Author: Alysa

Chemistry 11 Midterm Assessment

Content

A strength I had with the Atomic theory unit was the orbital diagrams because I felt that I understood the proper format and was able to draw them for various different elements. A weakness I had with Atomic theory unit was remembering the periodic table trends as I found it a little confusing to remember the different properties and definitions.

A strength I had with the Bonding unit was identifying polar, nonpolar, and ionic bonds. I felt like I had a good understanding of each type of bond and so could apply knowledge to different questions. A weaknesses I had with the Bonding unit was drawing the VSEPR diagrams. I found the different shapes confusing at the beginning and struggled with knowing whether the bonding pairs went in the front, back, or side.

A strength I had with the Mole Unit was the empirical and molecular formulas. I felt like I understood the steps to get the formulas and did lots of practice to become efficient at it. A weakness I had with the Mole Unit was learning significant figures. It took me a while to understand what counted as a sig fig and how to round my answer based on that, especially with some of the exceptions. 

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Astronomy Wonder Assignment

Where do elements come from? What is the possibility of harvesting these elements to use?

Young star in space

All elements on Earth, other planets, the moon, and asteroids came from the same place: the cores of stars. Young stars begin primarily made up of the first element of the periodic table, hydrogen. Through a process called nucleosynthesis, the immense pressure of the star causes a proton to capture an electron and change it to a neutron. With the fusion of two protons and two neutrons, the element, helium, can be formed. Two nuclei of helium can then form beryllium and a helium and a beryllium can form carbon. This chain of reaction can continue creating different elements until iron, which is the heaviest element that can be formed without consuming the star’s energy. When the core becomes pure iron, the star can no longer support its weight and collapses in upon itself, causing a supernova. This explosion releases the elements that were forged inside the star and the intense heat and pressure can even create heavier elements too. These elements become scattered across the universe and begin forming planets or become absorbed by existing ones. This means that the elements on Earth are identical to the ones in other celestial bodies, but with different levels of abundance. This leads to the possibility of harvesting those elements for our own use back on Earth.

The advanced rate of civilization and the negative impacts of climate change means that one day the metals heavily relied on for technology like gold, palladium, and lithium will run out. This has caused many people to turn to space as a hopeful solution to dwindling resources. As of now, space mining is still tentative but progressing quickly. in 2016, OSIRIS-REx, a NASA spacecraft, was sent to Bennu, an organic compound rich asteroid, to obtain rocks and dust from the surface.

OSIRIS-REx

While this was a major leap in space mining, technology is still not advanced for the full scale imagined. Although only a sample was brought back to Earth in 2023, the project took 7 years and cost over US$1 billion. Even if the metals were to be mined from asteroids, the process of bringing them back to Earth would be costly and require new, unheard of technology. Sending the raw ore back to Earth would be extremely heavy, slow, and expensive, as well as lead to an abundance of unneeded, useless material. Yet attempting to process it in space would be equally difficult as there are currently no techniques to refine ore in zero gravity and large amounts of machinery would have to be built. Still, the endless interest in the potential beyond Earth and the billionaires willing to invest money in space mining allow for a possibility for the sufficient technology to be created and used to harvest elements in space.

Buzz Aldrin planting the US flag on the moon

This can create many questions about the logistics of space, especially ownership among celestial bodies and the harvested elements. Currently, there are two main treaties in place to mitigate uncertainties. One of these is the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which was signed by all major spacefaring nations and states that “exploration and use of outer space should be carried on for the benefit of all peoples.” It also claims that “outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, is not subject to national appropriation.” This means that no country would have exclusive rights to a specific celestial body, although they would still be allowed to operate in space and claim rights to the metals harvested. The Moon Agreement was created by the United Nations General Assembly in 1979 and like the Outer Space Treaty, it calls for space to be universally owned or “the province of all mankind.” It asserts that the rewards of space mining should be “equitable” and “special consideration” should be given to “developing countries” that may be able to send rockets to space but need the resources. Countries that have “contributed either directly or indirectly to the exploration of the moon” also are entitled to rewards for their efforts. Despite these fair guidelines, three of the biggest nations interested in harvesting elements, United States, Russia and China, have not signed it, making it not as effective as it should be, as well as leaving an ambiguous future to space.

Knowing that the elements in space are alike to Earth’s make the possibilities of space mining endless. 16 Psyche, one of the most mineral rich asteroids out there, is reported to have as much as $700 quintillion worth of gold, which, if distributed equally, would allow every person on Earth to received around $93 billion. But with our current technology and methods, that fantasy is currently out of reach and perhaps it should stay that way. Earth is humanity’s home and should be taken care of, instead of purged even further with more materials than mankind can handle.

Reflection

1. What questions did you need to research in order to research your topic?

My second question about harvesting elements was very broad so I broke it down into smaller questions:

  • Who owns space?
  • Are there any current missions right now?
  • How would the elements be brought back to Earth?
  • Where would the extra resources go to?

2. What new or familiar digital tools did you try to use as you worked through this project?

I used Google to research most of my sources and used the shortcuts like quotation marks to narrow down the sites to what I needed. I also searched YouTube for a good video related to my topic and a citation machine at the end to properly format my sources.

3. What was the process you used to investigate the topic?

I started off with my smaller questions and compiled the answers together. After I understood this information, I was able to tackle my overarching question of space mining. I visited multiple sites about the topic and tried to find ones with more simpler language that I could understand.

4. How did you verify and cite the information you found?

I visited multiple sites to verify the information. I also thought about what I read and if it sounded true or not. One site mentioned that metals in space were different, but many other sites said they were the same or didn’t mention it at all, leading to me not using that site and the information. I compiled my sources together and used a citation machine to cite them.

5. How did the process of completing this challenge go? What could you have done better?

I think the process of completing this assignment went alright. I’m satisfied with the end result and put effort into researching and writing this project. I think that next time I could delve deeper into space mining like the pros and cons of it, as well as more about NASA’s missions.

Sources

Segura-Salazar, J., & Moore, K. (n.d.-b). The hype is out of this world, but mining in space won’t save the Earth. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/the-hype-is-out-of-this-world-but-mining-in-space-wont-save-the-earth-191855

Ruth, C. (2009). Where Do Chemical Elements Come From. ChemMatters. http://images.pcmac.org/sisfiles/schools/sc/georgetown/waccamawhigh/uploads/documentssubcategories/documents/where do the chemical elements come from.pdf

Yarlagadda, S. (2022, April 8). Economics of the Stars: The future of asteroid mining and the global economy. Harvard International Review. https://hir.harvard.edu/economics-of-the-stars/

EVONA. (2023, August 16). What is. . . asteroid mining? | EVONA. https://www.evona.com/blog/what-is-asteroid-mining/

Munro, D. (2022, May 25). Who owns outer space, and everything in it? Centre for International Governance Innovation. https://www.cigionline.org/articles/who-owns-outer-space-and-everything-in-it/

Science 10 Final Self Assessment

Pillar 2: Collaboration and Problem-Solving

My current strengths within this pillar are: I show support and encouragement to others, I always give my best effort and strive to be my best for the group, I actively listen to all group members, and I am open to different strategies.

Areas I could show grow are checking in with my group members more during labs and shared assignments, as well as learning to embrace mistakes as opportunities for learning.

My goal is to review the wrong questions I got on tests or assignments and correct them, as well as figure out what I could do next time to avoid it from happening again. I can do this to prevent me from hyper fixating on my mistakes and understand that there’s takeaways I can receive from them to grow and improve.

Final Assessment

  • Reflect on your goal setting from your Midterm Self-Assessment: did you reach your goal? Did you improve and make progress towards your goal? How could you have done things differently? Would you have changed anything?

I think I somewhat reached my goal. Before major tests, I tried to review any mistakes I made during the unit and redid past assignments which helped me do well on my exams. I don’t think this really prevented me from focusing so much on my mistakes though. To work on that, I think I would’ve given myself targets to reach for exams. By having an attainable score to reach would give me something to celebrate and focus on that achievement instead of mistakes.

3D Data Visualization

Raw data

First prototype

Second prototype

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lungs frame

Finished Project

Finished Project

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For this project, I chose to represent data based on the total population of smokers per province in Canada and how that correlates to the number of deaths from lung cancer. Since both sets of data had to do with lungs, I chose to use that organ as the main part of the design and place the provinces floating inside them. I used colour to represent the number of deaths from lung cancer by having darker reds symbolize a high death rate and pale yellows to show lower ones. I also placed the provinces with a higher percentage of smokers higher in the lungs and vice versa for lower ones. This initial idea went through a lot of changes and critiques as my main plan didn’t end up working out. I had to think through my problems to find clever solutions and persevered through a lot of frustration and self-doubt. But this turned out worth it in the end as I have a project I’m proud of.

Core Competency Reflection

I used critical thinking throughout this project. I can experiment with different ways of doing things. I had to do a lot of experimenting to make my vision for this assignment work. I knew very clearly that I wanted to have provinces floating in transparent lungs to symbolize my data, but I wasn’t as sure on how to create it. I started with pipe cleaners, plastic wrap, and an attempt at 3d printing provinces. All of these had problems and I decided to look for alternatives that were less finicky. This time, I tried making the lungs with wire, cut up ziplock bags, and cardboard provinces. The wire was slimmer and attached to the ziplock bags better while the provinces took less time and were less hassle. By critically thinking through my idea, I was able to make changes that improved the design and allowed for my vision to come into fruition. 

I can monitor my progress and adjust my actions to make sure I achieve what I want. Due to the fact my project went through several changes, including two different prototypes, it took a lot longer than I expected. As a result, I had to make sure I didn’t fall behind and could finish within the timeframe. I broke up the work needed to be done in chunks and planned which days I would complete each chunk. I made sure to overestimate the timeframes and leave additional time for any mistakes or changes I might need to make. This careful monitoring helped keep me from procrastinating or having to rush the project a few days before it was due.

Paper Airplane Experiment

My group chose to test how the weight and size of a paper airplane affects the distance it travels. We believed that the lighter the airplane was, the farther it would travel. Our hypothesis was rejected when we found that the size 1/2 airplane travelled the farthest instead of the size 1/4 airplane. This may have been because the 1/2 plane was light enough to accelerate fast but heavy enough to still keep its momentum. Next time, I would choose a more open area because we had to redo some trials due to the airplanes hitting the walls. This made the tests less accurate as the tips would get bent. 

Desmos Art Functions Card 2023 Hubbard

Reflection

I found this project very engaging and it challenged me in a multitude of ways. I figured out what equations to use by first deciding on which function best fit the line I wanted to trace. Then I used point-slope form to place the line where I wanted and changed the slope to fit the desired shape. This project tested my patience a lot and probably the most challenging part was making the lines connected perfectly, especially when I started out not doing that. This meant I had to go back and add extra connecting lines or change the equation so there wasn’t any overlap. Although it took a long time to fix all my lines, it did feel rewarding in the end to know that all my lines connected. I had help in getting my non-linear functions to connect by using the slope formula and kind of had an aha moment when I realized that it would be extremely useful for this project and not just some formula I had to remember for test questions where I was connecting imaginary dots. What helped me not get too sick of the project was multitasking and focusing on specific areas. I would have the project open and something else to switch back and forth, which helped me not get too burnt out. Having a specific goal each day helped too because it would ensure I would be making progress and give me a lot of satisfaction knowing that something that wasn’t there the previous day was completed. This assignment definitely improved my knowledge of functions, especially each shape the seven of them make and how slope affects them. It also showed how time saving function notation and slope formula can be as well as how useful domain and range restrictions are. I showed a growth throughout my project of my understanding of equations as well as I started left to right and used a lot more equations on the left than the right. It wasn’t because the left was more complicated but because by the time I got to the right person, I had a better grasp of functions and how to properly connect them that I was able to trace them with less lines.