Brainstorms Science Packs Itself Up and Heads Back to School You can borrow a book from the library, rent paintings from some art galleries, and now, if you’re a high school physics teacher close to MHC, you can borrow a box full of lab equipment.
DeRunk has filled plastic tubs with all the stuff necessary to carry out two basic physics labs: the mechanics of physics, and electricity and magnetism. Handheld computer data collection systems, motion and force sensors, tracks for rolling the sensors, and pulleys and other bits and pieces of easy-to-operate equipment are included in the mechanics suitcase. It would cost about $1,000 if a teacher had to buy the lab kits. That’s far too expensive for science instructors at public schools, whose annual department budget typically isn’t much more. Christine DeRunk (right) and Reyna Juan ’11 with computer data collectors lent to area schools
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At the Renaissance School in Springfield, where the first suitcases have been sent,
Pau l S c h n a i t tac h e r
Christine DeRunk, the physics laboratory director at MHC, recently expanded upon the idea of a “science suitcase” developed by fellow MHC physicist Janice Hudgings. Thanks to a grant from the American Institute of Physics, she’s established a free lending library of equipment for area schools that offer introductory physics but don’t have the money to buy what’s needed to verify Newton’s laws or investigate velocity, magnetism, or force.