Understanding the Deep Earth

Online Workshop

This post was edited by Glenn Richard on Feb, 2010
Group 1 Members

Pam Burnley http://serc.carleton.edu/dev/NAGTWorkshops/deepearth/activities/40425.html
Ann Courtier http://serc.carleton.edu/dev/NAGTWorkshops/deepearth/activities/40430.html
Abby Kavner http://serc.carleton.edu/dev/NAGTWorkshops/deepearth/activities/40833.html
Kanani Lee
Wendy Mao http://serc.carleton.edu/dev/NAGTWorkshops/deepearth/activities/40592.html
Wendy Panero
Glenn Richard http://serc.carleton.edu/dev/NAGTWorkshops/deepearth/activities/40414.html and http://serc.carleton.edu/dev/NAGTWorkshops/deepearth/activities/40826.html
Laura Wetzel

Workshop Home Page: http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/deepearth10/index.html
Group 1 Workspace: http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/deepearth10/part_workspace/group_1_fri...
Activities in Progress: http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/deepearth10/devactivities.html

*** A suggestion for getting started -> Let's each list a title or short description for a project that we are thinking of doing. ***

*** Is anyone interested in a conference call? I can do evenings on the weekend, Monday morning, or any time on Tuesday. ***
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Note from Dave Mogk ...

Hi Glenn—think of the workspace as your department commons…a place where folks can drop in, have a cup of coffee, exchange ideas, scribble on the white board.

Everyone should be working pretty much on their own activity. However, that’s not to say that two or a few folks might also want to pool resources to do something cool. But, for now, group telecons, or independent postings on the workspace are meant to help generate ideas, get feedback, etc.

Next week, on Wednesday the group will officially convene in this virtual conference room, and we will do a “round robin” review of the new activities produced by the other folks in the group. So, it’s probably a good idea to get used to coming to the workroom once in awhile to see what’s new, what folks are doing, etc.

Please let Mike and I know if you’ve convened a time for a group call-in. We;’ll try to join you.
Thanks for your help today and throughout the workshop,
Have a great weekend,
dave

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Note, below, that our group has a Diamond Anvil Cell as a mascot. ;)

This post was edited by Glenn Richard on Feb, 2010
Name of activity: Bragg's Law

URL: http://serc.carleton.edu/dev/NAGTWorkshops/deepearth/activities/40414.html

A set of visuals and activities for facilitating understanding of beamlines and the high pressure research that is performed there. The National Synchrotron Light Source at Brookhaven National Laboratory is used as a model.

Long term plan -> Students learn about:

1) Where Brookhaven National Laboratory is located (via Google Earth) and what it is.
2) Where the National Synchrotron Light Source is located (via Google Earth).
3) What the National Synchrotron Light Source is.
4) What a beamline is.
5) What is the electromagnetic spectrum?
6) What are X-rays?
7) D-spacings in crystal lattices.
8) How a diamond anvil cell and other high pressure devices function.
9) Bragg's Law and X-ray diffraction.
10) How do we measure pressure?
11) What are phase changes and how do they relate to pressure and temperature?
12) What is a phase diagram?

Short term plan for this workshop -> Module on Bragg's Law

Using Discontinuities (Phase Transitions) to Estimate Mantle Temperature and Composition. I have a version of this that I used in a class last year, but would really like to improve upon it - especially the second part with the phase diagrams and interpretation. I could use some help in how to teach students how to read the diagrams, how to tell if things are going well, etc. The materials I have are on the "Activities in Progress" page for now.

Multi-Anvil Apparatus Tutorial

Students would learn about:
1) What a multi-anvil apparatus is
2) The different kinds of multi-anvils (DIA, 6/8, D-DIA)
3) What a multi-anvil is used for
4) How the they work and how they are used (in more detail)
5) What are the P, T limits of this technology
6) Uncertainty associated with mult-anvil experiments
7) Technological challenges and the cutting edge

My challenge is to figure out something that the students can be engaged in so that its not just a text.

Points 3 and 4 of Glenn: I show pictures of APS/NSLS, then give some scale. Circumference, etc. I then show a picture of one of APS's hot pink tricycles for getting around to emphasize the scale.

I introduce the concept of pressure and the scale of the units with the stiletto effect.

I can only seem to be able to attach one file per post.

Thanks, Wendy, for the new cutting edge fashion statement in shoes. ;)
It's an entertaining method of presenting the pressure equation.

The need for a bicycle is a good way of indicating how large the facility is.

Another means of illustrating scale would be to obtain floor plans of facilities and to overlay them on Google Earth. Then the students could use the Google Earth ruler tool to measure the diameter and circumferences of the rings. The overlays could also offer an opportunity to explore the diversity of projects that use these facilities. I'll volunteer to create the overlays if we can collect the floor plans for the facilities.

Attached is a KMZ overlay of the NSLS floor plan. It should open in Google Earth if you have it.

I use the following slide with intro students to explain how we generate pressure. I ask them how hard they would have to push to cut through an apple with the side of their hand, then I ask them how hard they have to push to make a knife cut through the apple.

I like high heels too. I used to bring a pair to class and ask the students if they would prefer to be stepped on with my high heel or my bare feet.

Regarding a demo for #7 from Glen's list. I introduce Bragg's Law with a few slides and then use some diffraction gratings that are basically print outs of the square and hexagonal gratings from Stephen J. Van Hook, Bowling Green State University on transparencies. When you shine a laser pointer on them, they diffract the light. While this is not the same as x-ray diffraction from a crystal, there are some useful analogies:
1) We have monochromatic light with diffracts off an object and reveals the underlying geometry of the object.
2) Similar to Bragg's law, in this case Lambda is proportional to spacing between the spots on the grating and sine(theta).

You can use a different wavelength laser pointers (532 green one and 670 red one) to show that for the same grating the longer wavelength spread the diffraction pattern out more. I ask the class to guess what will happen knowing Bragg's Law. When you use the gratings with higher density of spots (i.e. smaller spacing) that leads to larger sine(theta) and spreading of the spots. Finally you can try the square vs the hexagonal grating to see the different symmetry of the diffracted pattern.

Here's the hexagonal grating

And finally a rectangular grating. I usually just show the hexagonal and square ones.

I will be available for two conference phone calls tomorrow (Monday). I can participate for up to an hour for each call, and you may join us for either or both, preferably early on because the phone calls may not continue for an entire hour. Dave and Mike will try to participate as well. You may also decide to make phone calls at other times in smaller groups, as necessary. At the beginning of each of the two scheduled calls listed below, I will have my email account in view so that you can let me know if you have difficulty making the connection. If possible, please let me know in advance whether, and when, you plan to join us.

Conference call 1: 12:00 Eastern, 11:00 Central, 10:00 Mountain, 9:00 Pacific
Conference call 2: 5:30 Eastern, 4:30 Central, 3:30 Mountain, 2:30 Pacific
Group Members: Glenn Richard, Pam Burnley, Kanani Lee, Wendy Panero, Laura Wetzel, Ann Courtier, Abby Kavner, Wendy Mao

Thanks for the reminder of that exercise, Wendy. I wrote a lab set up to do that experiment this fall. I should submit it to the serc.

Hi FOlks, In our module on Geochemical Analysis and Instrumentation, we have a page written by Darrell Henry on Bragg's Law that you may want to link to: http://serc.carleton.edu/research_education/geochemsheets/BraggsLaw.html
This is then linked to pages that show how Bragg's Law is used in X-ray diffraction, and also in WDS spectrometers. There are also numerous pages on e.g. powder XRD, etc.

Kanani, Glenn posted some nice links to the Broohaven light Source that you may want to link to as you develop the module on synchrotron methods.

Hi Folks,

I'm attaching the XRD exercise I wrote up quickly last fall for mineralogy. The XRD went belly up the week before we were scheduled to do the lab, so I scrambled and came up with the mesh idea to illustrate the XRD data without actual data. Wendy Mao's mention of it made me remember it -- it was very successful. I had used two square wire meshes, and took a slightly different approach to what Wendy described above.

Suggestions? Any ideas on how to work in the deep Earth component to this? The guts of the diffraction demo start at the top of the second page.

On the following page is a "Wave Interference Applet" that you are welcome to use if you are developing an activity involving electromagnetic radiation. Let me know if you need help with installing applets on a page.

http://serc.carleton.edu/dev/NAGTWorkshops/deepearth/activities/wave_interfer...

This post was edited by Glenn Richard on Feb, 2010
I have listed the URLs for the activities that I could find for our group next to the names of the people who submitted them.

Pam Burnley http://serc.carleton.edu/dev/NAGTWorkshops/deepearth/activities/40425.html
Ann Courtier http://serc.carleton.edu/dev/NAGTWorkshops/deepearth/activities/40430.html
Abby Kavner http://serc.carleton.edu/dev/NAGTWorkshops/deepearth/activities/40833.html
Kanani Lee
Wendy Mao http://serc.carleton.edu/dev/NAGTWorkshops/deepearth/activities/40592.html
Wendy Panero
Glenn Richard http://serc.carleton.edu/dev/NAGTWorkshops/deepearth/activities/40414.html and http://serc.carleton.edu/dev/NAGTWorkshops/deepearth/activities/40826.html
Laura Wetzel

There are still a few missing

I'll call in to our group's conference line at 12:00 noon Central Time today (Thursday), in case anyone would like to have a discussion about our projects. If I find myself alone on the line, I'll wait about 10 minutes before hanging up. We also have email, this thread, our group workspace, and the comments link at the bottom of each activity as means of communication.

haha, good one dude