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Nerinx Hall

Nerinx Science Department

  

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Webpages of Science Teachers

  
  
BIOLOGY with Mrs. Reitinger
  
Mr. Weinkauff
  
PHYSICS with Sr. Eileen and Ms. Sutfin
  
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Nerinx Hall Science Projects

        
  
  

Envirothon 2008

        
   Two teams of students took part in the St. Louis Regional Envirothon at August A. Busch Conservation Area on April 3, 2008. This is a competition-style event sponsored by the Missouri Department of Conservation and the Missouri Soils and Water Conservation District. The 1-day outdoor event tests student's knowledge in 5 areas: forestry, aquatics, wildlife, soils, and current issues. Within each area students were required to answer questions such as identify fish or trees within a specific habitat, to assess soil characteristics or to solve environmental poblems such as habitat resotration, pollution recovery, and recreational impacts.
        
        
  
        
  

Science Fair 2008
Feb. 20 and 21

        
   Ten first place winners were invited to submit their projects to the St. Louis Regional Science Fair at Queeny Park. Four projects were actually entered and all four were recognized. Congratulations to Lisa Godfrey and Mary Grace Bruntrager for their first place. Their project was on how well the various over-the-counter- painkillers dissovled in a simulated stomach environment. Their project, entitled "Pain, Pain, Go Away", was recognized with a special award from the St. Louis Metro Medical Society. Mehreen Butt's "Straight from the Source" project won first place. This project that traced water quality recived a special award from the American ASsociation of University Women.
"The Effect of Hot Sauce on Bacterial Growth" won first place for Kelsey Zykan and Ashley Witte. "Don't Judge A Ball By Its Cover" was a project about golf balls that won third place for Christine Benkendorf.
        
  
        
        
        
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Pfizer Donations Enhance Biology Study

        
        
  
        
  
        
        
  
        
  

Physics Film Is A Winner

        
   In the Spring of 2005 freshmen using their laptops made videos to explain any physics concept they had learned during their year of Conceptual Physics. Miss Julie Sutfin, Nerinx Hall's Physics teacher, entered four very good videos into the American Association of Physics Teachers national student video contest. The 2005 winners included Nerinx's own Margaret Leohnig and Carriet Mitchell taking first place with their entry entitle Physics--It's Magic!
        
        
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Lemelson - M.I.T. InvenTeams Grant Won By Nerinx Seniors

        
   Ten students voluntarily organized the team in the Spring 2005 and decided what they thought needed to be invented. They chose to invent a portable water carrier / purifier to ease the burden on women in Third World countries. With the support of science teachers, engineers, and other members of the Nerinx community the girls built a model of their invention. Only 17 other teams from across the nation were awarded such a grant. The prototype of the Nerinx design travelled along with a service group of Nerinx girls who visited Mexico in the Spring 2006. Their feedback on the utility of the device enabled the ten seniors to use the grant money to further develop the invention, which they then displayed at M.I.T. in the summer of 2006.
The originators of the project graduated, but other Nerinx students have continued to come forward in the 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 school years to continue developing this much-needed invention.
        
        
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Nobel Prize Winner Visits Nerinx

        
   On the afternoon of April 22, 2004, Dr. William S. Knowles visited Nerinx to speak with Mr. David Weinkauff's two Honors chemistry classes. Dr. Knowles was one of the recipients of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. As they shared with the students, Mr. Weinkauff has known Dr. Knowles since 1970 (he was Mr. Weinkauff's first boss at Monsanto ) and Mr. Weinkauff was part of the team at Monsanto that worked on the "catalytic asymmetric hydrogenation" process for which Dr. Knowles won the Nobel Prize. Mr. Weinkauff was also a co-author with Dr. Knowles on several papers and articles about the process, in addition to other papers and patents for work that Mr. Winkauff did himself. Prior to Dr. Knowles' arrival Mr. Weinkauff gave the students copies of a couple of the articles that they had authored on the Prize winning process.
Dr. Knowles shared with the students some of the history of Alfred Nobel and the Nobel Prizes, as well as the stories of how he first learned of getting the prize and of the actual ceremonies in Sweden and Norway, and some of the history of his prize-winning discovery -- including the fact that there were a number of discoveries by a number of chemists that all contributed to making Dr. Knowles' work successful. In response to questions from the students, he shared some of his thoughts about how scientific discoveries come about, as well as some stories about famous chemists and other scientists in general
This was a wonderful opportunity for the Nerinx girls to meet with someone who has been able to use his gifts to achieve something truly worthwhile and has been recognized around the world for it.
        
  
        
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