GEMS Field Trip to Georgia Tech

We are extremely excited about our first field trip of the year happening next Tuesday, October 5th. We will be going to Megan's laboratory at Georgia Tech to see how people are fit for prosthesis.

It is important to know that for the girls to be able to attend this field trip they must first be a registered girl scout and they must also have filled out the girl scout permission form. Permission forms are being sent home with the girls today at GEMS as well as being emailed to the GEMS email list.

We are also looking for volunteer drivers to help us get from Inman to Georgia Tech and back. If you are able to be a volunteer driver, please email Megan or Debbie at inmangems@gmail.com.

We hope to see everyone at Georgia Tech next week!

Learning Sign Language

While cochlear implants are an incredibly powerful technology, they are not the best solution for every individual with hearing loss. In fact, most people with profound hearing loss instead communicate using American Sign Language (ASL). Contrary to popular belief, ASL is more than just a simple translation from English to hand motions, but it is a distinct language in it's own right. What happens when a child is born to parents who don't know this language and cannot teach it to them? Researchers at Georgia Tech have developed a video gaming technology to teach children (and adults, like parents) in situations like this. Called "CopyCat" the game requires the player to wear special gloves that track hand movements and copy sign language motions shown on the screen. When the player gets the sign right, they earn points and move on to harder levels. Technology like this is meant to be used in classrooms, but have also helped teach parents and their hearing impaired children to successfully communicate!

Learn how to sign using this dictionary of American Sign Language.

Here is a news story about CopyCat and its inventors

Women in Science: Dr. A. Belén Elgoyhen, Ph.D.

This week in GEMS we learned all about sound. We modeled how sound moves differently through different materials, like solids, liquids, and air. We generated sounds on computers using a program called LabVIEW and observed how sound waves change when their frequency and amplitudes are adjusted. We also learned about how our ears are able to decode sound waves, and how devices like hearing aides and cochlear implants can restore the sense of hearing to people who have experienced ear injuries.

Much like our noses, our ears take stimuli from the outside world (sound waves in this case) and turn them into electrical signals for transmission to the brain on the vestibulocochlear nerve. This process of changing a mechanical signal (pressure waves) into an electrical nerve impulse is called "transduction" and is not very well understood. Dr. Elgoyhen and her colleagues at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute are working to understand how chemical signals are used to transduce the deflection of hair cells in the cochlea in response to changing pressures into electrical nerve signals to send to the brain. Dr. Elgoyhen has identified two previously unknown cellular receptors (parts of cells that collect and respond to certain chemicals) that are a part of this transduction process. She has also worked to identify some of the genes that are responsible for making these receptors. Dr. Elgoyhen hopes that by furthering our understanding of how our ears hear, we will be able to understand how certain drugs and loud noises can cause hearing loss, which will in turn allow doctors to prevent some people from experience significant hearing loss.

Dr. Elgoyhen currently works at the Institute for Research on Genetic Engineering and Molecular Biology, National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET), in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She recieved her Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Buenos Aires, and was awarded the L’Oréal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science for Latin American region in 2008.

See more about Dr. Elgoyhen and her research

Learn more about the L’Oréal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science and this years winners

Here is some more information about cochlear implants

Want to learn more about biochemistry and molecular biology?

Women in Science: Dr. Marina Cole, BSc, PhD

Do you know how your nose smells? When chemical signals travel through the air, some of them go up your nose and are trapped by the mucous membrane lining the inside of our nose. These chemicals then diffuse through the water-like substance and are changed into an electrical signal (a process called "transduction") so the information can be transmitted to the brain along the olfactory nerve.

Scientists and engineers are trying to replicate this process with an electronic device in order to detect very specific chemical signals. Dr. Cole and Smart Sensors and Devices Research Group at Warwick University are working to develop a device that can detect certain chemical signals in the air. They hope that some day such a device will be able to do things like: tell the difference between different pheramones (chemicals secreted by animals that trigger some social response), determine whether or not food products have gone bad before they make anyone sick, pick up scents of individual people during search-and-rescue missions, and locate mines buried underground. Eventually, Dr. Cole and her team hope to also be able to collect time and distance data from detected scents.

Dr. Cole received her undergraduate degree (Bachelor of Science) from the University of Montenegro and earned her Doctorate from Coventry University in the United Kingdom. She is trained as an Electrical Engineer

Learn more about Dr. Cole and her research

More information about the Sensors Research Laboratory (they do lots of other research about smell and smelling devices)

Learn more about Electrical Engineering and engineering in general

Here's some more information about how we smell

The Sense of Smell

Wow! Forty girls at GEMS today!!!!!

Today at GEMS, we used our sense of smell to identify and rank spices from Megan's kitchen. It was very interesting to see that while some people really liked things like cinnamon, others really liked taco spices. Here is the graph of how we ranked the smells.

Check out the pictures! We also saw a video on youtube.com that was made by UCDavis, called, "This is why we stay in school." Megan told us that this is like the research that she does at Georgia Tech. We are so excited that we will be going to her lab at Georgia Tech on October 5th. Megan puts "dots" on people and the computer watches the dots to help her figure out how they move. She looks at how hard they push down when they walk and other things. She told us that it was the same type of technology used to make the movie "Avitar." That is so cool!!!!

Pinhole Cameras and moving pictures - Sept 7

This week at GEMS we made pinhole cameras and tricked our minds into thinking that we saw something that was not really there. As one girl commented, "so your telling me that our eyes can play tricks on us AND our mind also plays tricks on us?" Another asked if people like Einstein were also "tricked" like this. It was a lot of fun and a new student, "Ben" from Georgia Tech joined us for the day. We took two group photos with all of the Georgia Tech students. We cannot be serious all of the time!

If you are a Georgia Tech student and want to be involved in GEMS, please contact us.

If you are an Inman Middle School student and want to be involved in GEMS, come to the meetings on Tuesdays at 4:00pm in Ms. Price's room!

Women in Science: Sylvia Elfar, PhD

This week in GEMS, we constructed pinhole cameras to model how the human eye is able to see images. We also made optical illusion spinners to illustrate how our brain can sometimes be "tricked" because it can't work fast enough. What about if you have trouble seeing? How do doctors help people with vision impairments?

Anyone who has ever worn glasses or contacts can tell you that life is very difficult when you have trouble seeing. now imagine if you clinically blind. Dr. Sylvia Elfar is a researcher who is working on designing and developing retinal (in the eye) and cortical (in the brain) visual prosthetic devices to help people with severe vision loss regain some of their independence. She is conducting her research at the Ligon Research Center of Vision at Wayne State University in Detroit, MI. She went to college for Experimental Psychology at Berkeley where she learned about how the brain works to allow us to complete every day activities, including interpreting all the things we see.

Learn more about Dr. Sylvia Elfar, PhD

More information about the Kresge Eye Institute at Wayne State University Medical School

Learn more about how the eye works

"How Stuff Works" explain how corrective lenses (ie contacts and glasses) work

Women in Science: Christine Wall

This week, we dissected chicken wings to see how muscles are arranged to efficiently move the bones and tissues. We saw how the joints get larger or smaller when the muscles shorten, depending which side of the joint the muscle was on. We also saw how bone structure in the chicken wing was similar to the human arm, a property called homology. Did you know, though, that the similarities between any body part can give us information about how closely related some species are?

Dr. Christine Wall studies Evolutionary Morphology of the jaw muscles of primates at Duke University. This means that she looks at muscles, bones, and joints in the jaw and around the mouth of extinct monkey and apes to learn more about what kinds of food these animals likely ate and how one primate may be related to or evolved from another. Dr. Wall went to college at Stanford University in California, then earned advances Master's and Doctorate degrees at SUNY Stony Brook in New York. Now, she does research and teaches classes like Human Anatomy at Duke.

While most research in homology and Functional Morphology is done in primates in order to better understand our own hominid origins, you can study structural similarities in any body part and in any species.

To learn more about Dr. Wall's work, click here.

Learn more about Duke's Lemur Center, here.

Learn about Dr. Vanessa Wood, who lives and works primarily in Africa studying Bonobos, one of the most endangered and least understood great apes here.

Women in Science: Carolyn Krumrey

This week in GEMS, we learned about simple machines and how combining different simple machines allow us to construct more complex machines. Understanding simple machines and how they work are important for many careers, especially when we must predict how certain devices will behave in extreme or unpredictable environments.

Carolyn Krumrey is, quite literally, a rocket scientist! She works at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX as the Division Chief Engineer for the Space Shuttle in the Manufacturing, Materials, and Process Technology Division. In this job, Krumrey designs components of the space shuttle so they can survive in the harsh environment of space. She has worked very hard to accomplish her dream of working in science and technology. She received her Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin after switching from a major in Interior Design her freshman year. She went on earn her Master's in Environmental Management to improve her writing and communication skills so she is now able to manage the large number of people who work in her division.

In offering words of advice for young women hoping to enter STEM fields, Krumrey says:

"If you decide to choose a career in engineering, science or the technology fields, there will be so many opportunities available to you. If you are in a particular job and you don't enjoy it, don't hesitate to change jobs. I have not stayed in a job more than two years. I am constantly changing jobs to ensure that I am always learning new skills. This is one of the great things about engineering; there are so many jobs available to you that you can always do different things. Study hard in your math and science courses. There is a world of opportunities available just for you!"

Read more about Carolyn Krumrey and other female scientists on the Women of NASA website.

Click these links to learn more about careers in Mechanical Engineering and Aerospace Engineering

Catapults and Marshmallows!!!

Another great meeting and GEMS is growing! About 35 girls participated in the GEMS club today. Check out the great pictures of the catapults that we built. We launched marshmallows (BIG and small)! The record was 36 feet and we had one "failure to launch." Megan, a graduate student at Georgia Tech, helped us learn about simple machines. We had three Inman teachers, a Grady High Schooler, two professors from Georgia Tech and a Georgia Tech undergraduate taking part in the activity. We also learned from last week's survey that most of us like math more than we like science. We also found out that most of the GEMS girls want to participate in community service projects. So...... if you have an idea about what we should do, please add a comment or two. Next week we will learn about a "not so simple" machine .... a chicken wing. We will dissect the chicken wing and learn how the muscles and bones work together. Not to worry if dissection is not your "thing," there will be other things that you can do at the meeting on Tuesday!

If you like these pictures, check out the GEMS boards located at Inman Middle School to see even more pictures from Tuesday, August 24.

Dr. Realff

Woman in Science: Elaine Fuchs, PhD

This week in GEMS we tested make-up brushes to determine what type of brush is the best buy based on performance and cost. One of the ways that many of the GEMS girls tested the performance of the brushes was to see which brush type applied eye shadow to their hands the best. Did you know, though, that there is a lot more to make-up design than just picking pretty colors? In fact, cosmetic scientists must consider what type of skin make-up is being applied to so they can create make-up that is safe and non-toxic. This is a lot more difficult than it sounds because skin is actually a very complicated organ with special properties and behaviors.

Dr. Elaine Fuchs does research at the Rockerfeller University to better understand how the special “baby cells,” called stem cells decide what kind of cells to become, such as hair, fingernail, or epidermal (ie skin) cells. She hopes that by gaining a better understanding of how skin develops its unique properties, doctors will be able to understand how this process can go wrong, like when cancer cells begin growing out of control, and how to correct these errors.

You can learn more about Dr. Elaine Fuchs and her research on her website here

You can also learn about some of the requirements all make-up must meet before it can be sold at the FDA regulation website here

First GEMS meeting!

The first GEMS meeting was a great success. We had 34 GEMS girls, two teachers from Inman, two professors from Georgia Tech, two Georgia Tech students and even an exchange student from Germany at the meeting.

We learned about designing things and how to figure out the important properties so that we can make better (more quantitative) decisions about what product to buy. We looked at pencils and make up brushes. In some cases, our qualitative choice did not match the one that we choose using quantitative measures.

Enjoy these pictures and join us on Tuesday in Ms. Price's room!

Dr. Realff

GEMS Girls Survey

Hey Girls,
We want to know what types of activities that you want to do this year in GEMS. Here is a URL for a quick survey. Please get your parents' permission to do the survey and then give us your feedback! (You may have to copy and paste the link in a new window) See you on Tuesday!!!!

http://vovici.com/wsb.dll/s/17486g46192


Debbie and Dr. Realff

Information for Parents

Hey Parents, I am Debbie Ziskend and am an undergraduate student at Georgia Tech. It was great to see and meet everyone last Friday at the meet and greet! We are very excited for our first meeting of the year on Tuesday August 17, 2010. Well be meeting in Ms. Price’s room on the 7th grade hallway. Ms. Raines, Dr. Smith-Greene and Ms. Price will be the teachers involved in GEMS this year. They are the 7th grade science team!

We will be posting important information year round as well as updates on what we have been doing in GEMS. We love taking pictures, so add the blog to your favorites so you can look for pictures of your daughters throughout the year.

We can't wait to see everyone next week. If you have any further questions, you can always contact us at inmangems@gmail.com.

You are always welcome to join us at the GEMS meeting!

Thank you to the four parents who have volunteered to bring snacks for our first few GEMS meetings.

Debbie

Meet and Greet at Inman - Aug 6, 2010

It was great to see all of the girls from last year at the meet and greet at Inman on Friday. We saw a lot of new girls who are interested in joining us this year! Let your friends know that our first meeting will be on Tuesday, August 17! We will go camping and horse back riding this year and will go on a field-trip during school on January 6th. Here are some photos from the meet and greet.

Dr. Realff, Debbie, and Penelope have been busy putting the finishing touches on the GEMS bulletin board! (Debbie is the girl in the picture, shes an undergraduate student at Georgia Tech that's going to be helping out with GEMS this year) There are plenty of pictures from the past 2 years, so you should stop by and see if you recognize anyone. One of the boards is on the first floor on your way to the cafeteria, and the other board is in the 7th grade hallway.

For past GEMS members, we have created a mini GEMS Yearbook featuring our best activities. The little booklets are 20 pages long. Come find us to learn how to order one for yourself.

We want to hear from you!

In order to make GEMS even better this year, we want to make sure were listening to everyone. We have made 2 surveys regarding GEMS and its activities: one for the girls and one for the parents. The links are posted below, so please click on the appropriate link and take our surveys!

Parent Survey
http://vovici.com/wsb.dll/s/17486g4620a

Girls Survey
http://vovici.com/wsb.dll/s/17486g46192

Welcome to GEMS 2010!!

Thanks for visiting our site. We are very exciting about the start of the upcoming school year and another year of GEMS! We are anticipating exploring topics such as anatomy and prostheses, alternative fuel sources, cryptography, the science of fashion, and astrology. Our main calendar, however, will not be finalized until we receive input from the girls as we like to keep GEMS girl lead. This allows the girls to learn about topics that interest THEM!

The approach of girl lead will be applied to this website as well, so please continue to check back throughout the school year to see updates by GEMS girls themselves.