Contact: David West (west@alpha.nsula.edu )
News Bureau
Northwestern State University
Natchitoches, LA 71497
(318) 357-6466

1/19/2001

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NATCHITOCHES - One day soon, Jeri Thiels hopes to teach science to high school students. She got an idea how rewarding teaching can be recently when she was among a group of Northwestern State University students who made presentations at the 122nd Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physics Teachers. The meeting was held in San Diego.

Students participating in the conference were: Kenny Homann, a senior physics major from Nacogdoches, Texas, Courtney Gillan, a sophomore mathematics major from Natchitoches, Danny Lutterman, a senior physics major from New Orleans, Steve Gore, a sophomore pre-medicine major from Alexandria, Bob Trull, a senior physics major from Leesville, David Byrd, a sophomore physics major from Shreveport, Mark Lentz, a junior physics major from Baton Rouge, Jamie Bradley, a freshman chemistry major from Bueche and Thiels, a senior science education major from Jena.

Five students made a presentation, "The Rainbow Room," to 60 inner-city middle school students from San Diego.

"I expected to enjoy this opportunity, but I didn't realize the enormous satisfaction I would get from watching children develop a new understanding of rainbows under my guidance," said Thiels.

The presentation, which was part of a Student Experiences in Science and Engineering workshop, included activities with lasers, spectral glasses and black lights.

"These NSU students presented a great workshop on geometry at a previous meeting in New Orleans and we were thrilled to have them present something new for the students in San Diego," said Betty Preese, director of the workshop.

Lentz originated the outreach program last March for the club's Sci2K Celebration, and it has been presented to students in the Natchitoches area. Also taking part in the presentation were Bradley, Gillan, Gore and Trull.

In addition, Trull presented his research using an ion beam to analyze micrometeorites. This is part of the work he has completed with scientists at Acadiana Research Laboratory in Lafayette. Homann and Lutterman also presented results from their research at the meeting during one of the four sessions devoted to undergraduate
research.

Homann reported on his progress in using a new CCD and filters for the NSU telescope to study variable stars. Lutterman relayed his work on understanding how objects land, including some experimental data produced by first-year students in the NSU JOVE program. The advisor for these projects is NSU physicist Gary White, who also presented at the meeting.

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