Energy and Place
Essential Question:
1. How does energy production and consumption impact place?
2. How does your sense of place, environmental ethic and understanding of our energy needs influence your perception and decisions relating to energy production and consumption?
Link to Humanities Page
1. How does energy production and consumption impact place?
2. How does your sense of place, environmental ethic and understanding of our energy needs influence your perception and decisions relating to energy production and consumption?
Link to Humanities Page
Project Reflection
What did you learn about the nature of science by researching, designing, conduction, analyzing and writing your own investigation? How has it shaped your perspective about science and scientists?
I was nervous about having to create our own lab that needed to deal with energy. We wrote the procedure the day before we needed to went to the lab. The day of the lab, there was only one Geiger counter, and three other groups that were working with radioactivity. So my partners and I needed to improvise. We ended up completing the lab the following Tuesday. Having to quickly alter the lab and collaborate with my partners to finish the lab, my perspective about scientists has changed. The way that scientists need to be able to work quickly when something changes, using quick thinking, is pretty impressive. With the complexity of some science labs, being able to adapt to whatever is thrown at them is a skill that I want to have.
What were you trying to convey to your audience through the creation of your infographic? Explain your rationale for focusing on this particular question/topic?
With the creation of my infographic, the message that I was trying to convey was that we need to stop the deforestation of the world. We don’t just use the trees for paper, but also for lumber, fuel and building supplies. Even by planting one tree, hundreds would have been cut down by then. So the next goal is to find a renewable resource that would bring down our ecosystem. The way that I planned out my infographic was to have the most important facts seen first. With the biggest facts seen first, my infographic was easily read but contain some deeper information. The main reason why I chose deforestation as my topic was that I wanted to learn more about it also. We always read the tragic stories about endangered species losing their homes and how the environment is becoming more polluted with the lack of trees to clean the air. So I decided to learn more about the reasons behind deforestation and to educate others about what is happening.
I was nervous about having to create our own lab that needed to deal with energy. We wrote the procedure the day before we needed to went to the lab. The day of the lab, there was only one Geiger counter, and three other groups that were working with radioactivity. So my partners and I needed to improvise. We ended up completing the lab the following Tuesday. Having to quickly alter the lab and collaborate with my partners to finish the lab, my perspective about scientists has changed. The way that scientists need to be able to work quickly when something changes, using quick thinking, is pretty impressive. With the complexity of some science labs, being able to adapt to whatever is thrown at them is a skill that I want to have.
What were you trying to convey to your audience through the creation of your infographic? Explain your rationale for focusing on this particular question/topic?
With the creation of my infographic, the message that I was trying to convey was that we need to stop the deforestation of the world. We don’t just use the trees for paper, but also for lumber, fuel and building supplies. Even by planting one tree, hundreds would have been cut down by then. So the next goal is to find a renewable resource that would bring down our ecosystem. The way that I planned out my infographic was to have the most important facts seen first. With the biggest facts seen first, my infographic was easily read but contain some deeper information. The main reason why I chose deforestation as my topic was that I wanted to learn more about it also. We always read the tragic stories about endangered species losing their homes and how the environment is becoming more polluted with the lack of trees to clean the air. So I decided to learn more about the reasons behind deforestation and to educate others about what is happening.
Changing the Direction of Radioactive Particles Through the Use of Magnetic Fields
ABSTRACT: We decided to look at how different radioactive substances can be altered by a magnetic pull. We took the radioactive substances, alpha, beta and gamma, and put a Geiger counter three inches away, and then measured the radioactive counts that the substances released with and without the magnets. We concluded that the beta radiation molecules had the highest count of radioactive molecules. This answered our question, can we deflect radiation by magnetic fields, by telling us that yes, magnets can alter the direction of the radioactive substances. This is significant in our daily lives because it can help us reduce the amount of radiation that humans are exposed to on a daily basis. The keywords that will be seen throughout the report are the different decays, and some of the tools that we used, such as the Geiger counter. There are only three decays: alpha, beta and gamma. Alpha is the weakest decay, beta is the middle and then gamma is the strongest decay, with very penetrating rays. To be able to do this experiment, we used a Geiger counter, which counts the radioactive molecules in the surrounding air every second.
Introduction: This experiment was chosen by the group because we wanted to gain a higher knowledge of different radioactive substances and the different ways that the radiation can be altered. We were hoping to learn if we could create a diversion of radioactive particles with the use of magnets. The task that we completed by doing this experiment was using magnetic fields to affect the radioactive particles. Before we did the experiment, we researched the three different radioactive substances that we were going to be using. Alpha is the weakest decay, beta is the middle and then gamma is the strongest decay, with very penetrating rays. To be able to do this experiment, we used a Geiger counter, which counts the radioactive molecules in the surrounding air every second. We are expecting to find that the gamma radiation is the only one that would not be altered by the magnetic pull. Procedure: First we set up the Geiger counter and Logger Pro so that we could record our data. Next, we placed a ruler next to the counter and measured out the distances for our shielded sources and our magnets. We put our sources at 3 and half inches and our magnets at 3 inches from the geiger counter. The, we set the Logger Pro Program to record for 50 seconds and collect data every second. We would then run the program at with the magnet taped vertically upright and pointed at the collection window of the counter as shown in diagram one below. We would run the program once without magnets and once with the magnets. First we set up the Geiger counter and Logger Pro so that we could record our data. Next, we placed a ruler next to the counter and measured out the distances for our shielded sources and our magnets. We put our sources at 3 and half inches and our magnets at 3 inches from the geiger counter. The, we set the Logger Pro Program to record for 50 seconds and collect data every second. We would then run the program at with the magnet taped vertically upright and pointed at the collection window of the counter as shown in diagram one below. We would run the program once without magnets and once with the magnets. Results: In Table 1, we are shown three types of radiation both being affected by magnetic fields and not being affected magnetic fields. We see as we progress down the table the counts increase and then decrease this is because of the different sources we used as well as the types of radiation they emitted. We see that in the case of Alpha radiation the overall counts from the background radiation go up and that the magnets tend to have little effect on the overall counts. In the case of Beta radiation we see a huge increase in counts compared to background radiation. We also see that the magnets have a huge impact upon the overall counts. When the magnets were in place the average count was decreased by 198.67 counts. Next we look at Gamma where we see a moderate increase in radiation counts. We also see that the magnets have almost no effect. Discussion: In this experiment we were seeing if we could change the direction of radioactive particles through the use of magnetic fields. We used three different types of radioactive substances each emitting a different type of radiation: Alpha, Beta and Gamma. With the use of magnets, we were able to see a change in the path of some radioactive particles. We looked at three types of radiation Particles. One particle we looked at was Alpha particles. Alpha radiation is Helium nuclei that are shooting off from bigger nuclei at high speeds. As seen in table one there was little to no difference in the amount of counts when a magnetic field was introduced into the path of the particles. This was partially unexpected as helium nuclei have a positive charge and should be affected by the magnetic field. The reason there was no effect is because alpha particles are heavy and the source was to close to the Geiger counter for the particles to change direction enough to not be counted. Next, we looked at Beta radiation particles. Beta radiation is comprised of an electron and an antineutrino. The electron shoots of at a very high speed and is what is actually considered the radiation particle. We see that the count when way down when the magnetic field was introduced. This is because of the weight of the electron which is almost negligible this allowed the electrons to be affected in a greater way than the helium nuclei. They were also deflected in the opposite way of the alpha radiation because they are negatively charged while alpha is positively charged. Finally we looked at Gamma radiation. Gamma radiation is actually photons. Photons have no charge and can not be affected by magnets. This is why we see no significant change in the count of the radiation particles. We see some change because the rate of decay is not constant but varied in the rate. Overall from these results we can determine that some types of radiation particles can be affected by magnetic fields. Alpha and Beta can both be affected by magnetic fields. Gamma cannot. Hazards: Some of these hazards in this experiment aren’t very significant but should be taken into account. For example, the radiation emitting from the radioactive substances can be harmful but you can still become irradiated, to reduce the amount of radiation you are exposed to during this experiment, don’t hold the gamma substances for too long. Gamma radiation emits the most radiation followed by Beta and lastly Alpha, which is the least harmful. To reduce the risks during this experiment you should follow basic protocol of being safe in the lab. |
Magazine Article
As a female, growing up I was always taught that at a party, you never leave your drink alone or accept an open drink from a stranger. Girls are raised with a fear of being drugged at a party then being attacked and not being to protect ourselves. Although technology cannot eliminate this fear, the recent work of four students from North Carolina University have invented a nail polish that can detect different, common date rape drugs just by changing color. These undergraduates; Ankesh Madan, Stephen Gray, Tasso Von Windheim, and Tyler Confrey-Maloney, wanted to find a way to detect date rape drugs with chemistry and cosmetics. “While date rape drugs are often used to facilitate sexual assault, very little science exists for their detection,” the Undercover Color team wrote on their Facebook page. “Our goal is to invent technologies that empower women to protect themselves from this heinous and quietly persuasive crime.” These gentlemen are hoping that the victims fear will change to the perpetrators fear of attempting to drug anyone.
Undercover Colors are not the only company creating date rape detection kits. Another company that is addressing the problem of drug-coerced sexual assault is DrinkSavvy. DrinkSavvy stands on the belief that evenings out should be spent having a good time, not worrying about your drink. They are developing new cups, glasses, straws and drink stirrers that will change color if there is an unknown substance in your beverage. Currently they are still developing their product and haven’t released it to the public viewings. One company who has their product on the shelves (metaphorically) is Drink Safe Technologies, with drink coasters and drink testing kits for sale on their website. (store.drinksafetech.com/categories/) With just one drop of your drink, onto the coaster or card, and you can know almost instantly if your drink has been tampered with. Most of the coasters can detect two of the more popular date rape drugs, GHB and Ketamine. They have their product being sold on their website right now, some for under $5 dollars. The only problems with these detection systems is that there are many different types of date rape drugs and the chemical compounds get changed every day by people making them in their basement. So the challenge for the undergrads, who created the nail polish, is that they need the polish to react to any of the date rape drugs and nothing else. One of the more common compounds that can be classified as a date rape drug is GHB (gamma- Hydroxybutyric acid) or 4-hydroxybutanoic acid. GHB has been used in the medical scene to be an anesthetic or used to improve an athlete’s ability. The sodium form of GHB is colorless and odorless, but has a very salty taste. But when mixed with an alcoholic beverage, the alcohol masks the salty taste. Another common date-rape drug is Rohypnol which is a tranquilizer about ten times more potent than Valium. The drug is available as a white or olive-green pill and is usually sold in the manufacturer’s bubble packaging. The drugging victims often describe its effects as “paralyzing.” The effects start twenty to thirty minutes after taking the drug, peak within two hours and may persist for eight to even twelve hours. The person can be so incapacitated they collapse on the floor, eyes open, able to observe events but completely unable to move. Afterwards, memory is impaired and they cannot recall any of what had happened. If someone believed that they were drugged, they can get an over-the-counter urine test kit. The kit only tests for benzodiazepine date rape drugs. Benzodiazepines (BZD) enhances the receptor in the brain that can result in hypnotic sleep, muscle relaxant and is also used as a sedative. The urine kits aren’t designed to catch GHB or any other strands of date rape drugs. That is why it’s challenging to create a detection system that works because there are hundreds of different drugs that can render someone defenseless. That is why the undergraduates, and other companies are trying to make a defense systems that can prevent anything before it actually happens. With companies like DrinkSavvy and Undercover Colors, everyone can have a fun night of dancing and partying without needing to be watching their drinks of worrying about stranger’s ability to slip something into a drink. These companies are going to make the world a better and safer place to have a good night. But even if there is a way to detect roofies in drinks, alcohol still slows down your reactions and can lead to poor decision making. So have fun, but think safe. |
“How has the chemistry of materials shaped our past, present and how may it shape our future?”
Chemistry of materials has shaped the past because before we knew about chemical make-ups and how we could build off of the elements, we knew that there were smaller things holding everything together. It has helped us through every step of the way in innovations and will help us in the future. When we look at how a material reacts chemically, we can improve the material by changing it at the molecular level. With different experiments, the scientists of the past learned more about different materials that have shaped our future. “How does the structure of matter on the atomic, molecular, microscopic and macroscopic levels determine a material’s properties?” The structure of materials on the macro, microscopic, molecular and atomic scale, all give the element properties.The Molecular level determines if a material is a Ionic or Covalent bond. If it has a low melting point it will be covalently bonded, and if the element has a high melting point it will have Ionic bonds. The microscopic level is what the element looks under the microscope, whether with a more crystalline shape (more crystals) or a less solid shape. Then the macroscopic level can determine physical characteristics that can be seen with without the use of a microscope. |