Engaging Inquiry at HASTI-February 2-4, 2005

IACT ACTION Report—January, 2005

“Engaging Inquiry” at HASTI-February 2-4, 2005

President

Michael Schlemmer

Western Boone High School

President Elect

Linda Dearth-Monroe

Warren Central High School

Past President

Patricia Mason

Delphi High School

Treasurer

Heather Heinig

Rensselaer HS.

Secretary

Eve Poland

Whiteland HS

Newsletter editor

Suzanne Starkey

Vice Presidents

Region 1

Barrie McClain

Pioneer Jr. Sr. High School

Region 2

Alicia Blain

Bishop Luers HS

Region 3

Paulette Berger

Zionsville High School

[email protected]

Region 4

Vickie Snell

Region 5

J. Merle Callahan

Daviess High School

Region 6

Gene Crabill

Region 7

Carrie Munoz, Wayne HS.

Membership Chair

Bill Bayley, Purdue University

If you are looking for a chance to visit the Pacific Northwest, attending this year’s ChemEd at the University of British Columbia from July 31- August 4th may be just what you are looking for. For those of you who have never experienced ChemEd, you are in for a delightful week of chemistry related activities and workshops. Sight-seeing and other scheduled events are available for participants and their families. Kids are not neglected—there are programs designed especially for them. This is the best way to meet other chemistry teachers from all over North America and the world who are presenting activities and workshops that they use with there students.

Information is available on-line at the ChemEd 2005 web page which has moved to http://nobel.scas.bcit.ca/chemed2005. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to revitalize your teaching!

Nineteen eighty three. Seems like a long time ago for you young teachers. I had returned to teaching and was assigned for the first time to teach chemistry. I was overwhelmed by a new curriculum, a husband and two sons, a teaching area that was my minor and rusty as well. How could I do my best teaching in this situation? In February, 1984, I attended my first HASTI convention and met some of my very best friends. They began nurturing and encouraging me through information from the newly started IACT.

I became brave enough to present a demonstration at a workshop at Butler. Many of you still chuckle over the stinky smoke bomb I created! Workshops, participation in the creation of the Indiana Proficiencies and now standards, some special awards, and ChemEd conferences made the change to chemistry teaching the best thing that happened in my teaching career.

And now I am stepping down as editor of your newsletter. This is the end of my activity with IACT. I will enjoy reading about all of you, since Bill Bayley has consented to take over my job. I will be sunning in Florida during the convention this year. This will be the first convention I have missed for 26 years.

I will continue to direct the Mentorship Program, but haven’t had much interest.

So goodbye, dear friends. I go on to my main job as a retired teacher, relaxing!!

Fondly,

Suzanne Starkey

Former Newsletter Editor

Suzanne Starkey

Send checks and the information below to the IACT Treasurer or bring it to HASTI:

Heather Heinig

530 Countryside Circle

Rensselaer, IN 47978

  $5 for 1 year

  $10 for 2 years

  other ______for ______years.

Name (Dr., Mr., Mrs., Ms.)

Home Address: City and Zip Code

Region of Residence (see below) Home phone: ( )

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Home e-mail address:

Region 1
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White / Region 2
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Whitley / Region 3
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ChemEd 2005 Scholarship Application

For a first time attendee to a ChemEd conference the Indiana Alliance of Chemistry Teachers may award two $300 scholarships to a high school chemistry teacher in the state of Indiana to attend:

The 18th Biennial ChemEd Conference

July 31 - August 4, 2005

The University of British Columbia - Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Please Print:

Name ______Name of High School ______

Home Address ______

School Address ______

Home Phone ______Home email ______

School Phone ______School email ______

Number of years you have taught chemistry?______

How many classes of chemistry per semester are you teaching?______

Have you presented at HASTI?______Year(s) ______

Have you presented at any other science professional meeting? ______If yes, please list the organization and the name of the presentation. ______

Write a brief paragraph of how you will use this experience for professional growth? ______

Please send application to: Linda Dearth-Monroe

318 Woodland Trail Drive

Indianapolis, IN 46239

Or email the information on this form to

Deadline for application is April 15, 2005. You will be notified via email if you receive the scholarship by May 10. You should register for the conference via email by May 20 to get the lowest rate. (http://www.ubcconferences.com/events/chemed/registration.htm) You will be reimbursed for the conference after proof of attendance is provided to IACT.

A fun thing we did in chemistry II is to silver glass bottles of various shapes, sizes, and colors. They made interesting Christmas presents for family members. Of course, they had to learn all about redox reactions before they could silver. We found that the amount of each was not important--as long as the proportions were close to correct. You will need to have a total volume of chemicals equal to 1/3 the volume of the glass you plan to silver.

We needed to use more the ammonium hydroxide than expected. This may be due to the changes we were forced to make in our solutions and the temperature of the solutions. I suggest you try it first to see how much of each you need.

You may notice by my additional comments that we did not follow all of the directions as stated in the lab. We still had great results.

One girl silvered a clear green bottle--Wow!! Another had a small jar with the imprint of an apple and grapes--Wow!

Good luck with this. Every source I found on line said it would be very hard to get good results, but we did not have any trouble.

Vicki

Glass Silvering

Materials:

3

IACT ACTION Report—January, 2005

-Dark ambered bottles to store chemicals in

-Soap

-Scrub brushes

-Test tubes and Blown glass

-Silver Nitrate

-Potassium Hydroxide

-Dextrose Anhydrous

-Concentrated Ammonia

-De-Ionized Water

-Ethanol Alcohol

-Sodium Thiosulfate

3

IACT ACTION Report—January, 2005

What is a RedOx reaction?

A RedOx reaction is the transfer of electrons between two chemical species. The compound that loses an electron is oxidized; the one that gains an electron is reduced. There are also specific terms that describe the specific chemical species. A compound that is oxidized is referred to as a reducing agent, while a compound that is reduced is referred to as the oxidizing agent.

What is Silvering?

Silvered glass is commercially produced as mirrors, it has also become the profession of many to re-silver antique mirrors. Over time, clouding or cracking may occur in the silver of a mirror. Because of the high value of antique mirrors, it is often worth restoring such treasures to their original luster. The chemical process of silvering is a reduction-oxidation (RedOx) reaction

How to Silver Glass:

This is the method is one used for years. It is a three-part recipe. Due to the small scale of our experiment these measurement have been reduced from the original text, as to not waste any chemicals; silver nitrate, especially, is quite expensive. There are other products out on the market that are commercially prepared; however, all of these solutions were mixed in the lab.

Solution A. Silver Nitrate (6.66 Grams) to, 100 ml de-mineralized water

Solution B. Potassium Hydroxide (14.0 Grams) to, 100 ml De-Ionized water

Solution C. Dextrose Anhydrous (6.5 Grams) to, 100 ml De-Ionized water/ 17.5cc Alcohol

To do the silvering process:

1. Clean each test tube thoroughly. The glass will certainly not silver if the surface is not completely free of residue, grease, or oils. Water should not bead inside the test tube; rather it should dissipate and spread itself thin inside the tube.

2. Be sure to use equal amounts of each solution.

3. Rinse the tube with water, then pour to Solution A into glass, and next add concentrated ammonia (a few drops) stirring until it becomes clear. (Ours actually turned a yellow-brown which went away after step 4.)

4. Add Solution B to A and add concentrated ammonia stirring until it becomes clear.

5. Add Solution C to A & B and stir and pour into glassware. The silvering will happen quickly.

6. Make sure all solutions are cold before attempting to silver. (Ours worked well at just below room temp.)

7. Make sure all solutions are in stored dark ambered bottles, in a cool place. (We had not ambered bottles, so we prepared the solutions and covered them with several layer of newspaper, and then kept them in a cool spot.)

8. All water used in making solutions is de-mineralized. (We used distilled and it worked OK.)

The website suggests letting these A, B & C solutions sit and cure for a week or so in a cold room/refrigerator. Do not let these solutions get warm, or it will speed up the silvering process. Also do not use too much ammonium hydroxide it will coagulate and ruin the batch. We used a dropper or Pipette. Remember to mix all solutions in a ventilation hood, because these are very strong chemicals.

Silver Nitrate stains clothes, and it is hard to get off of the skin. Protective clothing and gloves are to be worn to prevent staining. If it happens that silver nitrate does get on your hands, a rinse of sodium thiosulfate and water will nullify any chemical activity before it starts.

BALLOT FOR Officers for I-ACT 2005-2006

President-elect Paulette Berger ______

Secretary Eve Poland ______

VP #1 Peter VonVerder ______

VP #3 Brad Crites ______

VP #5 Kyle DeBord ______

VP #7 Carrie Munoz ______

Science History Tour 2005

You are invited to join the wonderful group of people who participate in Science History Tours for a trip to eastern Germany, the Czech Republic and Austria next summer. This will be our eighth European tour and we are looking forward to meeting many old friends again.

An outline of the itinerary is available by contacting Yvonne at the email address below. Yvonne is now ready to start registration, so if you would like a package sent to you, please e-mail her, making sure that you include your current street address.

If you are not ready to register, but are interested in the trip, please let us know, then we will put you on the 'seriously interested' list and will be sure to keep you informed.

Frequently participants in this tour are able to obtain some kind of funding to cover part or all of the cost - so do look around to see if that might apply to you. Both college credit and CPDUs are available for interested persons.

We are looking forward to hearing from you.

Lee Merek and Yvonne Twomey

For registration materials, further information and/or to be put on the mailing list, contact:

Yvonne Twomey, 841 Kinston Court, Naperville, IL 60540 Tel: 630-961-9811

E-mail:

Or Lee Marek, Tel: 630-420-7516 E-mail:

See the following pages for a web presentation on our past trips.

http://www.chem.uic.edu/marek/

Science History Tour 2005

We intend to continue the journey from where we finished last year’s trip, so will explore some more of eastern Germany, then continue into the Czech Republic and end the trip in Vienna. Our theme this time will be “Science behind the Iron Curtain”. We will all meet in Leipzig to start the trip on June 22 2004, and will begin with a welcome lunch. The tour will end in Vienna after breakfast on July 6. Travel plans to Leipzig and from Vienna should be made accordingly. Tour members frequently choose to arrive at the starting point a few days early, or else to stay on for a few days after the trip ends. Ask Yvonne for advice on this, as she can often help with ideas or hotel suggestions.

A detailed itinerary is being developed, but for now we can tell you that it will include Dresden and the marvelous collection of the Zwinger museums. Dresden is also of great interest for its architecture - wonderfully restored after almost complete destruction in WWII. A visit to the fabulous Meissen factory will enable you to see early examples produced in Europe’s first porcelain factory and also to see present day Meissen porcelain being manufactured. The composition of porcelain was a secret, manufacture being a monopoly in the Orient, until the secret was re-discovered by an alchemist in the employ of Augustus the Strong of Saxony. Other visits will take place in the Saxony region (whose wealth was based on silver-mining) where there are lovely castles and gardens and small towns that most tourists have not yet found. There are also a number of very old collections of scientific interest, just emerging from obscurity.

We will then travel throughout the length of the Czech Republic exploring its wealth of science history. Prague, with its connections with Tycho Brahe and Kepler, and Brno, the place where Mendel founded the science of genetics, will be two of the places we will stay. Visits to the other towns now coming to life after years under Communist domination, but as yet largely undiscovered by tourists, will be a delight. The tour will end with a couple of days in Vienna, a lovely city with connections to many scientists.

Accommodation will be in comfortable welcoming hotels where all rooms have private bathrooms. Room-sharing arrangements can be coordinated for those persons who are traveling alone, but would like to share a room to save single room supplements. We will travel either by luxury coach that will stay with us while we are touring, or sometimes by train. Inexperienced international travelers will be given as much help as they need. Those traveling alone will find a warm welcome from this congenial and interesting group where it is easy to make friends.