What impacts do elements and compounds have on history and modern day society? 

Elements have shaped our world in many different ways, both negative and positive. Fossil fuels and green house gases are some negative ways that elements and compounds effect the environment, which shapes modern day society. Green house gases are gases in the atmosphere that trap heat. Fossil fuels are natural substances left over from plants and animals that had died millions of years ago. The negative impacts of fossil fuels include; a non renewable energy source, which means time will come when it will run out. Pollution is another way Fossil fuels contribute to harming the environment. Pollution gets released into the air and it harms the environment.

Elements and Compounds

We first began the project by beginning to learn about elements and compounds. We handed in a paragraph about the significance on an element. I chose Xenon. This is significant to me not just because I think it’s a cool element, but because my dads company in called xenon! I researched facts about Xenon, the background of it, and how it impacts our world today. This was all very interesting information to take in and it really made me realize that we need to conserve it because it is very scarce and can be found in small amounts of air. We learned about Bohr and Louis diagram which are really interesting. A Bohr diagram shows an atom as the nucleus containing protons and neutrons, with the electrons orbiting at various distances from the nucleus. A lewis diagram is a simple way to show the valence shell electrons in a molecule. 

Ionic Compounds + Polyatomic Ions + Transition metals

We started by learning all about the periodic table, and learned valuable information such as the atomic number, the symbols, and the atomic mass. Ms. Kadi then walked us through how to transfer the charge of an element to make it even with the other one. We did a ton of practice to make sure everyone understood every little thing about these 3 ares, because in our coming years, this is valuable information to know and be confident with.

Final Product

The outcome of learning about all of this was to create a piece of art using cyanotype and using UV rays to then develop the art. To get the feel for cyanotype, we practiced with paper and some things we found outside such as some leafs, plants or flowers. 

I decided to switch my element from Xenon to Helium because it has a more significant role in our world, and is a little bit more interesting. Although a hot air balloon is not made of Helium, my lovely teacher let me make my art with hot air balloons, because it would look more interesting than regular old balloons you can buy from Safeway.

This is the paragraph I worked on and presented at our mini exhibition:

The Highs And Lows Of Helium

By Julia

Helium is quite an interesting element, it has many positive and negative qualities on the world; lets find out some more about it! Helium has qualities that contribute a lot to our modern day society.  Helium can be used in the medical world, manufacturing electronics, diving with a tank, scientific research and more! It’s great helium can help with all these things, but that got me thinking – we only have so much helium right? The answer is yes, we are trying to reduce our helium use because it is a non renewable natural source, but, we can help by exploring new resources, using alternatives, and using the reserves countries have set aside. Helium is an important factor in many places, but if we want to to keep using it, we need to conserve it and use it scarcely. 

Reflection

This project we just completed in Science 9, ChemHistory, was quite valuable, especially because it is some of these elements that are destroying our planet today. I learned so much that I can use in the future, and I appreciate that it was taught to me in a way that I could understand and come back to in future years. Throughout this project, I have really realized how big of an impact Science in general, but really just the little things can have on our world and shaping it to make a modern society. 

Thank you for reading about my ChemHistory journey!