Sunday News from Lancaster, Pennsylvania • 19

ASTI fa FROM BlLOCAL NEWS B7 Students: Physics of a shared experience Lj -V Continued from B1 Filtering its second academic year, the Mid-Atlantic Relativistic Initiative in known by its acronym, MARIE was started by astronomy professor Andrea Iximinen. Franklin Marshall students serve as teachers and mentors in the program, which is being expanded to include all McCaskey physics students. The goals are to enhance the high-schoolers understanding of science, including such cutting-edge topics as general relativity, and to acclimate them to college. The idea for MARIE came about after conversations 1immen had with McCaskey physics teacher Dan Weber, a 2004 alumnus. Youve got one of the best schools in the nation" here, Weber said, with plenty of tools and resources to share.

MARIE is funded for five years as part of a $650,000 National Science Foundation grant, Lommen said. Last spring, students taught several physics classes at McCaskey and set up an observational astronomy program using a remote telescope in Australia. The McCaskey students love having younger people lecture," Lommen said. During the 2009-10 academic year, MARIE will have students teach even more physics classes at McCaskey, and bring McCaskey students to campus, as well. The focus will be more on observing and less on astronomy as a whole, she said Theyll be using SLOOH, an online observatory with telescopes in Chile, Australia and the Canary Islands.

MARIE is a relativistic from crashes, including ours. liommen told the high-schuolers. As she rotated her merged gala McCaskey junior Angelica Torres Ee es said she was taking ph sics for the first tune, and liking it. But because one of the goals of MARIE is to familiarize the high-schoolers ith college, the visit had its lighter moments, too. In one classroom, students Debbie Schmidt and Alii 1 Ynfield answ ered queries alxiut college life.

To the question "Do you like it here' Schmidt, a sophomore, responded, "I absolutely love it here. The campus is amamg, and the faculty is incredible. One student said she was worried about getting stuck with a "creep roommate" when she went to college. "I get along really well with my roommates," said 1 Ynfield, a freshman. And en if youre not best friends, she said, usually you can tolerate each other well enough without it becoming a serious issue.

And there was this weighty question. Is the fax! here good?" "Its good but repetitive," Penfield replied, draw ing a few laughs. She did give props to her dining halls weekend waftie station, while Schmidt praised the colleges KIVO (kosher, international, vegetarian and organic) menu. One young woman asked if it was normal to be stressed out" waiting to hear back from colleges. Absolutely.

1 Ynfield and Schmidt assured her. Her sisters going through the college application process, Penfield said, and shes a complete mess right now. BUine T. Shahan Siov Ni av student Alex Wiltrout, left helps McCaskey students Marvin Thomas with a conservation of momentum experiment Hernandez, center, and Cynthia In a neighboring classroom, other students were tackling conservation of momentum. Assisted by freshman Krysti Uranaka, McCaskey juniors Sophia Witmer and Caitlin Hart moved two small carts along a frictionless track several times, measuring the momentum before and after the calls collided.

The momentum was supposed to be the same in both cases. Asked if physics was one of her favorite subjects, Hart replied: Its challenging, but I do like it." Upstairs, at the galaxy crash station, students merged galaxies using computer software. Most galaxies are made initiative," Iimmen said meaning itll deal with Einsteins theory of general relativity and such topics as gravitational waves. Some of the most exciting things you can teach students are not in textbooks," she said. And even if the students dont choose a career in physics or astronomy, Lommen said, theyll be more responsible citizens when it comes to government funding of science.

The 33 McCaskey students who came to Hackman Physical Sciences Laboratories were mostly from the schools International Baccalaureate program. They spent time at four stations spectroscopy, conservation of momentum, galaxy crash and college life and were assisted by 16 students, 1 1 of whom are in Lommens astrophysics class. At the spectroscopy station, the high-schoolers were asked to identify seven tubed gases. Steph Douglas, an sophomore astrophysics major, walked from table to table, helping the students usually partnered in pails adjust their spectroscopes so they could see the gases spectra. Vinny Dastra also donned a pair of 3-D glasses when looking at the gas tubes.

A senior, Dastra said he planned to study physics in college. The relationship between Big Brother Mitch Stemlieb and Uttle i Brother Olajuwon Lewis began through an after-school program. Amiatch that's stood the test of time Mitch Stemlieb and Olajuwon Lewis met when Olajuwon was 7 and part of the Big Brothers Big Sisters after-school program. The two spent time after school playing games and doing school projects once a week. When the school year was over, Mitch realized that he wanted to continue the relationship, but in the Big Brothers Big Sisters Community-Based program.

That was five years ago. The two remained friends while Mitch was a student at Franklin Marshall College. They have done everything from attending agency functions to eating out to playing ball in the park to taking dogs for a walk. Mitch and Olajuwon truly enjoy each others company, and treasure one anothers friendship. Mitch has graduated from and is pursuing a medical degree.

Although he does not live in Lancaster County' any longer, he and Olajuwon still keep in close phone contact and get to- gether when time permits; both have busy schedules. Mitch is so happy to have Olajuwon as a Little Brother. Olajuwon said he values their special relationship so much that he would like to be a Big Brother when he is old enough. What began with just a few hours a week after school has grown into a lasting friendship that has stood the test of time. Sunday's Child is an effort of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Lancaster County and the Sunday News to bring children in need of adult companionship together with volunteers.

Call Big Brothers Big Sisters at 39 7-7567 or visit www.bbbslancaster.org. Chocolate Walk raises $10,000 The Lititz Area Kiwa-nas Club raised $10,000 for Schreiber Pediatric Rehab Center of Lancaster County. The money was generated through the recent Lititz (Chocolate Walk. Funds were ialso raised for Lititz Public Library and Kiwanis Club jyouth activities. 3 EDEN On the weather front By Jon Ritter Sunday News Staff Writer jrutterlnpnews.com GEOpod is a deliberate attempt to capitalize National Science Foundation funds program at MU that will allow students to fly through the clouds using real-time data.

IS If l- 4 11 I- i- 2 1 a I i i i i on the vast popularity of electronic gaming. More than 87 million people in this country play computer games, Clark said. There are millions of students out there, and were trying to tap into that. But GEOpod is fundamentally different from such commercially available offerings as Microsofts Flight Simulator. First, Clark said, it isnt based on a synthetic environment invented by graphic artists.

GEOpod skies will take shape around actual weather satellites feeds, radar and 3-D data from computer models. Second, Clark added, It will be guided by a lesson plan. This isnt for entertainment, although we hope its entertaining. Students will enter the GEOpod realm with assigned tasks, such as exploring the relationship between wind speeds at different altitudes. You can say, Lets see where the jet stream is, Clark said.

I can fly inside the jet stream and interact with the atmosphere in multihued 3-D. Different students will be able to use the program simultaneously and share hat theyre seeing worldwide, Clark said. Its all possible thanks to the Integrated Data Viewer application developed by software engineers at the Unidata Program Center in Boulder, Colo. IDV is written in JavaScript and can run on Mac, Windows or Linux operating systems. The GEOpod project consists largely of modifying the source code to create an IDV plug-in, Zoppetti said in an e-mail.

The big challenge will be to develop an inter- Hey you! Get into my cloud. Millersville University professor of earth sciences Richard Clark soon will bid his students do just that, courtesy of GEOpod. Also known as the Geosciences Probe of Discovery, GEOpod soars through the sky, only in the virtual sense, mind you. Its a federally funded software program Clark is developing with Sepi Yalda, a department of earth sciences colleague, and Gary Zoppetti, associate professor of computer science. Clark says its the next best thing to a weather-research plane.

Students or anyone else with sufficient computer memory will be able to sit at a keyboard and zoom through an approaching cold front, for example, using real-time weather data. Theres nothing abstract about it. Youre not flying through numbers, Clark explained. Youre flying through real visual images of data. To our knowledge, nothing like this exists.

Just like in an aircraft, Yalda said, the instruments mi the screen will display such measurements as altitude, barometric pressure and temperature. Creation of the irnovative learning tool is being funded by a three-year, $350,000 National Science Foundation grant received in early October. Half to 60 percent of the GEOpod should be completed within a year, Clark said. Then, buckle up. Virtually speaking, Clark added, You actually will be flying through clouds.

face thats intuitive, engaging and flexible enough for users of various levels of sophistication, Zoppetti noted. Modifying a source that has more than a million lines of code could be tricky, he added. The project is already under way, thanks to a prototype Zoppetti and one of his students developed about a year and a half ago. Other students will assist in developing and test driving GEOpod. In addition, the MU team is contracting with a graphic artist, ho will design the GEOpod console, and an educational psychologist, who will evaluate GEOpods effectiveness in teaching students.

The Millersville project could be the model for a new learning approach that simulates real-world environments in many disciplines. Because the application is open-source, anyone could tweak the code to mee his particular education requirements. Plug in neurological data, for example, Clark said, and Youll be able to move around in the human brain. Enter the right tectonic plate info, and Youd be able to fly beneath the surface of the earth. But GEOpod initially will stick to the wild blue yonder, Clark said.

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