Lab Crawl 2007
The 2007 Lab Crawl, completed in June 2007, was well received by our participants. Below are descriptions of the workshops, along with resources from each day. Click on the blue links to download PDF versions of the resources.
Day 1: Geological Mineral Research
Two amateur geologists excavate “radioactive isotopes” from a rock sample.
The group began their day at FSU's Geology Department in the Carroway Building. There postdoctoral associate Reshmi Das and graduate research assistant Clint Barineau, both from the Mag Lab, led them through the initial steps of processing a rock brought in from the field, with the ultimate goal of bringing a sample of minerals back to the Mag Lab's geochemistry department. The rock was first put through a series of machines designed to break it down into smaller and smaller pieces. The minerals were then separated from surrounding rock material with the help of a large, automatic panning machine, and brought back to the geochemists to process further. At the Mag Lab, the minerals were further separated in a variety of ways (by density, magnetic and electrical properties, mass and optical properties). The final step took place in a clean room, where pounds of rock were reduced to micrograms of pure elements through a series of chemical reactions. With those pure elements, geochemists can begin answering a variety of questions about the Earth’s past and future.
This material was modified for classroom use by taking students through a series of three lessons designed to help students understand three main concepts:
- Rocks are constantly being made on Earth, but contain minerals that are much older
- Radioactive elements decay (or change) in steady, known ways
- Scientists measure ratios of elements in a mineral in order to date the mineral
Day 1 Resources
Day 2: Antarctic Sediment Core Research
Teachers make slides of ancient
Antarctic sediment.
On the second day of the Lab Crawl, partipants visited FSU's Antarctic Marine Geology Research Facility. After listening to an introduction about two recent Antarctic drilling expeditions, participants were taken through the steps of finding a suitable drilling site — extracting a core, processing and storing cores, and studying them. Matthew Olney, head curator at the facility, FSU geology Professor Sherwood W. Wise, Jr., and several geology students led the group through this program, during which participants made a “smear slide” from an actual core in an attempt to observe nanofossils under a microscope.
This material was modified for classroom use by taking students through the cutting, processing, and interpretation of two different core samples. These lessons are designed to help students understand two main concepts:
- There is a general relationship between the depth of a layer of sediment and its age
- A large amount of information useful in many scientific disciplines is hidden within a core sample spanning millions of years
Day 2 Resources
Day 3: Environmental Impact Research
Teachers sort and catalogue macroinvertibrates to assess the health of Bear Creek.
Bear Creek Education Forest was the site for day three’s field work. After an introduction to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s procedures for assessing the health of a natural water system, DEP biologist Russ Frydenborg and his assistants led participants through a model of how the agency establishes a legally-defensible measurement for a natural system. The group conducted a disciplined survey of the waterway and surrounding system, collecting quantitative and qualitative data. They then used dip nets to collect dragonfly larva, crayfish and other local organisms, then identified the animals and determined which were sensitive and which were tolerant. Using the information they had collected, participants assigned a value for the overall health of the system.
This material was modified for classroom use by taking students through a series of two lessons designed to help students understand three main concepts:
- Careful observation of a natural system usually reveals more life, or signs of life, than originally thought
- The health of an environment can be accurately assessed using a combination of measurement devices
- Nature journaling is a good springboard for a variety of writing assignments
Day 3 Resources
Day 4: MRI Imaging Techniques Research
A teacher tries his hand at tuning an MRI magnet.
After a presentation explaining the goals and processes of MRI, Sam Grant, an assistant professor at the Mag Lab and the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, and his assistants took participants to the Mag Lab's Nuclear Magnetic Resonance program to experience MRI techniques. Participants loaded an actual research sample into the MRI magnet, tuned the equipment and collected high-quality images of a mouse brain in a variety of orientations.
This material was modified for classroom use by taking students through alesson designed to help them understand two main concepts:
- The internal structures of objects can be “seen” using a variety of methods, even when there is no visual data to be collected
- MRI functionality arises because of how different magnetic fields and radio frequencies interact with different amounts of water in an object
Day 4 Resources
Other Workshop Resources
For more information, contact Pat Dixon at pdixon@magnet.fsu.edu or (850) 644-4707.
Classroom Outreach
