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Honors Chemistry and STEM Chemistry Summer Assignment 2014-2015

Welcome to Honors and STEM Chemistry.

Honors and STEM Chemistry is for the student who desires a more in-depth study of science that will incorporate various aspects of science and math with an emphasis on both mastery and critical thinking/application skills. This is a fast-paced course that requires much outside classroom preparation. A summer assignment is essential to a good foundation as we incorporate more reading across the curriculum and giving all students an opportunity to learn more about what chemistry prior to starting the course! This class requires a strong work ethic and the ability to work independently. Let’s start strong by getting a head-start!

Make sure that you complete all parts of the summer assignment! No two students’ assignments should be identical and your work should not be copied directly from any of the sources you are using. The assignment will be due on the first day of the 2014-2015 school year. Do not wait until the end of the summer to start working!

There are 3 sections to complete for Honors Chemistry students and 4 sections for STEM Chemistry students.

1. Memorize the 50 required elements – expect a quiz the first day of school over these elements - symbol, correct spelling of the element (all lower case – not proper nouns) 2. Handwritten responses (collate in a journal/notebook or 3 ring binder) to all the questions in the assigned summer reading of “The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the of the Elements by Sam Kean 3. Go to Dr. Berkemeier’s blog  Course Resources  Summer 2014 folder I. Learn how to navigate the blog by answering the following questions a) What information is found on the blog? b) What did you find in course resources? c) Where can you find the course syllabus? d) What are the expectations of a formal lab? II. Watch flipping the classroom so that you understand why we are using this method (*if you have a MAC, you will have to go the local library to watch his screencast) Flipping the classroom: http://screencast-o-matic.com/watch/cljXoZ7q5 III. Khan Academy video: (*take notes so that you have a good review) a) Introduction to the Atom http://www.khanacademy.org/science/chemistry/introduction-to-the- atom/v/introduction-to-the-atom b) Introduction to Atoms and Elements: http://www.khanacademy.org/science/chemistry/introduction-to-the- atom/v/elements-and-atoms

4. STEM Chemistry students should start thinking about a hypothesis (*not necessarily specific to chemistry but involves science, technology and engineering) and possible research topics. We will discuss more during the 1st week of school. Check out the UGA website for science and

1 | B e r k e m e i e r engineering fair to give you some ideas. You will have to come up with a feasible hypothesis/project that you can investigate. You will also have to provide your own space to test your hypothesis, time is something to think about since the project is done out of class time and you must have an adult to supervise you. Check out the UGA science and engineering site for ideas. http://www.georgiacenter.uga.edu/youth/academic-special-programs/georgia- science-and-engineering-fair

I look forward to having you in class!!

Dr. G Berkemeier

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1. Section 1: Memorize the 50 required elements – expect a quiz the first day of school over these elements - symbol, correct spelling of the element (all lower case – not proper nouns)

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Section 2: Handwritten responses (collate in a journal/notebook or 3 ring binder) to all the questions in the assigned summer reading of “The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements by Sam Kean

The Disappearing Spoon – by Sam Kean 1. Respond to the following questions in YOUR OWN HANDWRITING. 2. NO typed responses will be accepted for credit. 3. You may have a journal, a notebook or 3-ring binder to collate your handwritten responses in the order in which these questions are presented. 4. Please write legibly in BLACK or BLUE ink only (no pencil or other colored pens allowed). 5. Please write only on the front of the notebook paper and number your pages at the bottom right corner. 6. Please divide your responses according to the chapters and questions presented. 7. Respond in complete sentences and it would be to your benefit to include the page number from the book as a means of review as well as noting your argument/support to the question. 8. DUE Date – the first day of school at the start of your class period. Your responses to all the questions below are due the 1st day of school. We have a NO LATE work policy in this course.

Prior to reading the book:

1. What adjectives would you currently use to describe the periodic table? (give at least 3 adjectives) Explain your answer in sentences.

Ch. 1: Geography is Destiny

1. Pre-reading: How are helium and oxygen similar? How are they different? The author compares the periodic table to a map. Do you find this metaphor effective? 2. Helium is a member of the group called the ______. 3. Which subatomic particle determines the reactivity of an element: proton, neutron, or electron? 4. If you go up or down by 1 on the pH scale, you've changed by a factor of ___. This is similar to the _____ scale, which measures the strength of an earthquake. So an acid with a pH of 3 is ____ times stronger than an acid with a pH of 6. 5. How did Gilbert Lewis change the definition of an acid? 6. Who was Maria Goeppert-Meyer? How did her work help explain why the elements helium, oxygen and calcium are all very common?

Chapter 2: Near Twins and Black Sheep: The Genealogy of Elements

1. Pre-reading: Where can we find the elements carbon and silicon in everyday life? 2. What properties of carbon make it such an appropriate element as the foundation for Silicon is used in ______, beating out the element ______. 3. Give two reasons why building life forms from silicon is much more challenging than using carbon 4. Summarize the story of William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain in a paragraph. Which of the 3 was least deserving of the Nobel Prize?

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5. * Your own research (include where you found this information – cite your reference source – Wikipedia is not allowed) another situation in history when someone stole someone else's scientific 6. Jack Kilby invented the ______, in order to get rid of a problem called the ______of ______. What was this problem all about?

Chapter 3: The Galapagos of the Periodic Table

1. Pre-reading: For some of the elements, it's easy to see where their symbol and name comes from. (ex. Einsteinium = Es). Others have an interesting origin. Find out why lead has the symbol Pb. How is this related to the word plumber? 2. Summarize the story of . What did he invent (not the Bunsen burner)? 3. In Chemistry, it's often taught that invented the periodic table and that’s all that is said, when in reality ___ people independently developed one. This happens often throughout history, as it is rare that only one person in the world has an idea all by themselves. Discuss another invention or discovery that is typically credited to one individual, when in reality the actual story is more complicated. Why does Mendeleev get the credit for the periodic table? 4. How does thinking about the elements of the table relate to pieces of a puzzle, especially with his accomplishments? 5. We rarely hear about the mistakes of geniuses, just their accolades. What were some mistakes that Mendeleev made? 6. A man named Antoine LaVoisier is often called the father of modern Chemistry, helping push to make Chemistry a more exact science. He also proved The Law of Conservation of Mass, showing that matter is neither gained nor lost during a chemical reaction. What was at least one thing that LaVoisier was incorrect about? How did LaVoisier die? 7. Why is a little town named Ytterby, Sweden probably the most significant place related

Chapter 4: Where Atoms Come From: “We Are All Star Stuff”

1. Pre-reading: What do you already know about stars and their life cycle? Which elements are involved during the process of fusion in the sun? Why don't stars fuse elements beyond iron on the periodic table? 2. Why is Jupiter such an interesting planet? Give several reasons, including some that some that relate to elements 3. Summarize how Clair Patterson was able to conclude that the earth is about 4.55 billion years old. Most scientists agree that the universe is about 14 billion years old....how in general can scientists agree on something that none of us were around for?

Chapter 5: Elements in Time of War

1. Pre-reading: How could elements be used in war? 2. What do you think the word harbinger means in the 2nd paragraph? 3. Nitrogen is an element that be used for good and bad. How can uranium be used to benefit people? To harm people? What about hydrogen? 4. Why is it ironic that Haber won a Nobel Prize? Why did the price of tungsten jump dramatically during WWII? 5. What continent holds the most tantalum and niobium? What country had brutal wars over them? Where do we get these elements from now? Why do we need them?

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Chapter 6: Completing the Table...with a Bang

1. Pre-Reading: What do you already know about plutonium? 2. Summarize the life and work of Henry Moseley. 3. Research why they would’ve needed uranium ore at Oak Ridge in Tennessee. 4. What are two ways uranium and plutonium are similar? What are two ways they are different? 5. Why is a cobalt bomb more horrific than a uranium bomb?

Chapter 7: Extending the Table, Expanding the Cold War

1. Pre-reading: Identify as many elements as you can that are named after places. Do the same for elements named after people. 2. Explain why the elements at the bottom of the periodic table are not really discovered so much as made. How is an element made? 3. How did Stalin thwart scientific progress in Russia? 4. Explain the "cold war of the elements" between the U.S. And Russia. Why were claims to have made an element often controversial?

Chapter 8: From Physics to Biology

1. Why was element 43 named technetium? 2. What are two other scientific discoveries that occurred by mistake besides those cited 3. Why isn't , a brilliant , as famous as Watson and Crick? 4. Research two interesting facts about phosphorous that relate to urine and matches.

Chapter 9: Poisoner’s Corridor: “Ouch-Ouch” 1. How is cadmium harmful? How is it helpful? 2. When we think of elements or compounds being dangerous, we often think of explosive elements. How is thallium’s mode of attack different from this? 3. How is the danger from thallium similar to the dangers of radioactivity? 4. What makes bismuth such a unique element? 5. Where can you find thorium? Americium?

Chapter 10: Take Two Elements, Call Me in the Morning

1. Why is copper so important? List reasons from the text and from your research. 2. Explain electron spin and how this property makes gadolinium so effective at MRIs. 3. Take a look at the "blue man" on the Internet by typing in Argyria. 4. What other common sulfa drugs are there besides sulfonamide? 5. What is the chiral opposite of L-dopa called? 6. Read the paragraph on p. 360 entitled "surgical strikes without surgery" and discuss your thoughts based on facts only.

Chapter 11: How Elements Deceive

1. Why is nitrogen so important to living things? 2. Explain why each of the elements in this chapter is a type of "deceiver."

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3. Potassium and sodium are both members of the group called the ______. Why don't we keep solid samples of these metals in the stockroom at the high school?

Chapter 12: Political Elements

1. Marie and and their daughter all died tragically. How did each of them die? 2. discovered what two elements? What element is named after her? How many of these elements are radioactive? 3. How did Hevesy cleverly "hide" two gold Nobel Prize medals from the Germans? 4. Summarize the collaboration of and .

Chapter 13: Elements as Money

1. Name 3 other alloys besides brass and bronze. 2. What does the word "transmute" mean? 3. What is the chemical formula for fool's gold? 4. Explain how europium helps stop counterfeiting. 5. Why is it anachronistic that aluminum is still on top of the Washington Monument? 6. If gold or platinum were very easy to get, what would happen to their price? How is this related to the story of aluminum?

Chapter 14: Artistic Elements

1. Who was Johann Von Goethe? Was he a great scientist? Why or why not? 2. How was Dobereiners triads the precursor to the periodic table? Why might iron, nickel and cobalt be considered a related triad (beyond the fact that they're metallic?) 3. What does the author mean when he says Mark Twain was prescient on p. 250? 4. What did the poet Robert Lowell mean when he said his brain lacked a little salt? 5. What other uses does lithium or lithium compounds have besides batteries and an anti-depressant? 6. Read the note entitled "a hobby" on p. 366 in the back of the book and summarize your understanding in 3-5 sentences.

Chapter 15: An Element of Madness 1. What was unique about ? How was he influential in the discovery of 2. How is a megalodon like Bigfoot? How is it different? 3. What does it mean to be a pathological scientist? 4. What is "cold fusion?" How is it similar to the attempt to develop perpetual motion machines, machines that can run forever without input of energy? 5. What did William Rontgen discover? How was his reaction to his discovery very different from the reaction of Pons and Fleischman to their "discovery?"

Chapter 16: Chemistry Way, Way Below Zero 1. Why is it significant that tin can form alpha and beta shapes of its crystals? 2. Why was it so hard for scientists to make a compound from argon? 3. What does maser stand for? Laser? 4. Besides making strong lasers, neodymium can help make the world’s strongest ______. 5. Why does a Bose Einstein Condensate require such an extremely cold temperature?

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Chapter 17: Spheres of Splendor: The Science of Bubbles 1. What earned Donald Glaser the Nobel Prize at just 33? 2. What did Rutherford discover about the structure of the atom? 3. Scientists now estimate the universe to be at least 14 billion years old. Research one way they came to that conclusion besides helium trapped in rocks. Cite your reference in your explanation. 4. Why is the firing of a rifle into water considered the antithesis to work done by

Chapter 18: Tools of Ridiculous Precision 1. Why is the official kilogram in Paris made of mostly platinum? 2. What is an atomic clock and how does it work? Why is cesium the ideal element for these clocks? 3. What is significant about the constant alpha? 4. Why is it impossible for a number like pi to change but apparently possible for other constants like alpha to change? 5. We all can agree what something like a second or mile is on a daily basis. Do you think that it’s important that scientists have an extremely exact definition of a second? Why or why not? 6. Why is it such a big deal if a constant has changed a whopping .001 percent over 10 billion years? 7. What does it mean for something to be a paradox?

Chapter 19: Above (and Beyond) the Periodic Table

1. Francium is terribly dangerous. Why don't we hear about it being used as a weapon? 2. What are the other two fundamental forces besides the strong and electromagnetic forces? Which force is responsible for radiation? 3. What is the "?" 4. Why is it believed that we could never go beyond element 137 on the table? 5. Find alternative ways to arrange the periodic table online and comment on them. Would you prefer the table was designed differently? Why or why not?

Post reading: 1. Did reading The Disappearing Spoon, change your ideas about the day-to-day life of scientists and the work they do? Why or why not? 2. Sam Kean makes connections to many areas of science, nature and life that normally are not discussed in association of the periodic table. What connections surprised you or were new to you? Explain. 3. Now that you have read The Disappearing Spoon, what is your favorite element? Why?

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Section 3: Go to Dr. Berkemeier’s blog  Course Resources  Summer 2014 folder

IV. Learn how to navigate the blog by answering the following questions e) What information is found on the blog? f) What did you find in course resources? g) Where can you find the course syllabus? h) What are the expectations of a formal lab?

V. Watch flipping the classroom so that you understand why we are using this method (*if you have a MAC, you will have to go the local library to watch his screencast) Flipping the classroom: http://screencast-o-matic.com/watch/cljXoZ7q5

VI. Khan Academy video: (*take notes so that you have a good review) c) Introduction to the Atom http://www.khanacademy.org/science/chemistry/introduction-to-the- atom/v/introduction-to-the-atom d) Introduction to Atoms and Elements: http://www.khanacademy.org/science/chemistry/introduction-to-the- atom/v/elements-and-atoms

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Section 4: STEM Chemistry only (*students who have been accepted to the STEM academy)

STEM Chemistry students should start thinking about a hypothesis (*not necessarily specific to chemistry but involves science, technology and engineering, write down your ideas and do some research on these ideas) and/or possible research topics.

Even though we will discuss this further during the 1st week of school, I would like you to start thinking about ideas/topics that interest you (you have to make sure that it’s feasible and you can have access to materials since this is student created and student driven).

Things to consider when thinking about a science fair project: 1. Must be testable - you will have to come up with a feasible hypothesis/project that you can investigate. You will have to make sure that the project is teacher proved before starting the science project. 2. Where, When and What to consider: a) Venue: You will also have to think about where you will be testing your hypothesis (*where in your house will you be setting up this project, not in school) b) Amount of time: amount of time you are planning to set aside for the project (is something to think about since the project is done out of class time c) Materials: Where are you going to get the materials for your project d) Supervision (* you must have an adult to supervise you).

Check out the UGA science and engineering site for ideas. http://www.georgiacenter.uga.edu/youth/academic-special-programs/georgia-science-and- engineering-fair

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