Week 1, June 6 2013, SRCC Labs

Summer Session, Week 1
Thursday, June 6, 2013

Our trip to Pitt's Space Research and Coordination Center (SRCC)

Today started off with a game to better help us learn about each other's hobbies and interests.

It was an exciting day; new field notebooks were passed out to each Energy-Net teen, EI and staff member. They're to be used for keeping track of observations, quotes and other notes for each day, as well as how material from that day can be adapted for use in our exhibit.

We learned how normally-beneficial nutrients in water can be detrimental to an aquatic ecosystem if found in high concentrations. We added words like nitrification and eutrophication to our vocabulary.

Then, we journeyed up to tour Dr. Emily Elliott's and Dr. Dan Bain's laboratories. Using lake core specimens taken from all over the world, Dan and Emily were able to measure radioactive decay of stable nitrogen isotopes (N14, N15) in order to determine the age of the sediment. Using a watershed model table, we observed first-hand how sediment of different shapes, size and density tend to settle and build layers when exposed to a moving water system. We noticed that the small, red, less-dense sediment tended to migrate the farthest, before being deposited at the mouth of the watershed. Layers continued to build on top of the red, tending to build in order of small/less dense, to large/more dense.

From Wikipedia.org:
Nitrification - the biological oxidation of ammonia with oxygen into nitrite followed by the oxidation of these nitrites into nitrates. Degradation of ammonia to nitrite is usually the rate limiting step of nitrification. Nitrification is an important step in the nitrogen cycle in soil. 

Eutrophication - is the ecosystem response to the addition of artificial or natural substances, such as nitrates and phosphates, through fertilizers or sewage, to an aquatic system. One example is the "bloom" or great increase of phytoplankton in a water body as a response to increased levels of nutrients. Negative environmental effects include hypoxia, the depletion of oxygen in the water, which induces reductions in specific fish and other animal populations. Other species (such as Nomura's jellyfish in Japanese waters) may experience an increase in population that negatively affects other species.

Photos from today can be viewed here

Week 1, June 4 2013, Summer Session Begins

Summer Session, Week 1
Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Our teens return!

Our summer session starts today, and the focus of this session is "Water and Energy".

We started today's session by speaking with Mary Ann, Dr. Dan Bain and Dr.Emily Elliot, Energy-Net's stakeholders. They act as our clients, and our job is to create an exhibit on water and energy,which will be completed on August 31, 2013.

Today, we explored watersheds and watershed terms by creating our own using a tarp and a kiddie pool. Topography was created by placing newspaper, egg cartons and other materials underneath. This demonstrated natural topography such as that of the eastern coast of the United States like mountains and valleys, rivers and an ocean. When it "rained" via spray bottle, it could be seen that water would readily run down the impermeable surface of the tarp and into streams, then into rivers before it finally settles into the ocean. We determined that water flows from high elevation to low elevation and that there were actually two watersheds in our experiment.

The introduction of towels to act as permeable surfaces such as forests, parks and yards was seen to have an effect on how the water in each watershed behaved. Furthermore, more materials were dispersed onto the tarp to act as pollutants, such as cocoa powder for dry deposition, dyed water for wet deposition, and dish soap for oil runoff. The permeable surfaces were able to stop some, but not all of the pollutants from being swept downstream and into the ocean.

All photos from this session can be viewed here

End of Spring Session Party

April 20, 2013
Energy-Net's first session is officially over!

Thanks to all the teenagers who worked so hard, giving up their free time after school and dedicating their talents to this pilot teen program at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Also thanks to Dr. Dan Bain and Dr. Emily Elliott for their efforts to create and maintain this program with CMNH and the University of Pittsburgh, as well as our college interns' and graduate students' hard work to make Energy-Net a success.

There was screenprinting and cake!

Photos of the Energy-Net team can be found here

Make Choices Market: Exhibit Opening !

Our exhibit that we had been working very had on opened at the museum on April 20th! We spent the morning setting all of our items up for the exhibit before it officially opened at noon.

With our exhibit, we wanted to show museum visitors the energy involved in bringing the food they typically eat to their table. To do this we set our space up like a cafeteria where visitors could pick their meal.

When visitors entered the exhibit, they picked up a tray and walked through the line and picked up cards with pictures of food items on them to chose their "meal". Once they had their meal, they could sit down at one of our tables and look at their choices. On the back of the cards were graphs showing how healthy their food choices were and how much processing was done to the food. There was also a chart on the table comparing all of the food choices so visitors could see how their choices rated amongst the others. While talking with visitors, we explained a food that was more heavily processed required more energy to make than one that was less processed. We had a chart the traced the energy used in food from the time it was grown on the farm until the time it reached your dining table. Some of the food choices, such as an apple, only went through some of the process depicted on the chart. However, a rice crispy treat had to go through the entire process depicted on the chart and required more energy than the apple.

After visitors discovered some of the energy behind their meals, they could take one of our to-go menus with them. On these menus were ideas for more sustainable eating tips and local farmers markets to buy fresh produce. Websites for local environmental organizations were also included.

Because this was our very first run at an exhibit, we were very interested in visitor feedback! We created a feedback board where visitors could post their thoughts. In general, our exhibit was well recepted. The best feedback, we thought, were the comments about how nice everyone was! WE had a great time showcasing all of our hard work to family, friends, and museum patrons. Stay tuned for some changes we will make to the exhibit based on the feedback we received. If you happen to be in the Pittsburgh area, come check out Make Choices Market!

The entire album of photos from our exhibit opening can be viewed here

Weeks 10 and 11: Exhibit Design

After a semester full of exciting discoveries, it was time for us to pull together the information we gathered about energy and create an exhibit for the Carnegie Museum of Natural History! The task seemed very daunting at first, but with everyone working together we were able to create a great exhibit.

To begin with, we each brainstormed different ways we could convey information we learned in our lessons to the public. It was important for us to keep in mind the different audiences our exhibit would have. We made a list of how to present our information to young children, our peers, and adults for each topic we came up with. After everyone was done brainstorming, we sifted through the ideas to see what was feasible to create in the timeframe we were working with. We also mixed and matched some ideas at this points to create a working idea everyone was satisfied with. In the end, we all agreed to create an exhibit focusing on the energy necessary to bring our food to our table. Everyone can relate to food so we thought this was a great start!

Before we ended the meeting that week we made a list of all the components required to make our exhibit a success. Everyone signed up to work on the parts they felt matched their skills the best.

At the next meeting, we set to work right away creating all of the pieces we needed for the exhibit. We wanted our exhibit to have the feel of a restaurant/cafeteria. This required people create food choice cards, placemats, takeout menus and other items a person would find at a restaurant. Samantha from the museum's marketing department also came down to help us decide what large signs we needed printed.

Everyone was busy at work this session to create all of the pieces for our exhibit opening. Stay tuned for pictures and descriptions of our final product!

The picture album for these two weeks can be found here

Week 9: Minerals and Alternative Energies Exploration

Deb Wilson, an assistant collections manager and mineral photographer, came to our Energy-Net meeting today to provide us with some information about minerals and their uses. When we came in, Deb had a slide show of beautiful pictures of minerals, and we could try our hand at identifying the minerals on the screen. Just incase we got frustrated, she had a list for us. After we spent some time viewing the slide show and magazines she brought in, she showed us some samples of specific minerals. We were able to touch some of the samples she brought as she told us some practical uses for each mineral. Some of the uses we were able to guess, but some were very surprising. She also told us a little about how certain minerals were mined or gathered.

Once we finished looking at the samples and asking any questions we had, Deb took us upstairs to explore the Hillman Hall of Minerals and Gems. It was amazing! We were all very surprised by how large the exhibit was. It is right across from the Paleolab and easy to walk right past. Trust us, the next time you are at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History you do not want to miss it!

There were so many mineral specimens to browse. We had a great time deciding what some of them looked like. One looked like a porcupine! The colors in there were amazing, too. Many of the minerals were very brightly colored. Deb told us that all of the specimens in the hall were real and not a recreation. It was amazing to see the beauty that nature can create.

We spent a long time browsing the gallery and then made our way back down to the classroom. Once there, Angela had a slideshow for us to view about how minerals and energy impact our life every minute of every day. It was mind boggling to see all of the minerals and energy required just to use your alarm in the morning! This led into our discussion of alternative energies.

The EI's did a presentation on the various aspects of wind turbines. We looked at the energy involved in building a wind turbine/wind farm, the energy payback period for the construction, and the impact wind farms can have on wildlife species. The wind turbines have been thought to kill large numbers of birds following their migration patterns.

For the next two weeks we will  be working very hard to brainstorm and create our exhibit showcasing everything we have learned this past semester. Our exhibit opens on April 20th so we have some work to do!

Week 8: Dr.I Interview and Abandoned Mine Drainage

On March 28, we were lucky enough to have the opportunity to talk with Dr. Anthony Iannacchione. Dr. I is a professor at the University of Pittsburgh, and he is also the director of the Mining Engineering Program in the Swanson School of Engineering.

We took advantage of our opportunity to talk with Dr. I by asking him some questions we were curious about. First, we discussed his background and the many years he has spent on his education. He told us a little about his work history and experience with mining and also about his experiences as a professor.

Dr. I has given many talks and presentations throughout the years. Recently, he has spoken about using abandoned mine drainage from coal mines for the water necessary for hydraulic fracturing for natural gas extraction. Naturally, we had many questions about this process and how it could work!

After our time talking with Dr. I, we attempted to remediate some water that was impacted by AMD. We had bottles of water gathered by Marion, and we used pH strips to test the pH of the water. Before we changed anything, the water was slightly acidic with a pH of 6. To see if we could bring the water to a more neutral pH level, we added calcite. Calcite is frequently used to help raise an acidic substance to a neutral pH. With the calcite added, we then tested the water again. The pH only increased very slightly. It was evident that a change did occur, but not enough of a change to be at a completely neutral pH. The results were not exactly what we expected, but that is science!

Next week were are looking forward to touring the Hillman Hall of Minerals and Gems. We will be able to learn more about mineral uses in our everyday life and the energy involved!