STEM(in) with Steph

Simple Sugar Glucose This month, I got to teach a class on cellular respiration, or how cells make energy.  Cellular respiration is the process of breaking down sugars into ATP (Adenosine triphosphate), what we call energy.  Cells can use Aerobic or Anaerobic pathways for breaking down sugars into energy.  Aerobic means 'with oxygen' while Anaerobic means 'without/lacking oxygen'.  Although a cell can use both pathways to produce energy, the efficiency of ATP production is greatly affected in a non-oxygen environment compared to when oxygen is present for the process.  For comparison, a single glucose (sugar) molecule will produce only 2 ATP in the fast paced and wasteful anaerobic process, while the aerobic process can produce 34-38 ATP from the same, single sugar molecule.   The complicated process of how a cell makes energy Our class experimented with yeast to see how the process works in real time.  We couldn't, of course, see the cellular processes taking place

Original Story from History.com April Fools’ Day, occurring on April 1 each year, has been celebrated for several centuries by different cultures, though its exact origins remain a mystery. April Fools' Day traditions include playing hoaxes or practical jokes on others, often yelling “April Fools!” at the end to clue in the subject of the April Fools' Day prank. While its exact history is shrouded in mystery, the embrace of April Fools' Day jokes by the media and major brands has ensured the unofficial holiday’s long life. Example of the Julian Calendar Some historians speculate that April Fools ’ Day dates back to 1582, when France switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar, as called for by the council of Trent in 1563. In the Julian calendar, as in the Hindu calendar, the New Year began with the spring equinox around April 1.  People who were slow to get the news or failed to recognize that the start of the new year had moved to January 1 and continued

Forensic Science  - Fingerprints! Continuing on with our Forensic Science theme, this month's blog is all about Fingerprints!  Fingerprints are another source of evidence that crime scene tech's collect on site to later review in hope's of connecting a suspect to the crime scene.   Fingerprints are the ridges that cover our finger pads, but we also have ridges on our palms, feet, and toes too!  All these prints are collectable forms of evidence when found at crime scenes, because all prints are unique to the owner.  Even Identical Twins will have their own set of unique prints between them.   However most prints are more than just a ridge smudge left behind by your body.  Our skin is covered in pores that produce varying amounts of oils.  Our pads (hands/feet) produce a high amount of oil which covers print ridges.  When we touch a surface, the ridge marks are transferred to the surface via the oil exchange.  Our oils will adhere (stick like glue) to just about any surfac

  DNA is the building blocks to all life Deoxyribonucleic-Acid, or DNA for short, is the genetic material that forms the basis of all life.  Without DNA, you would basically be a rock (i.e. rocks are not living and therefore don't have DNA).  Another way to think of DNA is to compare it to a building's blueprint; it is the instruction manual for constructing life.   DNA lives in the nucleolus of every living cell.  It takes the form of a double helix structure, usually depicted in a counter-clockwise rotation (upwards).  Some might refer to its unwound shape as a ladder, with two sugar phosphate 'sides' and rungs made of 4 nucleotide bases joined 1:1: Adenine, Thymine, Cytosine, Guanine.  Unique is also the fact that if you look at the 'rungs' of DNA, Adenine will only pair with Thymine, and Cytosine will only pair with Guanine.  If you really want to get minuet, the whole of DNA is purposefully designed based upon the use of the 5 base atoms: oxygen, carbon, hy

 Planning forward for Spring 2023! Welcome to the new year and a new season of STEM talks!  If you are like me, you might be breaking out that new 2023 planner and have already started color coordinating your dates, meetings, summer camps, and maybe even a vacation squeezed in there somewhere? I'd say most of us like to plan ahead, and if you're a teacher (or parent), you are always looking ahead to the next scheduled thing to keep your kids learning and having some fun along the way.   I'm a big fan of planning ahead, so below I've put down a couple ideas for classes, activities, and just plain fun things to do that might take just a little planning beforehand to accomplish!  Chicken Embryology 101 Growth Stages One of our most popular spring projects. Learn about life cycles while you watch and learn through a real classroom hatching experience.  Classes receive 12-18 fertilized eggs, an incubator, and all hatching supplies.  The cycle typically extends 21 days from f

  Welcome back to school!  Yes, some of you have been at your desks since August already, but time flies as you get older (Trust me....).  It's exciting to see that STEM is taking a front row seat in our districts' this year as each school has brought on a STEM coordinator to bring the joy of hands on education through Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics!  I'm going to be brief today but want to share just a couple of fun resources available through our STEM Programming this year! Three (3) In-Classroom/Home Chicken Incubators available for loan out to study life cycles/sciences.  These kits include all the materials needed to go from a fertilized egg to the live chicks and engages students in discussions about the industry, parts of the egg and cycles, creating a farm, and even life and death conversations and dissection's.  25+ STEM Kits for Check-out through our kit loan program.  Like a backpack program, STEM kits can be checked out from any of our th