tray of many dishes, how would you place them on the tray?

T-SHIRT CHROMATOGRAPHY
Chromatography is a way of separating mixtures into the individual compounds that they contain. Some ink colors contain more than one compound and chromatography enables us to see these compounds of different colors separate.

Procedure:
1. Stretch one part of your T-shirt over the plastic container and use the rubber band to hold it in place without wrinkles.
2. Place 6 small dots of ink from the Sharpie pens on the T-shirt near the center of the circle. You can add a second  set of dots a little farther from the center if you wish.
3. Use the medicine dropper to slowly drop rubbing alcohol in the center o£ the dots. Watch what happens as you add more alcohol. Stop when the colors reach the edge of the circle.
4. Move the plastic container to another part of your T-shirt and repeat the process. You can make each chromatogram different by changing pens, if you like.
5. Continue as long as you wish, but be careful to keep wet patches of your T-shirt separated until they dry. A plastic bag can be used to help you with this. Wet patches take about 10 minutes to dry.

For the pens you used, list the colors you observed in your chromatograms.

Enjoy your T-shirt.  Iron it carefully when you get home to set the colors.

Pen Colors observed
Green
Orange
Purple
Black
Others

1. Why is science important in the world of today?
2. In what way does science: biology, chemistry, physics, astronomy, etc. affect you and your life?
3. Give one way in which science affects each of the following:
a. your health
b. your food
c. your performance as a student
d. your plans for the future

4. What is your plan for a future career?

What do you have to do now to be able to reach that career?
Can you think of anything that would make it difficult for you to reach that career?

List anything you do now which will help you to reach your future career.
 
 

The eleventh annual research poster session for high school students was held on Saturday, October 29, 2005 at St. Joseph's College.  The program, which included an hour for orientation of participants, teachers, judges, and other guests to locations for the display of posters and enjoyment of refreshments, was followed by two hours during which contestants presented their posters and explained their research to judges and to other guests. The written program included names of presenters, judges, the high school affiliations of presenters along with titles of their research projects.

Following the poster competition all attendees except judges proceeded to the college auditorium to enjoy a Power Point presentation of "Building Molecules: Adventures in Synthetic Organic Chemistry" by Christian M. Rojas, Ph.D., Associate Professor, De-partment of Chemistry, Barnard College.

After the presentation by Dr. Rojas, participants received CERTIFICATEScreated by Dr. Neil Jespersen, and each high school group posed for photographs. The judges' deliberations resulted in the awarding of five "Honorable Mention" certificates and cash awards for the two Second Place contestants, and two First Place contestants.
 
 

It is our pleasure to welcome you to St. Joseph's College as we appreciate the excellent scientific research of students, their research directors, and their teachers.

The Committee members are very grateful to those high school mentors of the contestants who take time to encourage and accompany their students in this annual event.  Special thanks to Nadia Makar, who arranges to provide transportation for students from participating schools in the Jersey City area each year.