PGSS Laboratory Research Courses

Governor's School students can choose between four different laboratory courses. Labs are offered in: The techniques learned in these laboratory courses will provide students with the backgrounds necessary to carry out team research projects in areas of their choice.

L1 BIOLOGICAL TECHNIQUES
Instructors: Linda Kauffman

The biology lab covers a range of experimental work that illustrates the methods and organisms that are typically used for modern research into biochemistry, cellular and molecular biology. For example, we isolate plasmid DNA, cut it with restriction enzymes, amplify a portion of the plasmid DNA by PCR and analyze the products that result. We will examine the mating behavior of motile green alga, and early development in sea urchin embryos. We will look at the regulation of gene expression in bacteria, and survey the pigments in a wide range of plant material. We use microscopy, gel electrophoresis, microscale extractions and enzyme assays, centrifugation, and High Performance Liquid Chromatography in the course of these experiments.

L2 CHEMISTRY LABORATORY
Instructor: Mark Farrell & James Bock

The chemistry laboratory will focus on the synthesis and characterization of transition metal compounds. Students will make a variety of coordination compounds as well as organometallic compounds. Each compound will be characterized by its physical properties and students will learn interesting Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC) and spectroscopy techniques. A wide variety of laboratory techniques will also be presented, including distillation and recrystallization.

L3 PHYSICS LABORATORY
Instructor: Barry Luokkala

The physics laboratory course will focus on resonance processes in linear systems and the chaotic behavior of nonlinear systems. In the first half of the course we will investigate and compare the behavior of a damped mass-spring system with that of an electrical circuit composed of a resistor, inductor and capacitor. Despite the fact that these two systems appear to be completely unrelated, we will discover that the same mathematical description applies to both. The second half of the course will be devoted to a study of chaos, which has become a very rich field of research in recent years. We will explore the conditions under which a nonlinear system can be driven into chaotic behavior, in contrast to linear systems such as the simple mass-spring and the RLC circuit, which do not become chaotic. We will discover that chaos, in the modern sense of the word, does not imply disorder. Instead, chaotic systems can exhibit a high degree of order, but of a distinctly different sort than that exhibited by linear systems.

L4 COMPUTER SCIENCE LABORATORY
Instructor: Kirk Yenerall

Through hands-on use of the Cray T3D, the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center's newest and most powerful parallel computer, students enrolled in the Computer Science Laboratory will investigate the concepts and programming techniques which are central to modern supercomputing. Throughout the course of the laboratory experience, students will be challenged to design and implement original solutions to a variety of programming problems. Among the topics to be explored in the laboratory are: functional programming, conditionals, sequential vs. parallel computing, degrees of parallelism, SIMD vs. MIMD programming, frequently used parallel algorithms, interprocessor communication, and the newest paradigm for parallel processing: message passing. The languages which will be used in the course are FORTRAN 90 (for sequential and data parallel programming) and Oakridge Laboratory's award-winning PVM library (for message passing and interprocessor communication). No prior programming experience is needed to enroll in this course.

Students: Click here to obtain instructional materials for the Computer Science lab !


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