Hello my friendly Alchemists! Are you ready to hunch your left shoulder and place a bottled frog on your desk? That’s what I think of when I think of chemistry. What do you think of? Douglas made me laugh right out loud when he called it, “Licensed Tomfoolery.” And you know what? When you dive into it, it really is- adult like play and understanding of really explosive things! It’s also perfect to be studying this in our medieval time period. Porque… you may ask? Believe it our not, it was within THIS time period that the term Chemistry (aka ancient Alchemy) was born. Alchemist, as they were called were given the task to find a way to turn ordinary metals into gold to help their kingdom obtain riches. (Reminds me a bit of Rumplestiltskin. How about you?) Although they were not successful as Alchemists, cheMYSTERIES began and so will this years Eureka. Grab your labcoats and saftey goggles and lets dive right in with a big welcome from me to you on our grand ole adventure of becoming a modern day Tomfoolerest.
CHEMISTRY DECTECTIVES: YOUR FIRST CASE
Everything around you- your phone, your shoes, your breakfast, your dog, the air you are breathing and YOU- is made of atoms.
Here is the strange part:
Atoms as you will soon learn are almost entirely empty space.
So….
Why aren’t you falling through the chair you are sitting on?
And if everything is made from atoms, why does one collection of atoms become your desk while another becomes water, and other become oxygen and another becomes YOU?
That is what we are beginning to figure out.
This week, you will become a modern day Alchemist with the given quest TO learn for yourself the answer to this question: if everything is created of atoms, yet atoms are mostly empty space, what allows you to SIT on your chair, rather than falling through it?
To you help you in your quest to discovering this truth for yourself, you have been given a variety of readings, assignments, and labs. Let’s begin:
1. LEARN
complete the following in order: (read the section YOUR CHEMISTY NOTEBOOK which is below this section BEFOR you actually begin this section)
- Meet Chemistry: Read pgs 1-5 in Friendly Chemisty Student Book, complete pages 8-9 in friendly Chemistry Student Book, complete Home Lab #1 Unknown Powders (link below) https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tr16qD5_jWl-YQ1r-p-ZSfHbEG7U4Hh7qkwF9QLi3xM/edit?usp=sharing
- Atomic Structure: Read pgs 19-23 in Friendly Chemistry Student Book, complete page 26, Optional HOME LAB # 2 In Quest of Carbon: The Marshamallow Inferno! (link below) https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zdgPZqQw31m5sG8I_XSQvQ383P_LlK3vPxNSk_luhaM/edit?usp=sharing
- The Arrangement of Electrons in Atoms: Read pgs 27-34 in Friendly Chemistry Student Book and complete pg 35
- Electron Arrangement / Quantum Model: Read pages 37-44 in Friendly Chemistry Student Book (except the last sentence, we will do that in class.) For this section you will need your Doo-Wop board that IS THE COVER of your manipulative book. It’s white. Don’t take the cover off. Just simply open it up and cut off the two sections of circles, except the ones right on the binding. Save these cut out circles and bring the book with the board AND cut out circles to class.
- Orbital Notation: Read pages 45-49 in Friendly Chemistry Student Book and complete page 92. You will also ned your Doo-Wop Board and cut out circles to complete this section.
2. YOUR CHEMISTRY NOTEBOOK
Keep one notebook for this entire course.
For Lessons 1-5, create a section titled:
“What I know about Atoms” and add the subtitles as listed below. As you read, define these words and take notes or draw pictures in a way that these new term will make sense to you. By thursday, you should be able to explain these in your own words:
- Chemistry
- Element
- Matter
- Atom
- Atomic Theory
- Subatomic Particles
- Proton
- Neutron
- Electron
- Nucleus
- Mass
- Atomic number
- Atomic Mass
- Explain the attraction between the protons and the electrons in an atom
- Electron reactivity determinant
- Quantum Mechanics
- Principle quantum number
- Orbital quantum number
- Maganetic quantum number
- Spin quantum number
- Orbital Notation
- Doo-Wop board (and be able to use it)
3. Chemistry Used in Real LIfe:
Watch the following video. Answer this question in your note book: How is chemistry being used to identiy an unknown substance in real life?
BONUS QUESTION: can you think of anyone else in the world that would need to be good at investigating unknown powders?
3. Chemistry and The Armor of God.
This month we have been focusing on having our “Loins Girt with Truth.” Joseph F Smith said, “The greatest achievement mankind can make in this world is to familiarize themselves with divine truth, so thoroughly, so perfectly, that the example or conduct of no creature living in the world can ever turn them away from the knowledge that they have obtained.”
I have heard more than once in my 44 years, someone I know and love saying that they “came to know a truth” that then turned them AWAY from God and HIS revealed truths. President Oaks told students at BYU in his first address as a prophet, ” I have a great respect for science and scientist and for the search for truth. But remember this: science after all (even when it is true and final and factual) is simply man’s discovering of a few things that God already knows and controls in his ordering of the universe.”
I love that view point. It is also mine. I love that I can discover truths that God already knows and uses. I feel like because he already knows how everything works, there isn’t ANYTHING I cant ask him about or ask him to help me understand.
Question for you: How does knowing that Heavenly Father already understands ALL things help you to be obedient to the commandments he asks us to keep? Commandments may not be thought of as scientific. But in a way they are. When we trust that God creates all things, we can begin to trust that his commandments also have good reasons. In the creation of the elements, God knows, we simply discover. In the develpment of the soul, He gives us commandments. Its another verson of God knows why these things are good. And another “something” for us to discover. So again, how does knowing that Heavenly Father already understands ALL things help you to be obedient to the commandments he asks us to keep? Write 3-5 sentences explaining what you found in your note book as part of your “notes.”
5. Bring Thursday
Bring:
Your Friendly Chemistry work
Your chemistry notes
Your completed lab results
Your Doo-Wop board and circles
Your cleaned petri dishes and lids (from your unknown powders lab)
Your favorite chemistry joke
AND LASTLY: your answer, based upon your readings, to the question at the beginning to the post: if everything is created of atoms, yet atoms are mostly empty space, what allows you to SIT on your chair, rather than falling through it? (tip: this has something to do with two specific parts of an atoms make up. Bigger tip: one of these specific parts has to do with the electrons in the electron cloud. Also don’t google or use AI, instead, use your critical thinking skills and figure it out.)
See ya soon!
