Over the last month in our Sustainability, Energy, and Technology Honors Seminar for Freshman class, a few groups have been focusing on designing and presenting science experiments to high school students. Our experiment, demonstrating Faraday’s Law of Induction using a flashlight generator, has come a long way from the beginnings of our ideas. Our group […]
Alcator C-mod Tokamak
“Fusion, the nuclear process that lights up the sun, is the energy source of the future and always will be.” The early morning trip to MIT turned out to be absolutely mind-blowing. Although we live in a technological world and it sometimes seems like nothing really can astonish our generation, the grandiose projects the scientists […]
Brainstorming Sessions
The brainstorming sessions gave us a unique opportunity to discuss the upcoming experiment that we have to perform at the high school. Initially, we thought about designing an experiment involving the law of conservation of energy. After much consideration, though, we revoked this idea. We set our goal to demonstrate the high school students the […]
Professor Tom Vales’ Demonstration
Like kids in the amusement park, we were all astonished by the magic Professor Vales showed us during his short (1 hour 15 minutes) demonstration. The demonstration started with the Professor showing us a miracle of an engine that worked without any fuel or any other energy supplied to it at first glance. The wheel […]
Iran Nuclear Energy Program
The one big problem with nuclear energy is that there it can be used as a weapon. In the course of the history, term “nuclear” almost permanently got associated in our minds with words “dangerous,” “toxic,” and “deadly.” Precisely due to these misconceptions that were further reinforced by the legitimate fear of international terrorism, Iran […]
Generator Experiment
Objective: In the lab, we performed an experiment testing Faraday’s Law, which states that any change in the magnetic field of the coil will cause a current to be induced in the coil. Instruments: 1. Lego MindStorm Kit; 2. Voltmeter; 3. A linear induction or Faraday flashlight. Procedures: First, we measured the voltage when the […]
Pandora’s Promise
Pandora’s Promise is a documentary movie about nuclear energy that claims to change the way one thinks fundamentally. Featured as speakers in the movie are notable individuals (Stewart Brand, Gwyneth Cravens, Mark Lynas, Richard Rhodes, and Michael Shellenberger), who once were fierce anti-nuclear proponents, but now in the light of new facts and studies, they […]
Colonizing Mars
What seemed not only impossible but a complete scientific heresy a century ago, now is a matter of 10 years. The manned mission to Mars is planned for the year 2030 with the first parts of the strategic plan being already completed. The journey to Mars mission is supposed to give us a further insight into the […]
Solar Cell Activity
Objective: The objective of the experiment we performed was to test the correlation between the intensity of the light shone at the solar cell and the output of the cell. The test was then repeated with different colored pieces of transparent plastic applied to the surface of the solar cell. The results were used to compare […]
Mildred F. Sawyer Library
Weather you want to relax and read a book for your own pleasure or you are doing a serious research that may help millions of people- Mildred F. Sawyer Library will be always able to accommodate your needs. Friendly librarians, who not only can help you with finding the desired book but also guide your […]