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Chemistry Teacher Uses HeaterMeals in Veteran's Day Lesson
11/13/09 - Typically, when you're in high school, Veteran's Day is commemorated in History class, or Civics class, or Government class. That's not the case, however, at Finneytown High School. In her Chemistry class, Dr. Leslie Leverone takes the opportunity presented by Verteran's Day to present a lesson on exothermic reactions. It is not a topic that is usually associated with remembering our country's veterans.
Leverone explained how veterans in World War II had to eat cold combat rations, because the technology to heat meals in the field did not yet exist. Today, though, soldiers can eat hot meals thanks to the TRUETECH patented self-heating technology found in every Flameless Ration Heater (FRH) that heats MREs and in HeaterMeals. Leverone described the exothermic reaction that powers each (FRH) as students heated their own HeaterMeals Entrees for lunch. “Where there’s heat, there’s an exothermic reaction,” she explained.
The story appeared in today's Enquirer and on Cincinnati.com. The full article is below.
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Veteran's Day has chemical reaction
Contributed By Shawn Maus | Finneytown Local School District | ShareThis
Each Veteran’s Day, Dr. Leslie Leverone, Finneytown High School Chemistry teacher, shares a personal story about her family’s experiences with World War II while tying the history lesson to a chemistry lesson.
Grabbing a quick meal during combat was never appetizing. The soldier had to wait for a lull in the fighting, find a spot shielded from enemy bullets, quickly open an “entrée” like spaghetti, and then wolf it down – cold.
An innovative heat pack developed for soldiers in Operation Desert Storm in 1990, helped feed a hot meal to the soldier in the field. The modern “Meal, Ready-to-Eat” or MRE is much tastier thanks to chemistry.
Heater Meals Inc. (on Northland Blvd), donates a number of their Heater Meal products that are used by the US military, for “Doc Lev” to help students understand chemical reactions.
By studying metal corrosion, the students learn that Heater Meal products use metal to "heat by themselves.” To provide a guaranteed hot meal in the field, chemical scientists designed a heat-producing plastic sleeve for the MRE entrée. The sleeve, called the Flameless Ration Heater (FRH), contains chemicals in a perforated box that produce heat when mixed with water. Soldiers simply drop the entrée pouch into the sleeve, add about an ounce of water, and wait 12-15 minutes for the food to heat. The sleeve adds little weight to the MRE and, if the soldiers have to move quickly, they slip the MRE into their pocket where the sleeve will keep the food warm for an hour.
“Where there’s heat, there’s an exothermic reaction,” explains Leverone as she hands out Heater Meals to the students. “For a reaction to take place, energy must be added to break the bonds within molecules, and energy is released when the atoms re-bond to form new molecules.”
The students quickly open the packages - as it’s almost time for lunch. While Leverone continues the lecture the students begin to “cook” their MRE entrees.
While the Heater Meal MRE is heating, Leverone continues to explain how the chemical reactions of magnesium and oxidation prevented the spontaneous reaction. She pulls out a small package of steel wool, explaining that the inventors of the FRH found they had to mix magnesium with iron and salt to penetrate the oxide barrier.
Firing up a Bunsen burner, Doc Lev adds a small “fireworks” display to the chemistry room in honor of Veterans Day. The steel wool catches fire, turning blue. This, explains Leverone, shows that the iron has completely oxidized.
Though the role of the iron is not totally understood, scientists think that it promotes the reaction between the water and the magnesium by creating a site where atoms and electrons can create the “heat” therefore “cooking” the meal.
As she continues, the smell of vegetarian lasagna and chicken cacciatore fills the classroom.
“So, cooking the food in the MRE,” adds Leverone, “is a gift from chemistry.”
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