Students (from left to right) Nathan Hara, Christine Yoon, and Arthur (Lee) Towns at the bench.

 

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Environment

Old Kenyon dormitory

Our first goal is to accustom students to college life.  For two weeks students live in the dormitories with roommates and gain experience with the independence of living away from home.  They meet future classmates, professors and college support-staff, and navigate their way around campus.  Students attend  tutorials on how to operate the Kenyon computer system and how to effectively utilize library resources. Their familiarity with the campus and knowledge of college support services gives them enhanced confidence as they begin their college careers.  They also forge strong friendships that will see them through the next four years.
 
 

The 1999 HHMI Workshop Participants

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Academics

The main goal of the HHMI summer program is to acclimate students to the rigors of college level academics, particularly in the math and sciences.  To this end, students engage in  three college level laboratories, one each in physics, chemistry and biology.  During the two week program students are responsible for completing daily reading assignments .  They are also responsible for two major projects, a multimedia presentation based on library research of a medicinal herb, and a formal laboratory report from one of the three labs.

Laboratories

To familiarize students with working in a laboratory, students complete labs in each of three scientific disciplines, physics, chemistry and biology.  In all three labs students utilize the skills required in their college lab classes: the ability to follow a protocol, to accurately generate and record data, to mathematically manipulate the data with the aid of computer software and to interpret results.  A range of techniques and principles are employed and students hone their critical thinking skills. One lab is chosen to write up as a formal laboratory report and includes an abstract, background, materials and methods, results, discussion and references.  This may be the first such  report a student has written.  These reports undergo many revisions with instructor feedback until they reach the quality expected in a college science laboratory class. In fact, many students save their reports to use as an example in future classes.  The successful completion of these labs allows the students to enroll in their college science lab classes with enhanced confidence.

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Physics

In the physics lab students drove a go-cart and used a computer video system to calculate acceleration under 3 different conditions: accelerating, decelerating and rounding a curve at a constant velocity.  Students set up a track of measured length.  A video camera positioned to view the entire track taped each go-cart run.  The resulting videos were digitized to calibrate and store data for go-cart position as a function of time.  These data were imported into a curve fitting program and  physics equations called the kinematic equations were used to determine accelerations.  The data were fit by either a quadratic equation (for acceleration and deceleration runs) or by a linear equation (for circular runs).  The accelerations and their uncertainties were plotted on a measurement comparison graph to visualize the precision and agreement of the experimental values.  In this lab students were introduced to basic physics principles such as velocity and acceleration.  They became familiar with computer data acquisition and analysis software.  They fit data to both linear and quadratic equations and generated graphs that included error bars.

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Chemistry

In the chemistry lab, students determined the identity and concentration of an unknown dye solution.  Each pair of students obtained a different known solid dye and prepared a series of solutions of different  molarities accurate to three significant figures.  They then used a spectrophotometer to obtain an absorption spectrum of a solution in the middle concentration range.  After determining the wavelength of maximum absorbance, the absorbance at this wavelength was recorded for all solution concentrations.  Using Excel, a calibration plot of absorbance versus concentration was generated.  Students then received an unknown dye solution and measured its absorption spectrum.  They could identify this solution by comparing its spectrum to those of the known dyes.  The calibration plots were used to determine the concentration of their sample.  This lab introduced students to many concepts and techniques.  They learned to accuratelyweigh solids, prepare solutions with a volumetric flask and calculate dilutions to the correct number of significant figures.  They gained experience with scientific instrumentation (analyticalbalance and spectrophotometer).  They investigated the relationship between concentration and absorption and were able to qualitatively and quantitatively analyze an unknown dye solution.

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 Biology

In the biology laboratory the students actually designed their own experiments to test factors that affect heart rate.  The students were given a brief lecture on the cardiovascular system and basic principles of cardiac function. Students then measured their own pulses and the class results were listed on the chalk board.  There was quite a lot of variability in the range of heart rates recorded.  The students hypothesized as to factors (i.e. fitness level, weight, gender, emotional state, posture) that may have caused the observed variability.  They then formulated experimental protocols to test two of these factors, gender and posture.  After collecting the data, students used Excel to statistically and graphically analyze the data.  They found that men had a lower heart rate than women and that standing subjects had an elevated heart rate compared to supine subjects. This lab introduced students to formulating hypotheses, the elements of proper experimental design, and the concept of statistical significance.

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Readings

Students and professors also meet to discuss various scientific topics based on assigned readings.   Some of these reading stretch the limits of the students understanding, and the students learn how to formulate questions.  Due to student interest, these discussions often become informal debates about current scientific issues affecting society such as cloning, cosmic origins and globalwarming.  Students gain an appreciation for the fact that scientific knowledge is not static but evolves.  Additionally, they discover that scientific research can impact society and thus is a worthwhile pursuit.

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Presentations

Photo credit P. Heithaus

St. John's wort (Hypericum perforatum)

The highlight of the program are multi-media presentations on one of the medicinal plants found at the Brown Family Environmental Center at Kenyon College.  Working in groups, students engage in library research of their chosen plant using book, journal and web-based sources.  Using Microsoft PowerPoint, they create visually stunning presentations that they orally present to the entire group (each group member must speak during the presentation).  Not only do students learn how to find information, for some students it was their public speaking debut. Students truly enjoyed putting their presentations together and were justifiably proud of the results.

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