By Morgan Taylor – Editor-In-Chief

Jonathan Law chemistry teacher Ms. Turcotte received a $2,000 grant from the UConn ECE program this year.

With this grant, Turcotte was able to buy new interfaces that allowed labs in class to become much easier. 

“Labquest Mini is an interface that will allow the chemistry classes to connect different probes such as a pH probe and a voltage probe directly to the Chromebook,” said Turcotte. “They can graph in real time and take it home to analyze it.”

In past years, labs were more difficult to complete.

“Students used an older system which connected to a calculator and displayed the information there but then physically write it out in their lab notebooks at home,” said Turcotte. “Now they can just see their graphs on their Chromebooks and be able to look at data there.”

With the new one-to-one chromebook initiative, the decision to apply for the grant was easy for Turcotte.

“Every year they email us, as teachers of the UConn ECE programs, and offer $10,000 worth of grant money,” said Turcotte. “I wanted to be able to use the Chromebooks more in class and we already had the digital programs necessary for the new interfaces.”

The classes use the computer program Vernier in order to see the graphed information on their Chromebooks. 

The grant also supplied Turcotte with the funds in order to buy more chemistry equipment.

“I was also able to buy more probes to get a full class setup, previously only having six sets and now I have 10,” said Turcotte. 

In order to apply for the grant Turcotte had to complete many requirements.

“I had to write a grant proposal as well as get letters of support,” said Turcotte. “Mr. Thompson wrote my administrative letter of support and (Law student) Katherine Mao and Luke Morris wrote my student letters of support. I wouldn’t have been able to get this grant without their help.”