Category Archives: Outreach Project

Helping You Help Yourself – A new approach to learning

Posted on November 30, 2016 by | Leave a comment

Can a frequently asked questions (FAQ) list without any answers help you solve your problem?

You might scoff at the idea at first and wonder to yourself, “if there are no answers, what’s the point of an FAQ list?”

Surprisingly, a recent study from the University of British Columbia conducted by Dr. Sarah Burke has found that university students were able to solve problems more effectively when given just a list of frequently encountered problems.

In her study, Dr. Burke – a physics and chemistry professor at UBC – offered a “help menu” to first year students during their physics lab exam. The menu contained a list of commonly encountered problems, and students were given the option of requesting for help with specific tasks at the expense of some of their exam grade.

Over 20% of the students were able to solve their problem simply by looking at the list of areas to ask help for and did not request for actual help from the instructors.

So how does this “help menu” work?

Image Courtesy of quoteaddicts.com

Image Courtesy: Motley News

Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting is a process of problem solving, which is often applied in technical fields to repair failed products, machines, or systems. It is a search for the source of the problem in a logical manner by following a series of steps to determine the root of the problem and learn how to go about solving it.

Although you might not realize it, you already use troubleshooting skills on a daily basis.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qE2BKqxDDM&feature=youtu.be

Why is troubleshooting important?

Problem-solving and troubleshooting go hand-in-hand helping us see different solutions to problems from a number of different perspectives. Troubleshooting may effectively strengthen our capacity to think intelligently and flexibly when faced with unfamiliar problems that not only school, but life as a whole throw in our direction.

After the interview with Dr. Burke about her recent study, she made it evident that in today’s ever-changing world, one of the most important criteria for success is having the ability to think and work independently.

“Those are life long skills, right, if you know very general strategies on how to tackle a problem, you can tackle problems in many different fields.”

– Dr. Sarah Burke

Image Courtesy: cqrollcall.com

How do you encourage troubleshooting?

So we’ve seen why troubleshooting is important, and how it can help us solve our problems. But how do we learn to troubleshoot independently instead of simply relying on our friends or the teaching assistants for help?

Image Courtest of: uberhumor-images.leendu.com

Image Courtesy: Pinterest.com

This is the idea behind the “help menu”.

Dr. Burke compares the use of a help menu to a scratch card. She mentions the analogy of points being deducted for every time you scratch an answer, as a penalty. The same method was used in her study, as students were incentivized to troubleshoot and solve the problem themselves to avoid point deductions on the exam for asking for help.   

The following video, outlines a snippet from what may occur in a physics laboratory with, and without the use of a help menu.

So the next time your iPhone stops working, instead of checking the FAQ list for a quick solution.

Pause for a second.

Look at the list of potential problems and try to solve the issue yourself. You might be surprised by your own ability to troubleshoot while strengthening a crucial skill for other areas of your life at the same time.

Group 3: Justin Tao, Harmen Tatla, Zimeng Li, Kelvin Au

 

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Magnetism Everywhere!

Posted on November 30, 2016 by | Leave a comment

How many of you have some of your most important information or precious memories stored on a computer? In modern society, technology has become a vital part of how we live and how we choose to store and process information. However, there is one key concept that is applicable to many of the technology we use, it’s called magnetism.

Many technological breakthroughs of various different fields are based on the concept of magnetism (the attractive and repulsive force between objects). Magnetism is used almost everywhere in our society; from little gadgets to medical apparatus, these all involve the fundamentals of magnetic forces.  To gain a better understanding of what magnetism is, listen to the podcast below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=To07hEn84hY

Now you know better what magnetism is, consider how it’s being studied today.

Applications to Current Research

Dr. MacFarlane and a team of scientists ran a study where they investigated the magnetic properties of a mineral called hematite. One of the things that they focused on in their study was the surface molecular orientation of a magnet. Different surface orientations result in an object with varying levels of magnetic forces. Which is interesting, because the strength of a magnetic force allows it to attract or repel different objects!

A major component affecting the surface orientation of a magnet is something called Phase Transitions.

Phase transitions are used to describe the change between different states of an object. An easy example of this is the change of states of water.

Freezing water into ice is a phase transition between its liquid state and its solid state. For magnets, the phase transition is between the paramagnetic and the ferromagnetic state. The difference between the two is mainly shown with the application of an magnetic field, the area surrounding the magnet that is able to experience the magnetic forces (shown in the diagram below).

Hand drawn diagram of phase transitions in water and in magnets

Hand drawn diagram of phase transitions in water and in magnets

Caption: Diagram of Phase transitions inspired by images found on

The paramagnetic state of a magnet is when the material loses its magnetism after the magnetic field around it is removed. Conversely, the ferromagnetic state is when the material keeps its magnetism even after the magnetic field is removed.

If an object is in the paramagnetic state, it will not be able to attract or repulse any other objects. For an object in ferromagnetic state, it has the ability to attract other objects just by itself without any magnetic forces affecting it. Most magnets are of ferromagnetic state which is why they are always able to attract other objects!

According to Dr. MacFarlane, during Paramagnetic state, the molecules (ions) in the object are moving randomly around rapidly. So, every time you look at them you would see a different arrangement of the molecules (magnets). After cooling to a certain temperature, you would get the ferromagnetic state where the molecules would gradually line up parallel to each other in a lattice and freeze into a magnetic structure.

Moreover, another version of the ferromagnetic state is the anti ferromagnetic state. The anti ferromagnetic state is when the molecules are lined up opposite to each other instead of parallel to each other.

By this point you may be thinking that all of this information is a lot to grasp, but don’t forget that research done about magnetism is important for the current way our world works! Remember when we asked about the information you store on your computer? It wouldn’t be possible without magnetism.  Watch the video below to find out how:

https://youtu.be/Kfs1fkaPDWQ

Generally speaking, aspects of magnetism and phase transitions may still be rather abstract to us…but at least we all now realize that these concepts surround us everyday!

-Group 2: Beth B, Kayleigh B, Delia M

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A Greener Approach to Developing Gels

Posted on November 30, 2016 by | 1 comment

UBC researcher’s serendipitous discovery could influence a greener method in the gel production industry.

Graduate student Lev Lewis of the Department of Chemistry at the University of British Columbia unexpectedly developed a simple method to form gels from cellulose nanocrystals.

First off, let’s break down what a cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) actually is. Cellulose is one of the most, if not the most abundant molecule produced by plants. It is responsible for the strength, structure, and form that allows you to hold a flower up by its stem. Next in order, a nanocrystal is basically a small crystal. Now how small are we talking? A nanocrystal, is a crystal smaller than 200 nanometers. To put this value in perspective, the diameter of a hair is roughly 100,000 nanometers across. In other words, these CNCs that Lev is working with are really really small crystals.

 

Graphic representing the molecular structure of CNCs which is composed of chains of individual cellulose molecules. Image courtesy of yalescientific.org via the Keten lab.

Graphic representing the molecular structure of CNCs which is composed of chains of individual cellulose molecules. Image courtesy of yalescientific.org via the Keten lab.

Lev found that by simply heating a CNC-water mixture under high pressure, this would yield the liquid to thicken into a gel.

Gel made using CNCs under high pressure and high temperature. Picture courtesy of Lev Lewis.

Gel made using CNCs under high pressure and high temperature. Picture courtesy of Lev Lewis.

He attributes this unexpected formation of gel to the desulfation of CNCs (or the removal of sulfur groups) which causes the crystals in the mixture to become unstable, thus forming a gel. The following audio clip describes the process of desulfation using a candy analogy we all can understand.

Constructing gels using this method is an attractive objective because it’s easy, it’s green, and it uses cellulose which is renewable resource. These gels are used in a wide variety of products including diapers, contact lenses, insulation, and tissue scaffolds to list a few. Perhaps one of the most possibly important applications of these gels is in drug delivery. Lev explains that gels could be used to treat cancer instead of the traditional method of chemotherapy. Due to the physical properties of a gel, we could inject them into the cancerous area of the body needing treatment and expect them to stay put. This allows treatment to be localized as opposed to chemotherapy that wreaks havoc on the entire body. The following video elaborates on CNCs and their applications.

YouTube Preview Image

Currently, CNCs can be obtained from wood pulp. Seeing as the world is increasingly making the shift from paper to digital, there’s a lot of wood pulp, which is used to make paper, going to waste. Due to the ease and accessibility of materials of Lev’s method of gel formation, large scale industries that use gels in their products could adopt this method, thus providing an outlet for all the unused wood pulp being produced.

~Lindsey Belsher, Jennifer Jung, Uzair Ahmed

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Image

A Greener Approach to Developing Gels

UBC researcher’s serendipitous discovery could influence a greener method in the gel production industry.

Graduate student Lev Lewis of the Department of Chemistry at the University of British Columbia unexpectedly developed a simple method to form gels from cellulose nanocrystals.

First off, let’s break down what a cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) actually is. Cellulose is one of the most, if not the most abundant molecule produced by plants. It is responsible for the strength, structure, and form that allows you to hold a flower up by its stem. Next in order, a nanocrystal is basically a small crystal. Now how small are we talking? A nanocrystal, is a crystal smaller than 200 nanometers. To put this value in perspective, the diameter of a hair is roughly 100,000 nanometers across. In other words, these CNCs that Lev is working with are really really small crystals.

Graphic representing the molecular structure of CNCs which is composed of chains of individual cellulose molecules. Image courtesy of yalescientific.org via the Keten lab.

Lev found that by simply heating a CNC-water mixture under high pressure, this would yield the liquid to thicken into a gel.

ll2-26b-cnc-120-2wt_3

Gel made using CNCs under high pressure and high temperature. Picture courtesy of Lev Lewis.

He attributes this unexpected formation of gel to the desulfation of CNCs (or the removal of sulfur groups) which causes the crystals in the mixture to become unstable, thus forming a gel. The following audio clip describes the process of desulfation using a candy analogy we all can understand.

Constructing gels using this method is an attractive objective because it’s easy, it’s green, and it uses cellulose which is renewable resource. These gels are used in a wide variety of products including diapers, contact lenses, insulation, and tissue scaffolds to list a few. Perhaps one of the most possibly important applications of these gels is in drug delivery. Lev explains that gels could be used to treat cancer instead of the traditional method of chemotherapy. Due to the physical properties of a gel, we could inject them into the cancerous area of the body needing treatment and expect them to stay put. This allows treatment to be localized as opposed to chemotherapy that wreaks havoc on the entire body. The following video elaborates on CNCs and their applications.

VIDEO HERE

Currently, CNCs can be obtained from wood pulp. Seeing as the world is increasingly making the shift from paper to digital, there’s a lot of wood pulp, which is used to make paper, going to waste. Due to the ease and accessibility of materials of Lev’s method of gel formation, large scale industries that use gels in their products could adopt this method, thus providing an outlet for all the unused wood pulp being produced.

~Lindsey Belsher, Jennifer Jung, Uzair Ahmed

 

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Posted on November 30, 2016 by in Issues in Science, Outreach Project

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The Legendary Leaf Jacket: Cuticular Wax

Posted on November 29, 2016 by | Leave a comment

As humans, we have different ways to prepare ourselves from changing weather conditions such as bringing out our winter coats in the cold, umbrellas when it rains, and sunglasses when it’s sunny. Plants have a similar feature that can do all of this, plus more! The outermost layer of plants is called the cuticular wax, has the ability to protect against many different environmental and physical factors including: water loss, disease, ultra-violet (UV) light, and air pollution.

Knowing what we do about the various functions of cuticular wax, one may wonder how cuticular wax responds to climate change. An ecologist from Southwest University, Yanjun Guo, had a similar question in mind. He conducted research on alpine meadow plants at the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau in Northwest China in hopes of finding a correlation between cuticular waxes and climate change.

Source: Yanjun Guo

Yanjun Guo and his research team. Source: Yanjun Guo

Alpine plants are found at very high latitudes and are mostly isolated from human activity. Therefore they are influenced by climate factors exclusively, which makes them extremely sensitive to climate change.

Alpine meadow in the North Cascades, Washington, United States. Source: Wikipedia

Alpine meadow in the North Cascades, Washington, United States. Source: Wikipedia

We had the opportunity to meet with Guo to further discuss his research. In the video below, he explains his study on cuticular waxes in alpine meadow plants and his prediction for the relationship between plant waxes and climate change.

YouTube Preview Image

In the podcast below, we explained Guo’s major findings on cuticular waxes of alpine meadow plants.

YouTube Preview Image

In summary, alpine meadow plants respond to climate change as a community but not necessarily on an individual plant species level. Cuticular wax composition is an important adaptation that is essential for plants to defend themselves against the effects of climate change.

Acknowledgements: We would like to thank Yanjun Guo for his time and assistance in this project, we admire your passion in science research. We also wish to thank the University of British Columbia and Dr. Ed Kroc from the Science 300 teaching team for his guidance and support throughout the project.

SO Group 4: Samantha Chan, Rashmeen Kambo, Ashley Shepherd, George Gu

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