Grade 5 Category
Spring SAVY 2018, Day 5- Biophotonics (5th/6th)
Feb. 26, 2018—This week, we tackled optical therapeutics. With absorption as our primary tool, we set out to understand how lasers can be used for ablation and how we can control laser parameters to get precise cutting. To help visualize how absorption drives laser ablation and tissue heating, we tried to pop some pigmented balloons with our...
Spring SAVY 2018, Day 5- Truth vs. Perception (5th/6th)
Feb. 26, 2018—In Week 5, we moved on from our discussion of texts and stories to look at truths and perceptions as they relate to visual aspects. We began by discussing the visual arts in relationship to everyday objects and postmodern art. We started by asking: what counts as art? Who gets to make that decision? The...
Spring SAVY 2018, Day 4- Biophotonics (5th/6th)
Feb. 19, 2018—This week, we got to put our optical toolboxes to use. After reviewing what we covered for the first half of the course, students set out to design their own pulse oximeter. Of the methods we covered, students accurately identified Raman scattering and absorption as two possible methods for measuring blood oxygenation. Students analyzed recorded...
Spring SAVY 2018, Day 4- Truth vs. Perception (5th/6th)
Feb. 19, 2018—Today, we looked at how fictional stories combine elements of truth and fiction to tell us about ourselves, what is important to us, and how we perceive the world. First, we finished our conversation on mythologies by discussing the end of “The Hero’s Journey” with the reward and resolution of the journey by finishing the...
Spring SAVY 2018, Day 3- Biophotonics (5th/6th)
Feb. 12, 2018—This week, we finished compiling our optical toolboxes with the addition of fluorescence, scattering, Monte Carlo Simulations, and spectrometers. Students designed their own experiments to identify different fluorophores. Using different wavelengths of light, we were able to plot the excitation and emission spectra for quinine, Vitamin D, and rhodamine. As a major component of laser-tissue...
Spring SAVY 2018, Day 3- Truth vs. Perception (5th/6th)
Feb. 12, 2018—Today, we brought up fictional tales, specifically with relation to moral of the story, purpose, narration, and point of view. To conclude our conversation from last week on American values, we read “A Modest Proposal” by Johnathan Swift, an essay which proposes a satirical solution of an abundance of hungry, poor children: have the poor...
Spring SAVY 2018, Day 2- Biophotonics (5th/6th)
Feb. 5, 2018—This last Saturday, we started our discussion of laser-tissue interactions. As one of the key phenomena in biophotonics, we focused on absorption. Our emerging scientists designed their own experiments investigating the wavelength dependence of absorption. With an array of lasers of different wavelengths, students tested their hypotheses of which flavors of Jell-O would absorb a...
Spring SAVY 2018, Day 2- Truth vs. Perception (5th/6th)
Feb. 5, 2018—We began our discussion today by bringing back journal entries from last week–whether or not our personal truths are universal. This led us into our next lesson on how perception to anthropological studies and how we relate to other cultures. We read the satirical piece “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema” by Horace Miner, which describes...
Spring SAVY 2018, Day 1- Biophotonics (5th/6th)
Jan. 29, 2018—To kick off the Biophotonics course, we discussed some of the basic properties of light including light’s wave-particle duality as seen in this video. We explored different situations in which it is more useful to think about light as a wave like when light travels through space or think about light as a particle like...
Spring SAVY 2018, Day 1- Truth vs. Perception (5th/6th)
Jan. 29, 2018—Hello from SAVY’s Spring 2018 course on Truth vs. Perception! We started out class with basic introductions, a little icebreaker, concept mapping, and setting guidelines for the group. (It spoke to the advanced nature of the class to see the students recommend “no hypocrisy” for our list of rules.) We began our discussion of material...