MC hosts MIC!

The long awaited and long planned for day arrived, and much to my delight everything worked out.

There were lots of interesting dramas that took the stage from time to time along the way.

My arrangements for a bus for the nine visiting teams did not work out. An intense effort on my part with emails and phone calls over the weekend finally worked out. One team had parents bring their students, another team arrived via the school's driver's education car driven by the teacher (you will have to ask me about that one), another by a bus driven by a coach, and another missed the 9 to 9:30 orientation but met us at the Mississippi Natural Science Museum (more on that later).

A whole host of students rallied early in the morning to get everything laid out in the gymnasium. All the tables and chairs were in place thanks to a facilities request form filled out long ago and thanks to Mr. Harrison, the Assistant Principal in charge of those matters, following through in timely fashion. All registration forms were in, caterpillar and butterfly samples from Dr. Richard Brown at Mississippi State were laid out. My PowerPoint presentation was set up and the big screen from Central Office was in place (thanks to Ms. Mitchell, her Excellency, the principal). Part of the Powerpoint was a video prepared by one of my physics superstars, Melissa. When I previewed early in the morning when she brought it to me I have to admit my eyes got a little misty. Nametags were commandeered by Ms. Robinson, my colleague and chemistry mentor friend. And pictures were taken of each of the fourteen teams (five were from MC) as they entered and throughout the day by Katie, one of my physics students and annual staff person who I recruited. Most all of the people were approved for participating in the project (you will have to ask me about that one, too), and field trip approvals were gained via individual phone conversations (do not ask). Beat sheets and beat sticks, freezer bags and markers, and other collection items were ready to be picked up on the way to the collection site. And the two office angels, Ms. Olander and Ms. Laxer received the lunch while we were collecting to be enjoyed after the field trip (next time I will tell the vendor to bring cups and ice).


On the way to the Mississippi Natural Science Museum I got to visit with each of the teams. This included a team of three fifth graders from Madison Crossing

and my youngest team, three second graders from Madison Station.

These were the three cited in an earlier post that wrote persuasive essays to be selected for the project. I told them they would be famous since I was going to publish their work on my blog. The older students were awed and said they still had not been published. I also got to welcome back four teachers who participated in the project from last year - Ms. Howe, from Velma Jackson, Ms. Jenkins who helped me plan the day from Madison Middle (after being transferred from East Flora Middle that closed), Ms. Stroud from East Flora Elementary and Ms. Green from Northeast Madison Middle. Also I got volunteers for four planning teams for the project - the Public Relations team for dealing with all the paparazzi, the Wikipage team for maintaining the webpage, the Celebration team for planning the end of the year banquet, and the Project team to oversee and to catalog all the individual science projects and to enter all the project's caterpillars and host plants in the data base.

We arrived at the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science on time and Mr. John Davis, whom] I had talked with a few weeks before greeted us at the bus. He had made all the arrangement with the Museum so that we could collect on their site, and, as arranged, he gave a brief opening talk and distributed sample vials for any caterpillars oviposited with wasp or fly eggs.

(Yes as Mr. Davis, a retired teacher from St. Andrews said it is a frightening existence being a caterpillar if the birds do not get them the mother wasps might).

After all that we got to do what we came for - collect caterpillars. I must say I was overwhelmed by the enthusiasm. You know you have seriously pricked the scientific curiosity of students when they move with determination and searching eyes through the woods in spite of high Mississippi humidity and heat and the state "bird," the mosquito trying to bite at every juncture.  Hannah collected the coolest caterpillar


A Southern Puss keyed out (identified) with the help of Mr. Hackman, an MC colleague and friend, and Mr. Davis pouring through the field guides. 

But at the end of the two-hour collection time, all teams had caterpillars and their host plants sealed in freezer bags and marked with their group number and date. We had fourteen teams of three students from seven different schools in our district that participated in the project. The teams collected 87 caterpillars with host plants. Each team took their caterpillars and host plants back to their individual classrooms to rear out to moths and butterflies.

It was a very good day for science.

Go to http://www.micproject.wikispaces.com/ for more details.

Ode to My Alma Mater

Thursday was college day at MC. Everything is a big to do at the biggest school in the state. This was no exception - all teachers and students were encouraged to wear clothes from their alma mater.

Anyone has to get early to out jag me so I put on a Lambuth alumni shirt and a Lambuth hat. And had someone take by picture by my Lambuth diploma hanging in my room right below my National Board recertification certificate.

When people asked about where Lambuth was I told them after 168 years it closed and did not open for the first time this fall. I was wearing dead man's clothes. I was wearing a memorial hat and shirt.

Much of what I learned about life I did not learn in kindergarten I learned at Lambuth. Habits of studying life and nature and people and society and politics and every nuance of interaction were developed at Lambuth. Mentors of living life intelligently and passionately led me to great thoughts and great books and great people and great deeds. People like Lois Lord who taught me more about the interaction of plants and animals than I thought possible and helped me discover my gifts for sharing the wonders of this world. People like Charles Mayo who introduced me to great literature - novels and poetry and short stories and dramas - and help me discover my own gifts for writing. People like Gene Davenport who introduced me to theological and Biblical study and helped me discover great truths about faith and life and diversity of opinion. People like Emily Lou Whitehead who introduced a young freshman to a world changing book, Raids on the Unspeakable, and taught me by example to teach an autistic child to read - one of the greatest joys of my life. People like her husband, Brady Whitehead, who taught me about indefatigable affability for everyone and about service to others.

Lambuth, you did well. And in the first week you presented me my wife at the freshman dance. And thirty five plus years later we do not dance so much but still cherish the great gifts Lambuth offered each of us.

Lambuth, you will me missed. You offered much of the same for our daughter who is a remarkable, accomplished, inspired graduate as well. In your own way you led my son to find his remarkable gifts as well.

Lambuth, I will always wear your clothes on college day and will always share the gifts for living life passionately and truthfully. Thank you.

Lambuth, through your graduates you will never die.

And more than that, after being a private United Methodist school for over a century and a half, like a phoenix rising from the ashes, you will be the only public four year school in Jackson and surrounding area with your new itineration: the University of Memphis Lambuth.

Live on Lambuth! Live on.

A Few Confirmations of My Calling

On several occasions Friday and Saturday, I got great confirmations of my calling to share the wonders of this world.

First, I was getting my haircut and was asked about an idea for her third grade grandson. I shared my own third grade project from a few years ago to separate salt from a salt water solution by evaporation and shared the joy of winning a first place silver dollar which my dad still has. For my project, I put a string tied to a pencil resting on the top of a beaker in the solution. Over time the salt crystallized up the string like a stalactite. I suggested he use different concentrations and use just water as a control. Maybe he could use different food coloring in different concentrations. She was excited and I offered to let her borrow a graduated cylinder and beakers. I am doing what I am supposed to be doing.

Two, I have been working hard to get my (MIC) Madison Investigates Caterpillars Project going this year. It has not always been easy to convince teachers and students to take on another project. Then I got a wonderful email from an elementary school principal. Common Core (a new cross curricular set of objectives to be implemented across the country and all grade levels by 2014) is being implemented in the second grade, and they are studying the life cycle of butterflies. In order to select their three member team, an essays contest was used. The three winning essays were sent to me - wow. I will share when I get permissions. I am doing what I am supposed to be doing.

Three, my mentor for the project drove down from Mississippi State where he teaches and directs the Mississippi Entomological Museum. Three volleyball students greeted him at the door and carried in supplies for our orientation on Wednesday, September 28.

They were filled with curiosity and signed up for the project. Dr. Brown and I went looking for caterpillars

and as he said skippers are often found on locusts, he reached over and found one and then another. Later another student who had already been recruited in my colleague's chemistry class saw the caterpillars and was very heppy she on board.

Again I am doing what I am supposed to be doing.

P.S. Those interested in signing up for MIC or following the project can click on the link at the top of this blog and fill out an online application or just enjoy perusing.

I was wrong . . .

One of the fun concepts I have been teaching for years has to do with relative velocity. It is easy when one object is stationary and the other is moving. The relative velocity of one to the other is simple the speed of the moving object and its direction. However, it gets more interesting when both objects are moving. If they are both moving in the same direction, you simply subtract the velocity of the faster one from the slower one.

Then here comes my angst. For years I have done a demo where two students walk toward each other and clap hands in the middle as they meet. I then ask what is the relative velocity of the one student moving at 5 m/s to the other moving at 5 m/s. Most everyone answers 0. And then there is that special student who gets it and answers 10 m/s. They get their name on the superstar board for a few days.

And then I say if two cars have a head on collision with the same speed, it is as if one hits a brick wall at the sum of their speeds. Then this year at my new school the student with the top score on the last physics test raises her hand. "Mr. Banks, I remember a mythbusters episode where they did that with two cars and it was not the same as hitting a brick wall at the sum of their speeds." Ouch. Send it to me and I will look at it. Before I got home good she had already emailed it to me.

Here is the link if you would like to see it.

I called in two of my former students (one with a PhD and one almost) for help.

Here are their responses.

First Dr. Foster
(I need to give a brief introduction. He is my first former physics student to get a college major in physics. He invited me to the Air Force Academy for his graduation and I surprised him and went. He surprised me several years later. The doorbell rang one day and there was Michael's mother with a copy of his dissertation. On the fly leaf he thanked me for getting him started in physics and said it was still fun. One of the proudest moments of my teaching career.)

Ok. I've watched the video. Fun stuff.

If I were king for a day, I'd run an additional crash test: 2 moving objects -- 1 car traveling at 50 mph (like before), and one moving wall (50mph also) with extremely high shear strength (titanium?), thickness/volume selected to match the mass of the car while maintaining impact point commonality with prior tests.

What I'd like to test is their premise that "the energy of the crash is transferred to twice the mass, halving it, resulting in a crash that looks like just 1 car, into a wall at 50 mph." By minimizing the kinetic energy transfered to the moving wall (i.e. high shear strength), the impact of doubled KE would be seen in the car (pun intended). My only point is the subtleties of inelastic energy transfer are lost in the quote above.

I agree that the crash test results are initially counterintuitive; but at the end of the day, I think the tenets of relativity are still in tact.

And now for soon to be Dr. Sadjadi.
(In the eleventh grade he was bored with school. He came to my class and never looked back. As a senior, after doing a junior project on a cloud chamber, he told me he wanted to do it on the string theory. At the time I had no idea what he was talking about. I tried to talk him out of a theoretical paper since no one had won with that kind of project. He insisted and I wisely let him go. He won and his class stood and cheered like he had won the super bowl - later I got to hear him present his paper at the AAAS meeting in Boston. Another very proud moment.)

The summary is this: summing the velocities works perfectly. The collision experiment is confusing because both of the cars are destroyed. If you look at the system in terms of energy, there are two ways to frame the experiment: you can be standing on the ground, watching the cars race towards each other, or you can be in one of the cars.

The ground observer sees two objects of mass m moving with velocity v. The total kinetic energy is 2E, where E is the energy of a single car traveling at velocity v. When the cars hit, all of that energy is lost in the heat/sound/damage of the collision. Since the two cars are of similar construction, each car takes half the energy. So the damage is identical to a single car hitting a wall (energy dissipated is E for each car).

From the perspective of one of the drivers, the second car is moving at 2v, while he himself is at rest. So the total energy in this moving reference frame is 4E (energy goes as velocity squared). After the cars hit, the two vehicles come to rest in the ground frame, which is equivalent to the two cars moving backwards in the car's original moving reference frame. So the energy post-collision is 2E (twice the mass, moving at velocity v). This leaves another 2E to be dissipated in the collision itself. This agrees with the ground observer.

I hope that helps.

Thank you for great students past and present and the opportunity to be wrong so I can learn even more.

Are we going to blow something up?

Volunteers to clean up (not after an explosion)


That is the question every chemistry students wants to know.

We have not blown anything up yet but I did do a cool demo found on stumbleupon.com

The challenge is to pick up a nickel (without touching the matches) resting on a match box with a match's base leaning on it and the business end of the match resting on the business end of a match that is place vertically on top of the match box. If you do it right it looks like this:



If you want to just see it here it is:



here are a few shots along the way with our density column lab:







And our physical and chemical changes lab.








Separation of sulphur and iron filings by magneticism


Separation of sand and salt by filtration

New Action Hero Coming to a School Near You

It started with one of my students drew an emblem of a B within a shield for Super Mr. B. This student and I got off to a difficult start but now we are making progress. This Super B kind of reminds me of that transition and other transitions we make as educators in the lives of others.

Anyway at MC, Pep rallies are on steroids. Almost everyone dresses out in some form of orange and blue craziness.

The attire above is just a beginning. Eventually I will have an royal blue cape with an orange super b logo designed by my "star" students. And eventually a super hat, boots, leggings, etc.

One has to get up very early in the morning to outjag me.