Winter 2009 - K-Space Web Page - Central Catholic High School

Central Catholic Classes
Feature New Technology
The Central Catholic art department recently
purchased 12 Wacom Intuos3 Professional Pen
Tablets for the graphic art classes. The students
use these devices to quickly and professionally edit
photos and create digital artwork and animation
projects. They are used extensively for
rotoscoping, an animation technique in which
animators trace over live-action fi lm movement,
frame by frame, for use in animated fi lms.
The tablets come with an optical wireless mouse
and a wireless pen that has 1,024 levels of tip and
eraser pressure sensitivity. The harder the student
presses, the darker or wider the media becomes,
just like real artists’ media. It also has tilt
sensitivity, which allows the pen to act just like an
angled brush depending on how the students hold
it. The tablet itself has express keys for keyboard
shortcuts and a fi nger-sensitive touch strip for
zooming in and out.
Students in the science department also have
access to some new technological tools. Thanks to
a generous donation from a graduate, the
department recently purchased a digital balance
that measures to the thousandths place. Students
can use the balance to fi nd the exact mass of an
object and to measure exact amounts of small
substances used in scientifi c experiments.
Students have already used the balance to measure
the content of water collected from the Maumee
River in the annual Student Watershed Watch.
The science department also has motion detectors
to be used in the physics classes. The detectors can
be linked to computers to plot continuous values
of velocity versus time. Students can save the
graph to Moodle, the CCHS course management
system, and then analyze in detail the motion
of objects.
Mangas
Family
Concession
Center
In October, the concession
stand in Gallagher Stadium
was dedicated to the
Mangas family for their
generous support through
the years.
Teacher Participates in Summer Research Fellowship
Central Catholic High School chemistry teacher Kathleen Wilkens was one of just eight
chemistry teachers in the country chosen to participate in the fi rst annual Summer Research
Fellowship program sponsored by the American Chemical Society. She worked full time
for eight weeks at the University of Toledo with Dr. Terry Bigioni, a chemistry professor and
research fellow at the university.
The American Chemical Society is a nationwide professional organization for people who
work in the chemical industry, and one of its missions is to improve chemistry education. The
ACS decided to add a new program this year, the Summer Research Fellowship that would pay
high school teachers to work over the summer in a chemistry research lab. Wilkens was chosen
for one of the two positions available at the University of Toledo.
“My goals in entering this program were to refresh my chemistry lab skills, learn about some
cutting edge research from the ground level, make contacts at the chemistry department at the
University of Toledo where some of my students subsequently attend college, learn how to use
the latest types of research equipment like electron microscopes, and learn more basic
chemistry,” Wilkens said. “It was a great experience and hard work!”
Wilkens worked with Dr. Bigioni, who teaches chemistry and researches nanoparticles,
thin-fi lm technology, and dye-sensitized solar cells. Nanotechnology is the study of small
particles made up of relatively small numbers of atoms or molecules, and the topic is
something Wilkens wanted to learn more about. “Scientists have discovered that when
particles are nano-sized (nano means one billionth), they have very different properties than
normal,” she explained. “For example, gold nanoparticles have different colors than gold as we
normally see it. So if we can build materials from nanoparticles instead of taking materials as
we fi nd them in nature, we can perhaps take advantage of new properties of those materials
that we are just beginning to discover.”
Wilkens also worked with the dye-sensitized solar cells and learned more about electrical
circuits, nanoparticles, and how to use both conventional and cutting edge lab equipment.
“I think anytime I can learn more about what I teach and also experience what people in the
chemistry fi eld are
doing, it
contributes to my
students’
understanding of
chemistry,” she said.
“I have already talked
a lot about my
experiences this
summer with my
classes. I also got an
opportunity to meet
other researchers
in nearby labs and
learned about their
research.”
www.centralcatholic.org