Environmental Science Innovative Uses

As part of the Irish Leaving Certificate Senior Physics syllabus, students from the Christian Brothers Boys’ Secondary School, in Dungarvan, Ireland, study the contributions of Ireland’s two greatest scientists: Robert Boyle and Ernest T. S. Walton. It just so happens that these two giants in science have a local connection – they were both born…

Subjects: Environmental Science

Our newest environmental project at Vernier is composting with a worm bin. Our worm bin is a large, locally made, unfinished cedar chest with about 60 cubic feet of capacity. The bin is located in a shady spot on the side of our building, and contains a colony of red wiggler worms. We collect food…

Subjects: Environmental Science

In late October 2005, employees from Vernier participated in a tree planting event in conjunction with the organization Friends of Trees. We planted 200 trees in the wetlands area surrounding nearby Beaverton Creek. Below is a table that shows the quantities of each type of tree that was planted, along with some general notes and…

Subjects: Environmental Science

By Robyn Johnson, Vernier Software & Technology By its name alone, LabQuest seems destined for adventure. When I decided to go on a National Geographic Expedition to Antarctica in January, there was no doubt in my mind that I would be taking mine with me. Sailing from Ushuaia, Argentina, we spent almost two days crossing…

Subjects: Environmental Science

Roland Stout, Associate Professor of Chemistry at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, challenged his environmental chemistry class to find an interesting and environmentally significant carbon dioxide source or sink and to verify their findings using a CO2 sensor. Roland asked his students to follow the scientific method and design a sampling protocol appropriate…

Subjects: Environmental Science

Sound levels of airplanes at take off and landing Anyone who lives along the flight path of a major airport knows that sound pollution is an unpleasant fact of life. Riley Wilson, Tim Horton, and Mario Bautista, 8th grade students at Hughes Middle School in Long Beach, California, know this all too well, often having…

Subjects: Environmental Science

Chlorophyll absorbance We bought some fresh spinach to add to our salad for a healthy lunch, and saved a few of the leaves. We then chopped up the spinach leaves and soaked them in ethanol for an hour, to extract chlorophyll. By filtering the liquid and diluting it with distilled water, we had our chlorophyll…

Subjects: Environmental Science

Ute Kaden is the first teacher in Brownsville ISD, Texas, to teach AP Physics. To keep the interest of her students at Hanna High School, she literally spans the globe in search of new and exciting ways to bring real-world data into the classroom. Recently she took her Vernier LabPro and sensors to the North…

Subjects: Environmental Science

Students gathering data on Laguna Madre In March 2005, Olathe North HS (Olathe, KS) students Kevin Skov and Greg May, along with teacher Steve Obenhaus, took a trip to the southern reaches of Texas to explore Laguna Madre’s hypersaline characteristics. Laguna Madre, a large body of shallow water separating Padre Island from the South Texas…

Subjects: Environmental Science

Vernier sensors have been used for exciting data-collection activities in some interesting locations over the years. We can now count Antarctica among these. From January 5 to February 7, 2001, chemistry teacher Kevin LaVigne from Hanover HS, NH, participated in a program called “Teachers Experiencing Antarctica and the Arctic.” Kevin joined a research team under…

Subjects: Environmental Science