New England Association of
Chemistry Teachers
Gustaf H. Carlson School of Chemistry and
Biochemistry
Clark University, 950 Main St., Worcester, MA
Agenda
9:00 am
Registration, Coffee and Refreshments – sponsored by Clark University Admissions
9:30 am
Prof. David Thurlow: Exploring proteins and DNA at the National Center for
Biotechnology Information (NCBI)
In the past decade, there has been an explosion in our understanding of proteins and DNA,
essential biomolecules found in all living systems. Sequences and three dimensional
structures are available free of charge at the NCBI website. We will explore genes,
chromosomes, introns, exons, sequence alignments, phylogenetic trees, DNA helices,
ribozymes, riboswitches, protein-ligand binding sites, enzyme active sites, and much, much
more.
David Thurlow is Director of Clark University’s Medical Careers Advising Program, and a faculty
member of the Carlson School of Chemistry and Biochemistry. He teaches
courses in biochemistry and molecular biology.
10:30 am
Prof. Mark Turnbull: Demonstrating equilibrium with Co(II) salts and other demos
The equilibrium between the [Co(H2O)6]2+ cation (pink) and its anionic counterpart
[CoCl4]2- provides a simple and visual way to illustrate equilibrium and
LaChatelier’s Principle. Principles of adding/removing starting materials/products
can be easily shown along with the effect of temperature on equilibrium.
Participants will go through the laboratory exercise to illustrate these points.
Time permitting, we’ll also generate a couple of explosions.
Mark Turnbull has been a professor of chemistry at Clark since 1986 and
specializes in synthetic chemistry. He earned his BS and MS degrees from the
University of New Hampshire and taught high school in Londonderry, NH from
1978-1982 before completing his Ph.D. at Brandeis. He has been at Clark
University since 1986.
11:20
Break
11:40
Prof. Sergio Granados-Focil: Chemical processes within polymers and use of
everyday polymers as teaching tools
Polymeric materials are everywhere and are used in a wide variety of every day applications. Some simple
polymer synthesis experiments and polymer modification experiments will be presented. These demos can be
used to illustrate fundamental concepts, such as stoichiometry, bonding, solubility, entropy, etc.
Sergio Granados-Focil, Ph.D.
Prof. Granados-Focil is a polymer chemist primarily interested in studying the relationship between polymers’
chemical structure and their ionic, thermal and electronic conductivity. The results form this
effort can help establish guidelines for the development of new charge transporting membranes
used in alternative energy sources (such as fuel cells, lithium batteries and solar cells),
actuating materials (artificial muscles) and electrochemical sensors.
12:30
Light lunch followed by NEACT Annual meeting (lunch courtesy of NEACT)
Please RSVP by Wednesday, May 4 – we need a count for breakfast and lunch.
Dr. Mel Govindan, Central Division Chair, mgovindan@fitchburgstate.edu
978-660-8831 (Mobile)
Directions:
Clark is 950 Main St., Worcester, and attendees should plan to park in the lot on Maywood St. (right across the
street). Turn into Maywood St. from Main Street. We will be in the Sackler Science Center, starting in Johnson
Auditorium (Sackler 120). For the lab demos, we’ll be in labs in the same building. In case of problems call
Mel Govindan at 978-660-8831 (Cell)
For PDP/CEU information contact: Lorraine Kelly at lorrainek12@aol.com