Deborah’s Research Experience for Teachers 2009

Aaaaaah, I was so good in the beginning, dutifully writing every meeting But, then the sample preparation  and testing started.

What have I learned? Well, science is just what happens. Wha’ happened? The results were inconclusive, as to whether the heat cycle that the feather fobers undergo have a relationship to the composite strength. The main difficulty was that there was no mold that contained the fibers during resin transfer. Hence, the top surface wasn’t uniform. The samples, 8-in-all, had a wavy-shaped surface. There was an attempt to sand the samples to make them regular solids to test. However, the samples were too thin. Therefore, when the samples were tested for shear modulus, the heights entered into the DMA instrument were not accurate. This may have been the reason that the true relationship between carbonization heat treatment and modulus was not completely clear. However, the largest single value for the sheer modulus was the ramp up to 215 deg C.

Besides discussing copyright and fair use, Mr. Kempista showed us sites for

www.fliggo.com

www.keepvid.com

These two sites allow you to download a video and invite others to share the video as well.

Works created after after 1/1/1978

Author’s life plus 70 years

if another party claims the copyright as work made for hire then 95 years from publication or 120 years for unpublished

Public domain before 1923 and some 1923 – 78 w/no valid copyright notice

copyright.com allows one to look up works and arrange payment for 1 time fee

copyright.gov allows you to apply officially for copyright

A Fair(y) Use Tail is an interesting spliced together presentation about copyright law

Visited Delaware Memorial Bridge.  The size of this thing is incredible.  I am reminded of a scene in “Titanic” where Leonardo Di Caprio is perched at the front of the ship “…King of the World.”  Just UNBELIEVABLE!!!!  And it is so clean, too!  Well the project engineer says this helps to keep the bridge in good condition.

Today, Mr. Kempista shared the following:

www.ning.com

Ning.com allows you to set up a social network based on your interests.  You can perhaps do this for your class.  It has more of a business-like persona, but very similar to Facebook.

www.kiva.com

Kiva.com allows you to make loans to persons that would like to start a business to improve economic conditions in their country.  In other words, this is like a micro loan that a private individual can make.  This might be a good idea for a school to have a goal to help someone.  Great for social studies teachers.

www.kickstarter.com

Kickstarter.com allows you to donate funds to a person with a project, or business, but unlike Kiva.com this person is not necessarily looking to get out of poverty.  For instance, one person on kiva.com is trying to earn money to sail around the world.

www.thinkfinity.org

Thinkfinity.org is a social networking site for teachers to share lesson plans.  Also, includes tools for Standards Allignment, professional development, increasing skill sets of students.

Friday, 07/10/09, we observed characteristics of carbonized chicken feathers ramped to 215 deg C with soak time for 21 hours.  Then, a portion of this sample ramped to 250 deg C with a soak for 1 hour.  The sample at 250 deg C was of lesser quality, compared to  the simple 21 hour soak time.

We next ran, and over the weekend, a ramp to 215 deg soak for 21 hours, then 230 deg C soak for 1hour.

Today, Joe Kempista advised us about using the following:

Prezi.com create what we will call “online powerpoint” presentations.  That pretty much says it all.

www.google.com/reader which allows you to search and add items “subscriptions” that you may want to read about, at some later date.  Subscribe and go back to when you wish.

www.mindmeister.com allows one to make a mind map of places where you get information.

www.twitter.com allows one to find out what is going on in the world with tweets.

www.delicious.com Find out what is being book marked in a variety of different popular communities.  Book marked doesn’t necessarily mean read, just book marked.  You can share these book marks via email, too.  “Digg” the site that you are interested in by forwarding to others.  You can see how much others “Digg” the site as well.

www.diigo.com Book mark subscriptions, share book marks, comment, too!

Finally, jingproject.com allows you to take a picture of a screen shot, add captions, and instantly share.  You can also use jingproject.com to direct a person to particular parts of the screen as a video, and share.  Video of your mouse action on a screen shot can be up to 5 minutes.

Today, I am expecting my first part!!!! Yes, I will give “birth” to a composite part. My vacuum bag, which was supposed to be a perfect vacuum leaked.  I taped it up like an accident victim;  but, Mingjiang helped me to do another vacuum bag, because the 1st was too far gone.   Thanks….

We also (the teachers) visited with Joe Kampista to learn how to use technical tools like “Google Alerts.” I’m waiting for email alerts regarding Carbonized Chicken Feathers, right now!!!    Alerts is awesome.  One can have alerts on a daily bases, as news happens, blog information.  Sign into “My Account” on the Google homepage.  Scroll down to alerts and go from there.

We learned about Google Docs.  Google Docs allows a person to create documents that are available to share. A person can create a document and invite others to edit, or add to, the document. Also forms can be created that when answered can populate a spreadsheet for the creator of the form to view.

We also visited with Richard to discuss ways that we will implement our experience in the summer RET program into our classroom lessons. We discussed our ideas in small groups. Bart was particularly helpful in providing books on inquiry based teaching and solving problems in chemistry.

This week was very productive; yet, very non-productive.  The productive part is that we have a specific target, rather two.  First, we would like to know the optimum temperature profile for heating fibers that produce cross-linking with the best mechanical properties.  Secondly, I wanted to know how a composite with cardboard/carbonized chicken feathers/soy oil resin would compare to carbonized chicken feathers and soy oil resin alone.  Also, I learned how to use VARTM (vacuum assisted resin transfer molding).  Rather, the VARTM process was modeled for me by MingJhing.  The part that was produced in this first use of the VARTM process will be observed Monday. 

Erman, provided me with a very good book on the introduction to the Mechanics of Materials.  I am very grateful, because this helped to clear up some questions about what exactly Young’s Modulus helps one to understand.  Ok….got it : )  Young’s Modulus was makin’ me quite old. 

 Have a happy 4th.  God bless America (and other countries too, of course)!

Today, Erman and I took a look at the feathers that were carbonized in the programmable oven.  The oven temperatures fluctuated depending on placement of samples on the oven racks.  So, one sample burned, one sample was less burned, one sample was acceptable.

Mingjhing, so clever, showed me resin transfer molding process.  Excellent.  We used a hot thermoset.  Will see the result tomorrow. 

Read more on the bio composite work done already.  Found great glossary for terms.  Read about particle board and MDR boards.  Good couple of days.  Mechanical analysis, next.