Published: April 15, 2006
Ms. Hemphill finished her team's reading in Sparke and Gallagher. She started translating her notes and writing summaries. The first one targeted an important topic for her: when, where, and how different elements were synthesized during and after the Big Bang. The student who will work directly with her on the Spitzer project is still in the process of reading Sparke and Gallagher. For her and for students in Ms. Hemphill's class who are interested the expansion of the universe, a guest speaker in one of her classes talked about the Big Bang, synthesis of elements in the Big Bang (to C), the expansion of the universe, baryonic matter, dark matter, dark energy, the IR/micro/radio wave world.
To help her students and herself better understand the expansion of the universe, Ms. Hemphill asked a guest speaker, a cosmologist, to use this topic as the focus of his presentation to one of her classes. Students from other classes, other teachers, and staff also attended his presentation. Thursday, April 27, 2006. about 24-25. "Cosmology: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Expanding Universe." Dr. K. Jagannathan.
In one of her classes, Ms. Hemphill did a presentation on the molecular vibrations that produce infrared spectra. As part of a dry lab assignment, students modeled one of eight different organic molecules and generated theoretical gas phase IR spectra. The program allows students to click on the wavelength and see the type of vibration responsible for the peak.
The weekend of April 22, students met at Clackamas Community College in Oregon City in a miniworkshop (2 hr) on infrared spectroscopy with Dr. Nick Hamel. He described the operation of an IR spectrometer. Students then went into the college lab to see how to prepare different samples for IR spectra. Most students had the chance to prepare and run the spectrum of one of one organic compound.
The introduction to IR spectra is usually not taught in our school. So having both the beginning PowerPoint introduction, Nick Hamel's explanation, and the hands-on lab experience of preparing and running a spectrum helped students better understand IR spectra.