Science

Selected students from Washington County middle and high schools are taking in a paid one-week internship at Washington County Technical High School through the Gains in the Education of Mathemetics and Science/Young Engineers and Scientist program. The GEMS/YES program is funded through the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command and U.S. Army Garrison Fort Detrick. For this year, 170 students were accepted as interns. The student interns are being taught by nine paid Near-Peer Mentors.

Editor's note: This is the third in a monthly series highlighting excellent educators in Washington County high schools. Next month: Hancock Middle-Senior High School. scottb@herald-mail.com CLEAR SPRING - Aline Novak, a Clear Spring High School biology teacher since 1978, clearly has the respect of her peers as she seeks to help her students find science as fascinating as she does. School staff took a vote on which teacher at the school should be profiled for this series.

On July 4, a large assembly of scientists in Geneva, Switzerland announced that, after spending $10 billion, employing 6,000 researchers and directing tiny subatomic particles on a collision course of 17 miles, they had found what they were looking for. What they found was another tiny particle to be called the Higgs boson, the existence of which they had long suspected. The idea that still another subatomic particle might exist was proposed in 1964 by physicist Peter Higgs. It is an understatement to say that this achievement was remarkable.

While much of the action at the Washington County Ag Expo & Fair centers around the livestock and agricultural events, kids also got a chance to experiment with hands-on science activities at a 4-H STEM table Saturday. Jamie Kenton, the University of Maryland Extension's faculty extension assistant for 4-H youth development, said activities geared toward encouraging interest in the science, technology, engineering and math fields are an important part of the 4-H program, and are a popular part of the fair.

To the editor: As Mr. Buhrer stated in his letter of Dec. 4, the "thorough lack of understanding of how science works" is sad indeed. Science is the study of observable phenomena that are repeatable and subject to hypothesis, testing and independent verification. Anything outside this process of observation and repeatability cannot be investigated scientifically. And this is exactly the problem with Darwinian evolution. To be fair, we must first define some things.

Teacher makes science happen before their eyes Editor's Note : The Herald-Mail is featuring one middle school teacher each month through May. The eight-part series highlights excellent educators on the first Monday of each month. Coming in December: E. Russell Hicks Middle School. By TARA REILLY / Staff Writer Eighth grade science teacher John Geist has his own approach to teaching. He doesn't focus on lecturing or overloading kids with homework. Rather, the 53-year-old Clear Spring Middle School teacher prefers assigning science labs and adorning his classroom with rockets, planets and pictures of constellations to keep the students interested.

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. -- Wilson College has been awarded a $20,000 grant from the Josiah W. and Bessie H. Kline Foundation of Harrisburg, Pa. The grant will be used to help pay for renovations to Wilson's newly renovated science education building, the Harry R. Brooks Complex for Science, Mathematics and Technology. The Kline Foundation Board of Directors approved the grant in May. The $20,000, which is to be distributed later this year, will be matched by a challenge grant provided by philanthropists Marguerite and H.F. "Gerry" Lenfest.

bonnieb@herald-mail.com CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - If you look at the stack of handouts on a table in the Wilson College science lab, you'd assume that they were intended for a class of graduate students. With headings such as "Denaturation and Hydrolysis" and "Separation of Proteins and Determination of the Molecular Weight of Hemoglobin Using Gel Filtration Chromatography," the papers are not light summer reading. But the 14 students sitting on the high lab stools performing experiments, discussing the results and punching numbers into calculators are young teens.

pepperb@herald-mail.com Editor's note: This is the fourth in a monthly series highlighting excellent educators in Washington County high schools. Next month: North Hagerstown High School. HANCOCK - Science itself makes class fun, not the teacher, Hancock Middle-Senior High School earth science, physics and chemistry teacher Ray Johnston said. "If it's done right, it can interest a lot of people," he said. "You're working with neat things. " Johnston, 25, said he teaches a variety of students, but said most of the children he teaches are not in upper-level courses and do not always go to college, which presents certain challenges.

CROSS LANES, W.Va. - What do a New Mexico chili pepper and a 450 million-year-old rock from Connecticut have in common? Tyler Alternative Middle School students have collected these items and more during a special project. Students at the Tyler Mountain area school sent e-mail messages to government officials in all 50 states requesting science treasures. So far, the classes have received packages from 23 states. Science teacher Marcia Anderson said she came up with the idea after visiting another school.

Brian Ansel and Kris Pearl thought they were going to spend Tuesday morning observing and helping another teacher work with her students at Bester Elementary School, but the pair was surprised when a group of people walked into the classroom with balloons. Schools Superintendent Clayton Wilcox and officials from the Washington County Public Schools Education Foundation then presented Ansel and Pearl with a large ceremonial check for $1,000. “I was amazed. I was astonished. I was overwhelmed.

A teacher at Highland View Academy in Hagerstown is among 27 science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, educators who were selected for the 2013-14 Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellowship Program, according to the Triangle Coalition for Science and Technology Education. Ophelia Barizo will serve at the National Science Foundation's Directorate for Engineering, Emerging Frontiers in Research Innovation Division, under the guidance of Rosemarie Wesson. Selected educators will serve in Washington, D.C., for 11 months, beginning Sept.

Chambersburg Area Middle School South was buzzing with activity Friday afternoon as students and parents lugged display boards to the Franklin Science and Technology Fair in time for their projects to be judged. Now in its 31st year, the annual fair offers Franklin County students in kindergarten through 12th grade a chance to show off their scientific talents. There are about 360 entries in this year's fair, according to event organizers. Catherine Hade, treasurer of the Franklin Science Council, said the fair gives students a chance to showcase their scientific abilities.

The renovated Behavioral Sciences and Humanities (BSH) Building and a new faculty development center in the Learning Support Center at Hagerstown Community College were part of dedication ceremony Friday that marked the completion of the Arts and Science Complex. The BSH Building formerly was the Classroom Building and the Learning Support Center was the former Science Building. The Arts and Science Complex also includes the expanded Kepler Center and a new Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)

In a recent Mail Call, an anonymous reader asked: “I'd like to donate my body to science. Could someone tell me who to get in touch with about this?” The Anatomy Board of Maryland is one possibility. The board's website says donors can get a form by calling 410-547-1222 or 1-800-879-2728 or writing to State Anatomy Board, Bressler Research Building, Room B-026, 655 W. Baltimore St., Baltimore, MD 21201-1559. Anyone at least 18 years old is eligible. After a donor dies, a nursing home, hospital or attending doctor will contact the Anatomy Board, which will arrange to collect the body.

The following area students graduated from Rochester Institute of Technology in the summer quarter: Danya Hinkle of Shippensburg, Pa., earned an Associate in Science in business from RIT's National Technical Institute for the Deaf. Kyle Ryan of Myersville, Md., earned a Bachelor of Science in imaging science from RIT's College of Science.

This was a problematic election for people of my ilk, because the art of punditry might just have experienced a John Henry moment. Worse, many pundits doubled down, proclaiming that machine could never beat man in the art of tea-leaf reading, taking specific aim at the steam-powered hammer of Nate Silver and his 538 forecasting model, which digests polling and economic statistics and spits out projected election results. Before the election, Silver was subject to intense criticism from those bosom buddies, the mainstream media and the Republican Party.

Date of birth : May 2, 1985 Hometown : Born in Chicago, currently in Baltimore Education : Bachelor of science in electrical engineering, 2007; Bachelor of science in mathematics, 2007; master of science in electrical engineering, 2009 Occupation : Research scientist Party affiliation : Libertarian Political experience : None

Molly Murray's first-grade class at Greencastle-Antrim Primary School is learning about magnets and magnification thanks to a website, the kindness of a New Jersey resident and United Parcel Service. When Murray wanted to provide hands-on science materials for her class, she turned to an online charity - DonorsChoose.org. “We had a weekly science center going on, but I didn't feel I had enough materials to maintain it,” Murray said. Jeff Koons with Horace Mann, an insurance agency serving the educational community, told Murray about the online website that links classrooms in need with donors.

Hagerstown Community College is getting new microscopes that can take digital images and be used on living cells. The school was awarded a three-year grant worth $651,249 from the National Science Foundation to create an on-campus microscopy training hub as well as a mobile hub for its biotechnology program, “This will give our biology majors a leg up when they transfer because they will have already used that equipment, and it will give them...