Education Commons^™

From Soap Bubbles To Cell Membranes, Peter Beltramo

Science and Engineering Saturday Seminars

Have you ever blown a soap bubble and wondered - what causes the bubble to be so stable and produces those colorful reflections of light? The answer lies in a class of molecules known as surfactants, and they have remarkable similarities with the molecules that comprise the cell membrane of all living organisms. In this workshop, we will use the analogy of a soap bubble to describe cellular membrane properties such as chemistry, structure, membrane transport, and ion channel formation. The goals of this workshop are to 1) link initially intractable concepts in biology like intracellular transport to the intuitive …

Agenda, Shubha Tewari

Science and Engineering Saturday Seminars

Abstracts for six Science and Engineering Saturday Seminars.

Bubble Lab Exercise, Peter Beltramo

Science and Engineering Saturday Seminars

The cell membrane is a ubiquitous component in mammalian cells which control many vital biological functions. It consists of a phospholipid bilayer with embedded protein molecules which serve to transport molecules between the interior and exterior of the cell. Understanding what makes cell membranes so important and how they function requires concepts from physics, chemistry, and of course biology, but it is difficult to learn and conceptualize the structure and function of membranes due to their nanoscopic size and dynamic nature which can’t be properly appreciated in a static textbook. This activity draws analogies between the chemistry and structure of …

Arduino Microcontrollers In The Classroom: Teaching How To Phrase Effective Science Questions And How To Answer Them With Original Data, Tony Dinsmore

Science and Engineering Saturday Seminars

Arduino microcontrollers in the classroom: teaching how to phrase effective science questions and how to answer them with original data. Prof. Tony Dinsmore, UMass Physics This workshop will develop course modules that address a challenge in the science curriculum: how do we teach basic problem-solving and curiosity-based research skills in a classroom setting? The standard science curriculum teaches concepts and theory quite well but leaves rather little opportunity for students to take the lead in designing and implementing their own investigations. The workshop will use the Arduino, an inexpensive microcontroller that is simple to set up. A huge range of …

Agenda, Revised, Shubha Tewari

Science and Engineering Saturday Seminars

Materials from the seminars. The agenda was revised to include online sessions due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Modeling Epidemics, An Introduction, Shubha Tewari

Science and Engineering Saturday Seminars

• Group discussion of videos watched – Mainly focus on 3Blue1Brown videos

• Discussion of known facts about Covid-19/SARS-CoV-2

• Joint look at news articles and websites – Discussion of exponential growth

• Introduction to SIR (Susceptible-Infected-Recovered) model

• Excel demonstration of SIR model

• Other models: SEIR, others

• Modeling using python (time-permitting)

Step Up Workshop, Michael J. Wadness, Savvy Lodge-Scharff

Science and Engineering Saturday Seminars

Did you know that teachers are the reason that most undergraduate women in physics chose that degree? That's right. You are key to encouraging women to pursue prosperous careers in physics! The STEP UP project provides access to downloadable research-based lessons about physics and a nationwide community of teachers engaged in changing the future of physics. This insightful and interactive workshop invites participants to join a national movement designed to empower teachers with resources specifically focused on leveraging high school physics teachers' pivotal role in influencing the career choices of women and contributing to the culture change needed to inspire …

Bits, Knits, And Knots:Using Knitting As A Tool To Teach Stem Concepts, Mary Elizabeth Lee-Trimblee, Daria Atkinson, Michelle Berry

Science and Engineering Saturday Seminars

Knitting is an ancient technology as well as an enjoyable pastime that is often overlooked as an object of scientific study. However, knitting can be used as an accessible, low tech tool to teach coding fundamentals, higher level mathematics, and even concepts in physics. In this seminar we will do all three, as well as teach you to knit. We will divide this into 5 modules:

1. Overview of knitting as technology

2. Learning to knit (and teaching it too!)

3. Knitting as coding

4. Tangles, knits, and knots: the knot theory of knitting

5. Recent developments in the physics …