A.  Daily Blog

9/3/2010 (Submitted 9/6/2010)

Today was the first official lecture. Lecture started with the text-messaging polls, in which we answered questions by texting our answers. I found it very interactive and I believe that it is a great way of learning since texting is something a great majority of teenagers are involved with at all times. Even though it is seen as a distraction, if something positive and education can come out of it, then why not? Its also anonymous, so even if you are wrong, you wouldn't look stupid in front of the class. 

We then proceeded to talk about radioactive isotopes and there importance in the medical field and research. Although I knew that atoms were an integral part of medical imaging and diagnosing, I didn't know how exactly they were incorporated and in what forms. Something new I learned was the the use of isotopes to concentrations of cancer cells in cancer patients. Since cancer is the non-stop dividing of cells, there hunger for energy is taken in advantage and the patient is few isotope enriched sugars. The cells quickly absorb the sugars and then scans show the "hot spots". The rest of lecture was a brief review for me and basically got my brain cells running again. We talked about atoms, bonds, atomic structure, etc. 

Over all I felt the class was interactive and kept us engaged. I usually tend to get really bored if I have to learn the same thing over and over, but this time I didn't because we actually had to be continuously involved in what was being said and taught. The information wasn't too hard to understand and the lecture went at the right pace (although this very statement could be wrong a month from now, but for the record). 

9/8/2010 (Submitted 9/8/2010)

Today's lectures was mainly focused around the three main types of bonds, ionic, covalent, and hydrogen. We started with the texting poll, and sadly I couldn't participate because my phone doesn't have signals in that room. We talked about bonds in relation to water. One interesting thing I learned was the reason ice floats in water and doesn't sink like you would expect most solids forms of the same liquid substance to. I always thought that because ice expands, its less dense, hence, it floats. So it was interesting learn why it floats. We talked about the properties of water such as that it cannot compress, it has adhesion, cohesion, surface tension, etc. The most interesting properties was perhaps absorption of heat, a property that makes water very special. In small amounts of water, the hydrogen bonds break quickly, heating the water up faster. But when there is a large body of water, such as an outdoor pool, the water starts to absorb all the heat because the amount of energy required to completely break all hydrogen bonds is tremendous, and the earth's climate isn't hot enough to emit that much energy in order to heat that much water. This answered another question of mine, which I always scream out loud when entering my pool: "Why is the pool so cold, when its a 100 degrees outside?!?!" We later discussed how water is a great solvent because of its polarity. It also was mentioned that only 1 in every 10,000,000 H₂O dissociates into H⁺ and OH^- ions.  The calculation of pH, which is the concentration of H⁺ in a solution, was a review from me because we went over that in the Chem summer course. All in all, today's lecture was another brain cell simulator for me and got them running, yet again. 

B.  Useful Materials

1. Atoms in 3-D (submitted 9/6/2010, via Scientific American) - Some one in class had mentioned if we would be able to see atoms clearly if we focused on them with something like a electron microscope. This article talks about a new technology that uses photons that cause the electrons to produce a diffraction pattern, allowing us to see its structure and size. This technology also makes them appear 3-D when left and right polarized lights are shot at the electrons, and the images produced are merged. 

2. Electronegativity Variation (subitted 9/6/2010) - I had been confused about which atoms are more electronegative than the others and how the electronegativity patters works out on the periodic table. This image, very clearly, explains each level of electronegativity as well as compares it to others. 

3. Valence Electron (9/6/2010) - This video explains electron typing and looking at the valence shell electrons, or the electrons of the outermost shell, to determine reactivity. This video also explains how elements bond and what conditions of the electrons cause them to bond with certain elements in a certain way.