2012 RET Profile: Faith Shiver

Georgia teacher spends summer on the cutting-edge of science

By Kathleen Laufenberg

Faith Shiver, a fourth- and fifth-grade science teacher at E.R. Jerger Elementary School in Thomasville, Ga., went nano this summer.

Shiver spent six weeks at the MagLab learning about all things microscopic. She was one of 11 teachers selected for the lab’s special summer internship program, Research Experiences for Teachers (RET).

“The microscope I was working with cost $1.2 million — and they still let me work with it!” said Shiver, who has been teaching for 25 years. “To get to work with this kind of technology was just amazing.”

Teachers accepted into the lab’s prestigious RET program work with scientists doing pioneering research in physics, chemistry, biological sciences, geochemistry, materials science, magnet science and engineering. The teachers learn how to use state-of-the-art technology to explore materials and phenomena at extreme magnetic fields, pressures and temperatures. Best of all, they do it while working alongside some of the finest scientists, magnet designers and engineers in the world.

Shiver worked with scientist Bob Goddard, a research specialist in magnet technology and engineering who specializes in peering into the nanoworld. In order to study superconducting wires — wires that transmit electricity with no resistance and no loss of power — Shiver examined them using a highly sensitive scanning electron microscope (or SEM). The SEM can enlarge an image up to 1.5 million times its actual size.

“What I hope they take away from their internships is the understanding that science is not only interesting, but it can be fun, too,” Goddard said.

That’s one of the reasons Goddard has 3-D pictures and anamorphic images (a deformed image that must be seen from a particular viewpoint to appear in its true shape) posted around his lab. The pictures are a fun challenge for visitors of all ages. He invites them to look closely at the images, then don 3-D glasses or view the anamorphic picture from a particular spot and notice how much the image changes. Working with a super power SEM presents similar challenges, Shiver said.

“When you look at something in the SEM, what you think you see isn’t what you are looking at,” Shiver said.

Shiver, and her lab partner, fellow interning science teacher Mark Hall of Clarksville, Tenn., learned to use the SEM to measure nanograins of a superconducting material called niobium tin (Nb₃Sn). To do that, they had to learn how to prepare niobium-tin samples.

Shiver learned how to make a sample holder, or puck, to contain the teeny grains of niobium tin, then grind and polish the puck.

“One of the things that really surprised me was just the amount of time and work that goes into preparing your sample and then how long it takes to find what you are looking for with the SEM,” Shiver said.

Once the teachers had examined their samples, they prepared and presented a poster explaining their project.

“One of the primary ways that the scientists communicate is by using these posters,” she said. “I think that’s one thing I will try with my students: using posters to communicate what they learn. I think they’ll really like that.”

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For more information about the MagLab’s RET program contact Jose Sanchez at sanchez@magnet.fsu.edu or (850) 645-0033.