Central Virginia Governor's School for Science and Technology

Infobox School2
name = Central Virginia Governor's School for Science and Technology


established = 1985
type = Magnet school
colors= Teal and gray ██
head_name =
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city = Lynchburg, Virginia
country = USAThe Central Virginia Governor's School for Science and Technology (CVGS) is a magnet school located in Lynchburg, Virginia and directed by Dr. Tom Morgan. Students of this school are chosen from Lynchburg county and city schools. Schools participating in the Governor's School include Altavista, Amherst, Appomattox, Brookville, E.C. Glass, Heritage, Jefferson Forest, Liberty, Rustburg, and William Campbell.

Students attend the Governor's School during their Junior and Senior years. They take mathematics and science courses at the Governor's School in the morning and return to their home high schools in the afternoon for the remainder of their classes. Apart from its math and science courses, the Governor's School also offers Junior Research and Senior Seminar, classes particular to this Governor's School. These classes are designed to expose students to areas they may not have had in their regular schools. Junior Research introduces CVGS juniors to research and the scientific process, skills that are invaluable later on in college environments. Senior Seminar gives CVGS seniors a taste of different uses of technology in science.

The program is housed in its own state-of-the-art facility and is governed by a regional board comprised of a school board member from each participating division. Financial support for the school is provided by the participating school divisions, the Gifted Programs Office of the Virginia Department of Education and Region 2000 business and industry partners.

Classes

Junior Year:
Junior Research
Math Analysis/ Precalculus

Physics (calculus-based)

Senior Year:
Senior Seminar

Computer Science

Biology

Calculus
Math Connections

Linear Algebra/Vector Calculus

Junior Research

Junior Research is an introduction to the research process; it gives students experience in designing individual projects, running elementary statistical analysis, project research, and scientific writing. Students use these skills to design their own project; they report their results in paper, and WWW page formats.

During the fall semester, students are enrolled in IST 120--Microsoft Excel through the Central Virginia Community College. The 1 credit hour pass/fail course introduces students to spreadsheet operations including editing and formatting data, performing calculations, creating graphs, and printing functions. Enrollment in this class also provides students with access to the State Council of Higher Education's Virtual Library of Virginia (VIVA) system that they can use to gather background information for their research project.
During the spring semester, the students are involved in an internship with a local business or company. Students are also involved in group technology projects that range from writing elementary program tutorials to optimizing organizations' web pages.

Senior Seminar

Senior Seminar provides seniors with the opportunity to continue developing their individual research skills, to learn more about current topics in science and mathematics, and to use sophisticated technology which is part of the modern research setting. Students pursue topics on an individual basis and in small groups. They are encouraged to develop an individual research project to be presented to the Virginia Junior Academy of Science and to enter in the Intel Science Talent Search Competition or in the Central Virginia Regional Science Fair.

The first six weeks students spend on the Engineering Bridge Project. Each of the remaining 5 six week periods students spend in a Technology Laboratory or working on a Senior Research Project. Students also have the option of an Internship during the last two six week periods of the year.

Physical Science Labs:

Holography
Students work in groups of three and learn how to set up the holography equipment, expose the film, and develop the film for transmission and reflection hologram. Students produce a variety of holograms including two-beam transmission, focused-image, reflection, rainbow, and stereogram portraits. Applications of holography can also be explored such as optical image processing, optical data storage, and the use of holographic interferometry for structural disturbance analysis or vibrational analysis. (see Holography)

Nuclear Science
In the nuclear science lab, students explore radioisotope characteristics and applications, gamma ray spectroscopy, or radon monitoring. Laboratory investigations utilize scalar rate meters interfaced to Geiger-Mueller tubes, nuclear scintillation spectrometry, electret-passive environmental radon monitoring (E-Perm) systems, Cs-137/Ba-137 iosogenerators, and Excel for data analysis.Students familiarize themselves with radioisotope behavior and then investigate biological, chemical, physics, and industrial applications of their choice. Current issues involving nuclear technology are also examined such as the problem of high radon concentrations found in many new energy efficient homes. (see Nuclear Science in Atomic Nucleus)

High Speed Photography (see High speed photography)

Computer Application Labs:

Robotics
Students learn the basic principles of robotics and the computer programming required to control it. The robotics lab contains a model of an industrial robot, the Rhino XR-3. A conveyor belt, sorter and turn table are all part of the workcell. The complete setup is a scale model of the type used in industrial manufacturing systems. The students also build and program a robot using Legos and accompanying software. The laboratory is exploratory in nature with students using instructional manuals and other resource materials to discover basic principles of robotics, and to learn how to manipulate the robot. (see Robotics)

Desktop Publishing (see Desktop Publishing)

Computer Aided Drafting (CAD) (see Computer Aided Drafting)

Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
(see Geographic Information Systems)

Life Science Labs:

Electron Microscope
(see Electron Microscope)

General Microbiology
(see Microbiology)

Biotechnology (see Biotechnology)

External links

[http://www.cvgs.k12.va.us Central Virginia Governor's School for Science and Technology]