The last two weeks I’ve been busy preparing my chemistry and astronomy curricula for school this fall and writing a Preliminary Proposal for the National Science Foundation’s Informal Science Education grant. That was submitted last Thursday, and then I’ve been gone to a family reunion over this last weekend at Bear Lake in northern Utah. [...]
Archive for the ‘Weekly Post’ Category
The Small Museum Enhancement Program
Posted in Weekly Post, tagged informal science education, iPad in museums, mining museum, museum blogs, National Science Foundation, preliminary proposal, rural museum, small museum, video tours, virtual tours on July 27, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
The Geology of the Tintic Mining District
Posted in Weekly Post, tagged apex mine, argent, bullion beck mine, burgin mine, centennial eureka mine, chief consolidated mine, dragon mine, eagle and bluebell mine, eureka hill mine, eureka utah, eurekadumpite, fissure vein, galena, gemini mine, godiva mine, humbug mine, iron blossom mine, mammoth utah, replacement ore body, silver mine, silver mining, silver ore, stope, swansea mine, tintic, tintic mining district, tintic standard mine, trixie mine on July 13, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
For the last week, I’ve been busy preparing for my classes at Walden School, including inventorying the science lab room (which is also my classroom) and planning out my course schedules. I’ll be teaching two sections of Chemistry, one of Astronomy, one of Computer Technology (a basic computer literacy course required in Utah), a section [...]
A New Base of Operations
Posted in Weekly Post, tagged creative students, walden school, project-based learning, pbl, montessori, 3D star model, mars 3D terrains, creativity, educational philosophy, hands-on on June 30, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
This morning I accepted a job offer to teach full-time at Walden School in Provo, Utah. (here is their website: Walden School Website). I will be teaching a combination of chemistry, earth science, and multimedia courses at the high school level. Walden is a small charter school that follows the Montessori philosophy of providing a [...]
The Beryllium Part 2 Video is Done
Posted in Weekly Post, tagged mining, chemical engineering, beryllium, brush wellman, periodic table, beryllia, bertrandite, brush engineered materials, beryl, spor mountains, brush resources, beryllium alloys, topaz mountain, counter-current decantation, utah mines, beryllium ceramics, refining ore, delta utah, elmore ohio, chronic beryllium disease, cbd, beryllium safety, solvent extraction on June 19, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
The second part of the video on beryllium is now finished. You can watch it here: This video has literally been 2 1/2 years in the making; my students Amy Zirbes and Nathan Jane videotaped our interview with subject expert Phil Sabey, the Manager of Technology and Quality at the Delta mill, in NOvember, 2007. [...]
The Legacy of the Tintic Mining District
Posted in Weekly Post, tagged abandoned mines, cyanide, environmental impact of mining, environmental protection agency, environmental science, epa, eureka utah, hazards of mining, jesse knight, knight smelter, leaching, lead contamination, mine reclamation, mining, mining and the environment, old mines, silver city utah, silver ore, smelter, smelting ore, superfund site, tailings pile, tintic mining district, tintic mountains, unsafe mines on June 9, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
On my visit to the area around Eureka, Utah last Friday, June 4, I not only wanted to visit Mammoth and Silver City, but to also document the efforts by the Environmental Protection Agency to clean up the town. I had traveled through Eureka a few days before on Memorial Day and noticed that the [...]
Exploring Dividend and Mammoth
Posted in Weekly Post, tagged burgin utah, dividend utah, eureka utah, mammoth utah, mine processing plant, mines, mining, silver city utah, silver mine, silver ore, tintic mining district, tintic mountains, utah mines, utah mining on June 5, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
The last few weeks I’ve had to neglect the Elements Unearthed project in order to finish a client video that had a tight deadline. It was uploaded to YouTube Thursday night, so I now have a little bit of a breather before the next project and am back at work on Part 2 of the [...]
Some Stats on The Elements Unearthed Project
Posted in Weekly Post, tagged beryllium video, blog statistics, business profile video, davidvblack, elements unearthed, eric scerri, milestone, periodic table video, tintic mining district, wordpress, youtube channel on May 19, 2010 | 1 Comment »
This blog has reached a milestone over the last week. Over 15,000 people have visited this blog since it was begun in Oct., 2008. Since my fellowship in Philadelphia last summer, the viewership has risen greatly, and I’ve been averaging over 1500 visitors per month with 2600 in March as my top month. I don’t [...]
Beryllium Part 1 Video is Done
Posted in Weekly Post, tagged beryllium, brush wellman, beryllia, bertrandite, james webb space telescope, beryl, brush resources, sevier orogeny, laramide orogeny, plate tectonics, farallon plate, subduction, aquamarine, heliodor, morganite, goshenite, red beryl, phenakite, chrysoberyl, euclase, hamgergite, beryllonite, beryllium copper alloy, brush engieneered materials, nevadan orogeny, rocky mountains, x-ray window, thermal stability, nuclear reactor, nuclear moderator on May 6, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
After weeks of editing and tweaking, I have completed the first half (part 1) of the video on Beryllium. This section is on the uses and sources of beryllium, and the geology of the bertrandite deposit of western Utah. The second half will take another week or so (I have quite a few tight deadlines [...]
When Geology Gets Personal
Posted in Weekly Post, tagged juab county, bertrandite, spor mountains, topaz mountain, fluorspar, beryllum, rhyolite, desert mountain, topaz, paleozoic rocks, sevier orogeny, laramide orogeny, colorado plateau, plate tectonics, farallon plate, north american tectonic plate, subduction, andesitic volcano, uranium, thomas range, drum mountains, keg mountain, volcanic caldera, utah geology, geology of western utah on April 27, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Usually, when one thinks of rocks and geology it’s all a bit impersonal; after all, they were formed in the distant past, in many cases hundreds of millions of years ago. Most of the rocks in western Utah, where I’m from, were laid down as ocean deposits during the Paleozoic Era. Now all the layers [...]
Refining Beryllium Ore
Posted in Weekly Post, tagged mining, element, chemical engineering, beryllium, beryllia, bertrandite, beryl, counter-current decantation, refining, alkaline earth, rotary kiln, frit, sulfation, organic solvent on April 14, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
I am continuing this series of posts on the sources, mining, and refining of beryllium ore. I am in the middle of editing the interview my students did in Dec., 2007 of Phil Sabey at the Brush Resources’ Delta Concentration Mill and will have the final videos done by next week. Today I’ve been creating [...]
