Socrates Fellows Our Projects
Chemical solutions to energy and climate change
John Goeltz and Rachel Stein, a chemistry teacher at Castle Park High School will use hands-on experiments to emphasize the tremendous opportunities for chemists in the fields of energy and climate change. Recurring themes will be the capture, storage, and use of energy, and the emission, mitigation, and activation of carbon dioxide. In the fall, students will build three types of solar cells and compare advantages and disadvantages of each, while gaining a first hand appreciation that enough solar energy strikes the earth in a hour to power the planet for a year.
Students will also learn about isotopes in a new way by competing in the world's first Isotopolympics, with events including the waterobics full-body vibrational analysis and the particle emission shot put. In the spring students will reproduce results from a recent Science paper and split water at low voltages using cobalt salts and phosphate solutions. Through these experiments students will gain confidence in understanding and critically discussing science in the news.