Breathing Room in Las Cruces

From Las Cruces, NM, at the nexus of Mexico, Texas and New Mexico (Click to enlarge image).

This past weekend provided a chance to catch my breath and reverse the (figurative) hypoxia I've been experiencing over the course of the first week of the Project iLASER journey.  I was able to do laundry, clean some conducting glass electrodes used to build dye-sensitized solar cells with the kiddos, make some repairs to some of the materials that got banged around on some of the back roads of Arizona and get organized for the four events this week (two here in Las Cruces and two in El Paso, TX).  Obviously I'm also now getting a chance to churn out a few paragraphs to give accounts of the events in Yuma, AZ and Nogales, AZ and some general glimpses into life on the road with Project iLASER.

Assorted images from the road

The desk of a Holiday Inn Express hotel room suffices as a laboratory bench.

A sunny window sill also works well to test a setup.

Note the different volumes of gases in the syringes.  Chemistry quiz question: Based solely on comparing the two volumes, which syringe contains hydrogen gas?

Fun times at the Carpe Diem Academy in Yuma, AZ - Monday September 19, 2011

The good folks a the Carpe Diem Academy were very enthusiastic about the Project iLASER activities.  Many thanks to Principal Sciarretta and all the teachers and staff for accommodating us so very well!  The students were very attentive and had a great deal of interest in the prospect of powering the planet with sunlight.  They asked a lot of great questions, gave wonderful answers when posed with questions and wanted to know why we aren't already using sunlight in greater abundance to supply our energy needs.  In addition to the selection of photos from Yuma below, there are more in an online album HERE.

Yep, ol' Honest Abe there on the wall would be very proud of these solar scientists in Yuma!

Oh yeah...these guys were surely fired up!

 

Hey!  Look what we built! Let's go OUTside and test it.

Success!  That solar cell is converting sunlight into electricity.

A great event at the Boys & Girls Club of Santa Cruz County

Nogales, AZ - Thursday September 22, 2011

Nogales, AZ is a very quaint town right on the border.  Scenes of "the fence" are stark and somber.  I'm really doing my best to keep this blog apolitical and won't offer commentary about my feelings about "the fence".  I'll let the photos speak for me.  Hopefully you can hear the message...

The fence is an obvious feature in Nogales, following the curves of the hillsides in this photo.

Nogales, AZ (~21,000 pop. - 2010 census) adjoins Nogales, Sonora, Mexico (~212,000 pop. - 2010 census).

This is worth at least 1,000 words...

Thursday the 22nd of September was an awesome day.  I was very impressed with the crew at the Boys & Girls Club of Santa Cruz County in Nogales, AZ.  Vicki Barden, Roger Remlinger, J.P. Gonzalez and all the staff and volunteers at the Club do a great job providing the children with an excellent environment to learn and grow.  

The entrance to the Boys & Girls Club of Santa Cruz County.

  

The banner informs Club members and their parents/guardians of the day's event.

The Club has a group of high school students known as Very Important Peers (VIPs) who were awesome assistants during the Project iLASER event.  The photos below are a selection from a larger number found in the album HERE.

Club staff and VIPs (in red vests) helped set up and carry out the Project iLASER event.

That's Andrea (left) and Victoria (right) having a great time!  Children are naturals when it comes to getting their hands on cool devices and learning to use them. Who thought learning to use a multimeter could be so fun?  Victoria already sees herself becoming a prosecutor.  With her natural talent and high curiosity, in addition to the law, I have a feeling she also has some advanced science in her future too --- perhaps a patent attorney? :)

What's the voltage?  More importantly: When do we dig into those blackberries?

Now THAT is a group eager to build dye-sensitized solar cells!

They successfully coverted Nogales sunlight into electricty!

Staff member J.P. Gonzalez and these two young ladies stayed overtime and built more cells using indoor lighting.  The one on the right is Victoria from above.  She simply couldn't get enough of the hands-on science explorations!

Illuminating the solar cell with the small flashlight more than doubled the voltage output.

As is very easily seen from the photos above, there was no shortage of enthusiasm for getting their hands on the solar activities.  Some stayed until after the sun was too low in the sky and used indoor lighting with great success.  Many lessons were learned and seeds were planted into the imaginations of the group in Nogales.  Thanks to all of them for showing me a great time!

News from Nogales

Here's the location from where I'm currently writing (Click to enlarge image).

It never ceases to amaze me how rapidly time passes and how it seems to accelerate incessantly.  Has it really been nearly four months since that first post on this blog?  Yikes!  This summer has been a non-stop, fast-forward adventure!  I'm sitting in the Holiday Inn Express in beautiful Nogales, AZ, just about 3 or 4 km north of the U.S.-Mexico border, getting ready for an event in a few hours at the Boys & Girls Club of Santa Cruz County --- the 5th Project iLASER event --- and I'm just now able to catch my breath and update this blog.

The summer was filled with travel to multiple conferences and conducting workshops.  June was consumed with travel to Washington, D.C. for an NSF Broadening Impact Conference and preparations for the two workshops in back-to-back weeks in July: a workshop on Materials Science and Nanotechnology held at Southwestern College (SWC) and a workshop in Reno, NV on NSF proposal preparation for two-year college STEM educators.

August and September have been a blur of travel to San Juan, Puerto Rico for the IUPAC World Chemistry Congress, the ACS National Meeting in Denver and to amazing Querétaro, Mexico for the annual Congress of the Chemical Society of Mexico (La Sociedad Química de México). 

Three days after returning from San Juan, on August 11, a very successful kick-off event for Project iLASER was held at the Boys & Girls Club of Chula Vista, CA.   Ms. Diane Taylor and all the staff at the club were very supportive and helpful, and the children at the club (some of whom will undoubtedly become future solar scientists and engineers!) were wonderfully enthusiastic about the hands-on fun and made the start to Project iLASER fantastic.

Here's a glimpse of some solar fun in the warm Chula Vista sun!

A huge amount of gratitude is also expressed to the project volunteers who came and rolled up their sleeves to pitch in and to Congressman Bob Filner, who also participated in the science fun that day.  Many, many thanks to Carolyn Patterson from the Caltech CCI Solar for driving down from Pasadena to volunteer at the event and for also taking some really great PHOTOS of the activities.

Project iLASER events were held at the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Imperial Valley in Brawley, CA and El Centro, CA on August 17 and 18, respectively.  Photos from those events can be found by clicking the following links for Brawley and El Centro.  The children and staff at the clubs were a lot of fun and exceedingly good troopers to endure the August temperatures in the Imperial Valley in the neighborhood of 115 deg. F. (46 deg. C).  Of course we limited the time spent outdoors to short periods, but the "heat" didn't detract from the experience with the "cool" solar science activities!

The local newspaper, the Imperial Valley Press, visited the event in El Centro and published an ARTICLE, which contains some wonderful comments by children, regarding their enjoyment of the hands-on science adventures.  I love it!!  Engaging young minds, creativity and imagination in scientific endeavors, particularly those related to using sunlight to power the planet, is what Project iLASER is ALL about, folks!!  The Chicago Tribune also picked up the same ARTICLE. 

My head is still spinning from the events of the past week.  I returned from Querétaro 7 days ago, on the eventing of Thursday September 15.  Friday I picked up the U-Haul cargo van, spent much of Saturday and part of Sunday loading and securing the materials and supplies to be used and distributed to the various institutions from one end of the border to the other and left Sunday afternoon for Yuma, AZ.

Monday a Project iLASER event was held at the Carpe Diem Academy in Yuma, and Tuesday I spent a good portion of the morning working in a chemistry lab at Arizona Western College to prepare more electrodes for the dye-sensitized solar cells for the children to construct and test.  Thanks to my friend and Project iLASER partner, Professor Scott Donnelly for allowing me access to the lab.  Tuesday afternoon/evening I made the trek from Yuma to Nogales, and yesterday I visited the Boys & Girls Club to discuss the plans and logistics for today's event.  This project is providing me with a life in perpetual motion, and I have a post-it note on the van's dashboard reminding me to breathe! :)

There's the van with the SWC Chemistry building in the background.

And the flip side of the van, of course promoting IYC 2011!

Speaking of the U-Haul van, I want to extend my gratitude to Ms. Melina López, former SWC student and current U-Haul guru, who helped me greatly with the arrangements to acquire the van.  I am also grateful for the generous rate the U-Haul company provided me, in support of Project iLASER.

Well, I'm running out of time for today's entry.  I still need to work on some preparations for today's event and check out of the hotel.  Soon I'll be surrounded by the children and staff at the Boys & Girls Club here in Nogales, watching them smile and be amazed by the process of using sunlight to provide clean, sustainable energy to power the planet.  Could I be more blessed than to have such a calling and an opportunity to carry out this project?  I don't think so... :)

This weekend I'll regroup (laundry, supplies and blogging) in Las Cruces, NM and will give accounts of the events in Yuma and Nogales.  Until then, stay tuned...

Project iLASER is Recommended for Funding!

The sun is shining and exciting times lie ahead!  Official notification has recently come from Dr. Kathy Covert, Program Director in the National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Chemistry, that Project iLASER has been recommended for funding.

Project iLASER (investigations with Light And Sustainable Energy Resources) was conceived as a means to celebrate the International Year of Chemistry 2011 (IYC), as proclaimed by the 63rd General Assembly of the United Nations in 2008.  NSF's Division of Chemistry and Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings (DRL) have provided a mechanism of support for projects to celebrate IYC. 


In brief summary, Project iLASER will be carried out along the entire length of the US-Mexico international border and will provide elementary school children (primarily ages 10-12 years old) with opportunities to engage in hands-on activities with sustainable energy devices and materials (e.g., silicon-based photovoltaic panels, dye-sensitized solar cells and hydrogen fuel cells).  Event venues include Boys & Girls Clubs, after-school programs in elementary schools and museums.

The project will commence at the Pacific Ocean terminus of the US-Mexico border, in Chula Vista, CA and will span the border across to Harlingen, TX at the Gulf of Mexico.  Planned stops between the two end points include: El Centro, CA; Yuma, AZ; Nogales, AZ; Las Cruces, NM; El Paso, TX; McAllen, TX.

The cities along the Project iLASER route: (A) Chula Vista, CA; (B) El Centro, CA; (C) Yuma, AZ; (D) Nogales, AZ; (E) Las Cruces, NM; (F) El Paso, TX; (G) McAllen, TX; (H) Harlingen, TX

The project will also communicate research efforts on the part of scientists from the Powering the Planet Center for Chemical Innovation (CCI Solar), also supported by the NSF at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), one of the Project iLASER partners.  The essence of the work undertaken through CCI Solar is to discover materials and develop devices to reduce the expense of producing solar fuel (e.g, hydrogen produced by the electrolysis of water), thereby making it possible to power the planet with clean, sustainable energy sources at a cost competitive with that of petroleum and other fossil fuels. 

This is a very happy first blog post for me, and I couldn't be more excited about the upcoming adventures in spreading the good news of using the energy from the sun to power our planet.  Stay tuned for more...