The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Science/Math workshop is designed to facilitate the transition to college life for  first-generation college students starting at Kenyon.  This is accomplished by introducing the students to the college environment and college-level academics. At the end of this two week summer program, students are more confident about enrolling in college and are better prepared to meet future challenges.

Our experience with this program suggested to us that some of our approaches to helping these pre-first-year students would also apply to assisting current students, particularly to develop math skills. As a result, we drew on our experience to propose a Math Skills Center as part of our 2004 request to HHMI.

Summer 2003 HHMI Workshop Participants  Front row: Catherine Curiel, Jenna Rose, Jeffrey Hapiak, Carlin Shoemaker, Paula Turner (instructor) Back row: Back row: Back row: Bryan Lin, Phillip Waller, Tania Gonzalez (instructor), Jeffrey Delozier, Porsche Loa Porsche Loa (resident advisor), Corinne Hirai

Making ice cream and getting to know Kenyon faculty and fellow students

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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  two college level laboratories, one each in biology and physics.  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 two labs.

Laboratories

To familiarize students with working in a laboratory, students complete labs in biology and physics.  In both 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 revision 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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 Biology

In the biology lab, students gain hands-on experience formulating and testing hypotheses, designing sound experiments (including the use of controls), and applying statistical analyses. The sun produces tremendous amounts of DNA-damaging UV radiation. Over exposure can cause skin cancer as mutations accumulate in our genes. Large doses of UV light can even kill cells. Commonly known as Brewer's or Baker's yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae is easily grown in the lab and behaves in many ways like human cells. Students investigate the ability of UV light to kill yeast and then test the ability of sunscreen to protect yeast from UV-induced death. Yeast are spread onto nutrient agar in petri dishes and exposed to varying amounts of UV-C light (254 nm) to determine the UV-C dose that results in 90% cell death.

In the second experiment, the ability of different sunscreens to protect yeast from UV-C induced death is measured. Here, 1.5 grams of sunscreen is spread between two sheets of plastic wrap and then placed between the yeast and the UV-C source. The cells are exposed to a dose of UV-C that, based on the first experiment, students calculate should result in 90% cell death. Students compare Brand X sunscreen with SPF (Sun Protective Factor) values ranging from 4 to 50. They also compare generic, water-proof, and children's sunscreen formulas. The program Excel is used to statistically and graphically analyze their data. This summer, we hypothesized that high SPF values would correlate with high UV-C protection. The data showed a trend opposite to that predicted (see below). Protection against UV-C exposure increased with decreasing SPF values. Students investigated and found that the chemicals used in sunscreen are not designed to absorb (and thus block) UV-C. Instead, they are made to absorb most UV-B (280-315 nm) and some UV-A (315-400 nm) light. This makes sense as Earth's atmosphere absorbs 100% UV-C, and most UV-B, but no UV-A.

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Physics

In the physics lab students learn about force, velocity, momentum, and impulse by engaging in an egg-drop contest. They work in teams of two to design and build an apparatus that will keep a raw egg from breaking when dropped from a height of about 20 meters onto concrete. Students examine the stategies behind their designs in light of the physics of impacts, articulating how they expect to decrease the force on the egg. Generally, designs combine features from two categories - ones that reduce the impact speed ("parachute effect") and ones that increase the duration of the collision. In order to quantify their success (since most of the eggs do indeed land unbroken), students record each drop on video tape, using standard video motion analysis techniques taught in introductory college physics lab courses to measure the impact velocities of their egg drop apparatuses.

The above graph shows a typical data run, with points marking the horizontal and vertical position of the apparatus in successive video frames. The slopes of the lines are combined using the Pythagorean Theorem to give the final velocity, 8.7 +/- 0.1 m/s. Bragging rights go to the team whose egg dropped with the fastest impact velocity, landing unbroken. In this lab, students became familiar with basic physics principles such as force and velocity and learned a versatile video technique for measuring velocities accurately. They also learned about measuring experimental uncertainty, using a computer data fitting program, and producing properly labeled graphs.

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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.

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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