GRCC hosts STEM Girl Genius Conference

On November 1, Grand Rapids Community College hosted 100 sixth- to eighth-grade girls from all over Michigan to participate in an experiential Science+ Technology + Engineering + Math (STEM) Girl Genius Conference.

The daylong conference was designed to encourage young women to seek careers in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math. Dean Laurie Chesley began the event by welcoming the participants to Grand Rapids Community College and introducing Dr. Veronica Moorman, of Kettering University, who gave the opening address: “Enzymes: How Chemistry Runs at the Speed of Life.” Throughout the day, participants carried out hands-on engineering and science activities, which were led by GRCC Biology Professor Leigh Kleinert. The participants also had lunch with women who are engineering and science professionals at companies such as GE Aviation, Gentex Corporation and the Van Andel Institute.

Anesa Behrem, Amy Kudrna and Laurie Foster from GRCC also participated in the luncheon. Kate Kryger, Jan Colvin, Janis Qualls, Dan Groh, Leigh Kleinert, Laurie Foster, Amy Kudrna, Amy Kirkbride, Kristina Pacelli, Leah Engemann, Pam Scott, and Jennifer Batten worked with the community partners to prepare for the event. Twenty GRCC Academic Service Learning students volunteered and helped the participants with the activities. The STEM Girl Genius Conference is in its fourth year and is a collaborative effort between Fifth Third Bank, Kettering University, the Catholic Secondary School Foundation, and Grand Rapids Community College.

 

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100 Ways to Give: Experiments for Godwin Heights Middle School

The Physical Sciences Department participated in 100 Ways to Give by assembling and donating 100 prepackaged engineering experiments for Godwin Heights Middle School.

The students at Godwin Heights will be working on the engineering design process of asking, brainstorming, planning, creating and improving while they work on experiments titled “Funny Putty -Serious Stuff,” “the Radioactive Ping-Pong Ball Transfer Challenge,” and the “Cookie Mining Challenge.” Science teacher Dawn Soblesky worked with the Physical Sciences Department to select experiments that would work with the math and science curriculum at Godwin Heights and would be fun for the middle school students. Mrs. Sobleskey and several of her students came to GRCC on November 1 to participate in the STEM for Girls event and to pick up the supplies for the experiments.

Physical Sciences Faculty, Staff and Students Participate in National Chemistry Week Activities

The annual Chemistry in the Mall activity was held on Saturday, October 11th in Muskegon.  The event was sponsored by the West Michigan division of the American Chemical Society (WMACS).  The Physical Sciences Department hosted two activity tables that included making slime and silly putty, doing magic-marker chromatography and assembling fruit batteries.  Thirty five GRCC students, who are enrolled in courses taught by Jennifer Batten, Tom Neils and Bernard Liburd, showed off their knowledge of chemistry to hundreds of children and adults in the community and many earned Academic Service Learning credit.  Adjunct faculty members Jim Krikke and Duane VandenBrink demonstrated how much fun chemistry can be by putting on Chemistry Shows on the event main stage.  Bernard Liburd and Jennifer Batten coordinated the Physical Sciences Department role in the event. Thank you to Pam Scott and Leah Engemann for all of their work in readying the supplies and materials for the tables.

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Math, Science Advising Days to be held today, October 14

Science and Math Advising Days will be 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Oct. 13 and 14, 2014, on the first-floor Calkins Science Center.

GRCC faculty will be available to meet with you to answer questions about GRCC science and math coursework, options, and pathways. Transfer advisers from GVSU and MSU will also be on hand!

Science and Math Advising Days

Science and Math Advising Days will be 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Oct. 13 and 14, 2014, on the first-floor Calkins Science Center.

GRCC faculty will be available to meet with you to answer questions about GRCC science and math coursework, options, and pathways. Transfer advisers from GVSU and MSU will also be on hand!

GRCC In the News, 9-25-14

Former President Jimmy Carter On Gay Rights: Jesus Christ Never Discriminated Against Anyone

Sept. 24, 2014; huffingtonpost.com

A packed college auditorium roared with applause when former President Jimmy Carter took a stand for gay rights.

When asked about his views on human rights and the LGBT community, Carter schooled the crowd at Michigan’s Grand Rapids Community College with some of his Christian theology.

Seasoned chemist on the staff at Grayling High School

Sept. 24, 2014 Crawford County Avalanche

As a chemist who reached commercial success at the top of his field, Dr. Greg Schmidt could have punched his ticket to anywhere in the world to take a step up the career ladder, but there is no other place he’d rather be than in high school.

… Schmidt served as adjunct professor at Grand Rapids Community College, where he learned the gap between what students are taught in high school and what they are expected to know in college is huge for various reasons.

Five local galleries showcase ArtPrize entries

Sept. 24, 2014; therapidian.org

With over 174 venues participating in ArtPrize this year, five of them exist as exhibiting galleries year round within the ArtPrize boundaries.

… GRCC Collins Art Gallery (143 Bostwick N.E.) has been a venue since the first ArtPrize and is hosting seven ArtPrize entries this year encompassing mixed media pieces, video, surrealist and archival photography, paintings, ceramics and pottery.

School district surveying community about superintendent, district

Sept. 24, 2014; MLive

PLAINFIELD TOWNSHIP, MI – Northview Public Schools is surveying district residents on the performance of Superintendent Mike Paskewicz.

… The annual survey announced Tuesday, Sept. 23, will remain open for approximately three weeks. Results of the survey will be shared in December 2014. Paskewicz, hired in July 2009, is a candidate for the Grand Rapids Community College Board of Trustees but intends to remain superintendent if elected on Nov. 4.

Photos from forensic science camp

The Physical Sciences Department hosted two week-long summer camps that taught 32 West Michigan high school students the basics of forensic chemistry and how it is used to solve arsons.

The camps, which were, in part, sponsored by the National Science Foundation under TUES Grant number 1140509, allowed the students to use GRCC’s advanced instrumentation to carry out the analysis of different types of evidence and then use the evidence to solve a simulated arson. Along with using the college’s atomic absorption spectrophotometer to analyze soil samples and gel electrophoresis equipment to analyze DNA, the students used the gas chromatograph –mass spectrometer to analyze materials that could be used to accelerate a fire. In addition to the hands on experience, Deputy Dale Dekorte and his canine partner, Ritzey, from the Kent County Sheriff’s Department showed the students how canines are used to help investigators and scientists solve arsons.

A number of students, staff and faculty worked to make the camp a success, including Pam Scott,  Leah VanHartesveldt, Shannon Gamel, Nick Emery, Greg Schmidt, Annette Dobrzynski,  Julie Henderleiter (GVSU), Bernard Liburd, and Jennifer Batten.

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Geology students visit ancient seas

This April, students from Tari Mattox’s Historical Geology class traveled to visit two different seas. Being historical geology students, the seas they explored existed a million years ago. Rocks exposed in Southern Indiana record a time when the North American Continent was repeatedly covered by shallow inland seas. On the geology field trip to this area, students described and collected fossilized remains of marine organisms that lived in these seas. It was a wonderful opportunity for GRCC students to study the fossil record and to see rocks “in their native habitat!”

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Know a high school student interested in Chemistry?

The Physical Sciences Department, in collaboration with the National Science Foundation,  is offering two free Forensic Chemistry Camps during the summer of 2014.
The goal of the camps is to provide Grand Rapids area high school students who have an interest in science with the opportunity to use analytical instrumentation in an inquiry based forensic chemistry experience. As part of the camp, students will use gel electrophoresis, high-performance liquid chromatography, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, and other methods of analysis to find the perpetrator of a simulated arson crime.
The camps will be held in the Science Center July 7th-11th and July 14th-18th from 9:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. (1:00 p.m. on Fridays). Early applications are encouraged. Enrollment is limited to 18 students per camp and last year they were over capacity. Apply here!

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Raider Salute for physics professor Bob Cebelak

Thanks to Bob Cebelak for interviewing Dr. Ronald Mallett from the University of Connecticut. Dr. Mallett spoke February 26, 2014, to a group of students, faculty and visitors on the topic of  time travel. Prior to the talk, Bob sat down with Dr. Mallet to discuss various concepts in physics and the possibility of time travel. Bob represented GRCC and the Physical Science Department well! Great work!

 

GRCC In the News, 2-27-14

GRCC job fair hosting nearly 60 companies looking for 600 employees

Feb. 26, 2014; MLive

Employers will be trying to fill at least 600 job openings during Grand Rapids Community College’s spring job fair on March 11.

Time Traveler

Feb. 26, 2014; WZZM

Professor Ronald Mallett Wants to Build a Time Machine in this Century … and He’s Not Kidding.

… You can see him Wednesday, February 26, 2014 at the GRCC Applied Technology Center 1st Floor at 7pm. This is free and open to the public. Contact GRCC at 616-234-3390 for more information.

Showgirls Galleria adult night club is on the market for $6 million

Feb. 26, 2014; MLive

GRAND RAPIDS, MI — Adult night club operator Mark London said he’s ready to cash in on downtown’s resurgent real estate market and sell Showgirls Galleria, his adult entertainment complex at 234 Market Avenue SW.

… “Sensations was a true gold mine in the topless days,” said London, a former Detroit police officer and instructor at Grand Rapids Community College. “Those days are over for everybody. The adult entertainment changed just overnight.”

Win tickets: LaughFest offers family-friendly funny business in 2014 lineup

Feb. 26, 2014; MLive

GRAND RAPIDS, MI — LaughFest brings more than entertainment for adults. The annual Gilda’s Club of Grand Rapids fundraiser includes family-friendly events as well. From toddler to teenager, LaughFest helps kids enjoy comedy and even take the stage.

… LaughFest’s Seriously Funny Family Adventure Challenge invites teams of two or four to start at GRCC’s Ford Fieldhouse, 111 Lyon St. NE, and race across downtown Grand Rapids stopping for about a dozen wacky and fun timed challenges that require fast thinking, fast action and a little bit of daring.

KVCC women’s basketball defeats GRCC, claims share of MCCAA Western Conference crown

Feb. 27, 2014; MLive

Defense wins, particularly when the offense is not clicking on all cylinders.

Physics professor to give lecture today

GRCC’s Diversity Learning Center and the physical science and math departments are teaming up to present a lecture by Ronald L. Mallett, a physics professor at the University of Connecticut. At 7 p.m. February 26, he will talk lecture on “Time Traveler: A Scientist’s Personal Mission to Make Time Travel a Reality.”

Physics professor to speak at GRCC on February 26

GRCC’s Diversity Learning Center and the physical science and math departments are teaming up to present a lecture by Ronald L. Mallett, a physics professor at the University of Connecticut. At 7 p.m. February 26, he will talk lecture on “Time Traveler: A Scientist’s Personal Mission to Make Time Travel a Reality.”

GRCC to host lecture by physics professor

GRCC’s Diversity Learning Center and the physical science and math departments are teaming up to present a lecture by Ronald L. Mallett, a physics professor at the University of Connecticut. At 7 p.m. February 26, he will lecture on “Time Traveler: A Scientist’s Personal Mission to Make Time Travel a Reality.”

GRCC to host Ronald L. Mallett

GRCC’s Diversity Learning Center and the physical science and math departments are teaming up to present a lecture by Ronald L. Mallett, a physics professor at the University of Connecticut. At 7 p.m. February 26, he will talk lecture on “Time Traveler: A Scientist’s Personal Mission to Make Time Travel a Reality.”