The University of Colorado at Boulder is presenting hands-on science workshops focusing on Earth聮s ozone and Antarctica for fifth- through eighth-grade teachers and students from Colorado Springs, Boulder, Denver, Pueblo and other Front Range cities.
The workshops are put on by Science Explorers, a CU science enrichment program that offers teachers day-long, activity-based workshops to experience new science curriculum in action before they use it themselves.
The middle school teams participating in the 1999-2000 Science Explorers program from around the state are composed of one teacher and five students. Participants learn about ground-based and stratospheric ozone as well as the harsh living conditions of Antarctica, said Science Explorers Coordinator Lannie Hagan.
"The student team members work side by side with their teachers in the workshops to develop knowledge and leadership skills," she said. The teams receive materials and curriculum at the workshops to take back to their home schools and jointly present the science to colleagues and classmates.
Science Explorers is part of the CU-Boulder Science Discovery Program, a comprehensive K-12 outreach effort designed to spark student interest and advance skills and knowledge in science, math and technology in Colorado and the West.
The next Science Explorers workshop, slated for Jan. 26 in Colorado Springs, will be held at Agilent Technologies at 5070 Centennial Blvd. from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. In addition to donating its facility for the program and providing snacks, the company is paying two-thirds of the registration fees for the school teams, said Hagan.
Several openings still remain for interested teams from Colorado Springs area schools.
Experiments conducted at the workshops include a search for ground-based, or tropospheric ozone, a pollutant created by reactions between chemical emissions and sunlight. The teams will use pieces of Schoenbein paper 聳 a special paper made of cornstarch, distilled water and potassium iodide 聳 which will be dried, then re-wetted and placed outside at various locations. Named after Fredrick Schoenbein, who discovered ozone, the paper turns blue or purple when it comes in contact with ozone.
Another activity involves Frisbees that change color when exposed to ultraviolet radiation from the sun. The teams will put various materials on the Frisbees 聳 including sunscreen lotion, different types of sunglass lenses and various sunblock fabrics to see how effective they are in preventing UV light from reaching the Frisbee.
The stratospheric ozone layer, located about 10 miles to 30 miles above Earth聮s surface, shields Earth from the harmful effects of UV radiation and has been thinning in recent decades, the result of harmful chemicals pumped into the atmophere that destroy protective ozone molecules.
The teams also will participate in a simulated Antarctic whiteout, in which one student becomes "lost" while the others -- wearing white buckets over their heads to simulate ground blizzard conditions-- collaborate as they attempt to locate the lost person using only a rope and a stake.
Two workshops will be held in Boulder at the CU Coors Events/Conference Center on campus on Feb. 3 and Feb. 10. While the Feb. 3 event is filled to capacity with 21 teams from Boulder Valley schools, several slots are still open for teams from Boulder schools at the Feb. 10 conference center event, said Hagan.
Maura Cantor, director of the Environmental Protection Agency聮s Sunwise Program that focuses on stratospheric ozone education in the nation聮s K-12 schools, will attend the Feb. 10 workshop.
In addition, two additional Science Explorer workshops, open to all Front Range schools, will be held at the Coors Events/Conference Center on Feb. 24 and Feb. 25. Workshops also are scheduled for Pueblo and Albuquerque in spring 2000, said Hagan.
For more information or to sign up school teams for Science Explorer workshops, contact Hagan at (303) 492-0771.