STEM Ed Announcement: Chemistry Teachers Meeting

["Mort Sternheim" <mort@k12s.phast.umass.edu>]

This is not a UMass Amherst program.
 Contact Information is below.
 ===========================
 
 
 New England Association of Chemistry Teachers
 Central Division Meeting
 
 Saturday, May 12, 2012
 
 Gustaf H. Carlson School of Chemistry and Biochemistry
 Clark University,  950 Main St., Worcester, MA
 
 This meeting is free of charge.  $25 annual membership in NEACT is
 encouraged.
 
 Agenda: Three Presentations by Clark University faculty members, with
 lots of demos to take back to your classroom
 
 9:00 am         Registration, Coffee and Refreshments  sponsored by
 Clark
 University Admissions
 
 9:30 am        Prof. David Thurlow: Exploring proteins and DNA at the
 National
 Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI)
 
 In the past decade, there has been an explosion in our understanding
 of
 proteins and DNA, essential biomolecules found in all living
 systems.~
 Sequences and three dimensional structures are available free of
 charge at
 the NCBI website.~ We will explore genes, chromosomes, introns,
 exons,
 sequence alignments, phylogenetic trees, DNA helices, ribozymes,
 riboswitches, ~protein-ligand binding sites, enzyme active sites, and
 much, much more.
 
 David Thurlow is Director of Clark Universitys Medical Careers
 Advising Program, and a faculty member of the Carlson School of Chemistry and
 Biochemistry.  He teaches courses in biochemistry and molecular biology.
 
 10:30 am        Prof. Mark Turnbull: Demonstrating equilibrium with
 Co(II) salts and other demos
 
 The equilibrium between the [Co(H2O)6]2+ cation  (pink) and its anionic
 counterpart [CoCl4]2- provides a simple and visual way to illustrate
 equilibrium and LaChateliers Principle.  Principles of adding/removing
 starting materials/products can be easily shown along with the effect
 of temperature on equilibrium. Participants will go through the
 laboratory exercise to illustrate these points.  Time permitting, well also
 generate  a couple of explosions.
 
                 Mark Turnbull has been a professor of chemistry at
 Clark since 1986 and specializes in synthetic chemistry.  He earned his BS and MS degrees
 from the University of New Hampshire and taught high school in
 Londonderry, NH from 1978-1982 before completing his Ph.D. at Brandeis.  He has been
 at Clark University since 1986.
 
 11:20        Break
 
 11:40        Prof. Sergio Granados-Focil: Chemical processes within
 polymers and use of everyday polymers as teaching tools
 Polymeric materials are everywhere and are used in a wide variety of
 every day applications. Some simple polymer synthesis experiments and
 polymer modification experiments will be presented. These demos can be used
 to illustrate fundamental concepts, such as stoichiometry, bonding,
 solubility, entropy, etc. 
 
 Sergio Granados-Focil, Ph.D.
 Prof. Granados-Focil is a polymer chemist primarily
 interested in studying the relationship between polymers chemical structure and
 their ionic, thermal and electronic conductivity. The results form this
 effort can help establish guidelines for the development of new charge
 transporting membranes used in alternative energy sources (such as
 fuel cells, lithium batteries and solar cells), actuating materials
 (artificial muscles) and electrochemical sensors.
 
 12:30        Light lunch followed by NEACT Annual meeting (lunch
 courtesy of NEACT)
 
 Please RSVP by Wednesday, May 4  we need a count for breakfast and
 lunch.
   
 Dr. Mel Govindan, Central Division Chair, [
 mailto:mgovindan@fitchburgstate.ed ]mgovindan@fitchburgstate.edu 
 978-660-8831 (Mobile)
 
 Directions:
 
 Clark is 950 Main St., Worcester, and attendees should plan to park
 in the lot on Maywood St. (right across the street).~ Turn into Maywood St.
 fromMain Street.  We will be in the Sackler Science Center, starting in
 Johnson Auditorium (Sackler 120).~For the lab demos, well be in labs
 in the same building.
 [Link]http://www.clarku.edu/campusmap.cfm 
 In case of problems call Mel Govindan at 978-660-8831 (Cell)
 
 For PDP/CEU information contact: Lorraine Kelly at [
 mailto:lorrainek12@aol.co ]lorrainek12@aol.com
 
 www.neact.org
 
 
 Meledath Govindan, Ph.D.
 Professor of Chemistry and Advisor for Health Professions
 Department of Biology and Chemistry
 Fitchburg State University
 Fitchburg, MA 01420
 (978)-665-3628 (Office)
 (978)-665-3578 (FAX)
 
 [ http://fitchburgstate.edu/premed ]http://fitchburgstate.edu/premed 
 
  
 

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