Teaching High School Chemistry
  • Introduction
  • Book
  • Blog
  • Topic List
  • Teaching Resources
  • Biography
  • Contact

12-year old invents lead detector

3/9/2018

0 Comments

 
The book Chemistry on a Budget contains inexpensive chemistry labs that are useful with easy to obtain materials.
 
There are two versions of each lab, one with a ten-question conclusion and one with directions for a full lab report.  This way the teacher has the option!  Each lab is two pages to allow for one two-sided handout. 
 
A 5-Star Customer Review of Chemistry on a Budget at amazon.com states:
“[S]traight forward, to the point, using household chemicals…this is the lab book for you. 
I teach high school chemistry and this is exactly what [I] was looking for. Labs included simple household chemicals that could be easily found. Nice format, easy to follow along procedures, and touches on every topic of our chemistry curriculum.”
 
You can buy this lab book for $23 at amazon.com or lulu.com. It will take 1-2 weeks to get to you -- Order Now.  It’s a great resource!
 
http://www.amazon.com/Chemistry-Budget-Marjorie-R-Heesemann/dp/0578129159/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1389410170&sr=1-1&keywords=chemistry+on+a+budget

http://www.lulu.com/shop/marjorie-r-heesemann/chemistry-on-a-budget/paperback/product-21217600.html
 
*Some of you have already purchased my lab book – be sure to check out Page 141 !
 
“The people of Flint, Michigan are still suffering through the aftermath of the ongoing water crisis that left the city without clean drinking water for over a year and one young scholar is looking to help out in a big way.

Colorado middle school student Gitanjali Rao is just 12-years-old, but she's already on track to make a major contribution to science with the invention of her new lead detector. The invention won Gitanjali $25,000 and the title of America's Top Young Scientist in the 2017 Young Scientist Challenge. The pre-teen shared how her concern for the residents of Flint sparked her idea for developing the lead detector.”
https://www.essence.com/news/12-year-old-invents-lead-detector-flint-water-crisis
 
" 'Lead is mostly harmful to younger children, about my age -- giving them growth defects and potententially damaging their brain,' Gitanjali said. 

Inspired by the Flint water crisis, Gitanjali Rao invented a lead detector.

Gitanjali, a student at STEM School Highlands Ranch, said that despite living in thousands of miles away from Flint, 'that's not something I want to go through, what the Flint residents went through ... our water quality's just as important as doctor's appointments or dentist's appointments.'… With Gitanjali's device, instead of taking days to send water samples to a lab, her device detects lead in seconds using carbon molecules -- and a mobile app.”
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/gitanjali-rao-12-year-old-girl-troubled-by-flint-water-crisis-invents-lead-detector/
 
“Rao’s Tethys is named after the Greek Titan Goddess of Fresh Water. It uses carbon nanotubes, tiny cylindrical carbon molecules that are very thin and strong and which are used in many applications in nanotechnology, optics, electronics and other fields. Rao first discovered them when she learned that MIT uses them for hazardous gas detection. She tells CNN that if lead is present in water, “special atoms” in Tethys’ nanotube sensor react with the lead, slowing the flow of water through the device. The resistance is then measured, sent over Bluetooth to a smartphone app, and presented in a ‘user-friendly scale.’”
https://www.labroots.com/trending/technology/7695/twelve-year-old-invents-quick-lead-detector-water
“In 2014, drinking water for residents of Flint, Michigan began to be sourced from the Flint River. Over the next few years, bacteria, various other contaminants and dangerous levels of lead were detected in residents’ drinking water. About 100,000 people drank unsafe water. This was the public health crisis that inspired Rao to develop a cheap and easy-to-use lead detector.
Lead is a metal that is toxic to humans. It can damage the heart, nervous system and kidneys and is especially harmful to children, for whom it can cause developmental delays. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sets the safe level of consumption at zero, but because lead is present in so many old pipes in the U.S., its admissible level is 15 parts per billion (ppb).
Citizens, the local and state government, EPA and civil rights groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) become involved in a drawn-out and contentious process of securing safe water for Flint that involved numerous rounds of water testing, votes and lawsuits. In January 2016, the Michigan National Guard was called on to distribute bottled water to residents. Multiple government officials have since been charged with crimes, including manslaughter for at least 12 deaths during the crisis from Legionnaires,' a respiratory bacterial infection that typically spreads through mist from a water source. In March 2017, the EPA announced a $100 million award to Flint for upgrades to its drinking water infrastructure.”
 
Past blog posts about Flint, Michigan’s water crisis include:
 
10/08/2015      Current Event - Contaminated Drinking
                                                    Water​
12/17/2015      Current Event -- Lead Poisoning
12/23/2016​      Criminal Charges in Flint, Michigan
11/10/2017      Video -- From Flint:
                                        Voices of a Poisoned City
 
*This Blog contains several entries that would be helpful to your chemistry classroom.  Check out the Topic List to help you to find past Blog entries.
 
Also, Write To Me about your successes, challenges, or questions in the Chemistry Classroom.
 
Remember, buying a copy of the lab book Chemistry on a Budget can be very useful to your Chemistry classroom with labs and class article ideas.

Have a great weekend!

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Marjorie R. Heesemann is a chemistry teacher with 15 years of experience who is now working to develop resources for the Chemistry classroom.

    Archives

    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.