Chemistry Students Explore the ‘Elements’ of Writing

By Jeff White

“I like to do a lot of everything in my class,” Marsha Caine said in the high school’s main foyer Monday morning. The young, energetic second-year chemistry teacher stood in front of a wall display of projects from her college prep class, where each student had to write about an element on the Periodic Table.

The assignment was to research an element and ascertain specific information, from the element’s date of discovery, to its molecular weight, natural state, boiling point and composition. Ten facts had to be included in each student’s project, but that was not the extent of the assignment’s guidelines. Ms Caine challenged her students to think of creative ways to write about the elements.

She got the idea from an article she had read recently, where the author used a fictional “Dear John” letter to describe why Francium could not marry John. One of her students expanded on this idea, writing a Dear Jane letter from Cobalt: “I’m never around because I’m usually found in deposits in Zaire, Morocco and Canada.”

Aaron Coopersmith created the character Idy Iodine, and told the story about her trip to the doctor’s office.

“Idy Iodine,” she said, “it is time for your annual check up with Dr Percy Periodic.

I screamed, I kicked, and I formed compounds with a few elements because that is what I do. After I exhausted my futile temper tantrum, I was headed into the doctor’s office. A feeling of dread was strangling me as I waited in the holding room. I searched the place like a novocaine hurricane looking for something to cling to. I am usually less reactive than other halogens, but I just couldn’t get a grip.

Tracy Samuels opted to write her story as a personal ad placed in a newspaper. Bromine, or Bromie as Tracy called her main character, was searching for just the right kind of woman.

I’m looking for a compatible playmate. Soft, not dry at room temperature and very basic are all the qualities I’m looking for. A girl who is a strong base with her personality and who is bold when most stable. She needs to be pure, and a body-centered figure.

Luckily for Tracey’s character Bromie, a beautiful element named Cesium saw the advertisement and replied.

Dear Bromie,

….I know I am sounding a little forward, but I want you to know so here it is. Since I have a very high boiling point of 677 degrees Celsius, I have a low tolerance for fights. Because my body form leads me to be influenced by others, my nickname used to be “slesium,” and it got me very upset…

Bromine and Cesium, of course, would be naturally attracted to each other, Ms Caine explained.

The styles and methods that Ms Caine’s students used in their projects reflected the variety of the elements about which they wrote. Amy Andras reported on an interview between Calcium and his therapist, Dr M Compound, shortly before Calcium’s suicide.

Many elements took on almost human characteristics as they wrote letters to their mothers and fathers. The element Strontium wrote an appeal to other alcoholics to join his support group. There was an essay about Manganese, the greatest Rock and Roll band “in the periodic world.”

Ytterbium’s journal was published, one student created an employment application for Bismuth and Nickel wrote a letter expressing his appreciation to his many fans.

One student’s ode to Titanium began, “Titanium, Titanium, where fore art thou? I loveth thy lustrous shine.”

Ms Caine’s periodic literature assignment was just one in a growing list of what she described as “quirky” assignments that she hoped got students more interested in chemistry. In the past, she has put on murder mysteries, held “glow-in-the-dark laboratories” where students supplied the black lights, and encouraged her students to show school spirit during blue-and-gold day by wearing blue shirts with an AU index card pinned to them.

“They eat this stuff up,” Ms Caine said of her “kitchen chemistry,” a term she used to describe her classroom demonstrations. She likes to do several demonstrations during each class, often using common household items and things her students can contribute to the lesson.

“I think good ideas happen by accident,” she mused about stumbling upon the idea for her elements project. “I try to switch things up and keep them on their toes.”

Besides giving her students a less conventional, and more fun, way of learning the Periodic Table, Ms Caine accomplished something this week that she did not plan. She made students in other chemistry classes, like Kelly Fuller, a little envious.

Her class did not make use of the types of activities students in Ms Caine’s class have come to expect. “At least they can be creative in class,” Kelly concluded.