Blog Archives

current event -- Radioactive waste from wwii

10/30/2015

Happy Friday! I was not able to post this blog until today, and next week it will be on Friday, 11/6.

For inexpensive chemistry labs to expand your repertoire, buy my lab book Chemistry on a Budget for $21 at amazon.com or $23 at lulu.com.

http://www.amazon.com/Chemistry-Budget-Marjorie-R-Heesemann/dp/0578129159/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1389410170&sr=1-1&keywords=chemistry+on+a+budget

http://www.lulu.com/shop/marjorie-r-heesemann/chemistry-on-a-budget/paperback/product-21217600.html

There are two versions of each lab, one with a ten-question conclusion and one with directions for a full lab report. This way the teacher has the option! Each lab is two pages to allow for one two-sided handout.

It will take a week or so to get to you, so Order Now!

*Some of you have purchased my lab book – be sure to check out Page 141 !

Current concerns are being raised about radioactive waste in a dump in St. Louis, Missouri, and the residents are protesting the federal government’s action (or lack of action) to contain and clean up this waste.

For some history:
“St. Louis' nuclear legacy dates to World War II, when uranium was processed here for America's first nuclear weapons. One landfill - named a Superfund cleanup site in 1990 -- houses illegally disposed nuclear residue from the Cold War era. The other, about 1,000 feet from the radioactive material, has a slow burn that has been smoldering for five years.”
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/st-louis-community-fed-up-over-dangerous-landfills-attorney-general-sues/

“The Republic Services-owned West Lake Landfill was contaminated with radioactive waste from uranium processing by a St. Louis company known as Mallinckrodt Chemical. The waste was illegally dumped in 1973 and includes material dating to the Manhattan Project, which created the first atomic bomb in the 1940s.”
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/epa-remedy-landfill-fire-2017-34747208

Here is an article providing a timeline of the concerns about this landfill:
http://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/confused-about-bridgeton-west-lake-landfills-heres-what-you-should-know
It says: “… in early September [2015], Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster released nine reports about the landfills. One suggested the subsurface heating reaction — which people refer to as a fire — was moving north, toward the radioactive waste. Another said radiation had been detected in trees on private property outside the landfills' boundaries.”

One concern about the radioactive waste and fire is:
“Underground landfill fires produce potentially toxic gases, including carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, aldehydes, hydrogen sulfide, sulfur dioxide and benzene ― a known carcinogen.”

There is also concern about this fire and the nuclear waste causing a release of radioactivity:
“Government officials have quietly adopted an emergency plan in case the smoldering embers ever reach the waste, a potentially "catastrophic event" that could send up a plume of radioactive smoke over a densely populated area near the city's main airport.”
http://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2015/10/06/disaster-plan-developed-in-case-fire-reaches-nuclear-waste

Moving the waste is not really an option because it may result in a release of radiation:
“A report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service's Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, released Friday, warned that disturbing the surface of the landfill could release radium-226, radon-222 and radium-228 into the air and put landfill workers, in particular, at risk.”
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-nuclear-fire-20151020-story.html

Amidst these concerns, “A class action lawsuit has been filed against Mallinckrodt, the chemical processing firm that handled the nuclear material for the government. The group behind the lawsuit says there have been 2,700 cases of cancer around the creek. County health director, Dr. Faisal Khan, sees legitimacy in the claims.”
https://www.rt.com/usa/319322-cancer-cluster-missouri-nuclear-waste/

This is another current event that could be researched as Extra Credit, or students could research/discuss the issues around the event.

Here is another example of hazardous waste not properly contained and (1) later endangering the health of residents and (2) requiring an expensive clean-up. Another recent incident was the recent Colorado Mine Accident (blog post 8/13/2015).

It’s interesting that the waste is from The Manhattan Project and development of the atomic bomb in WWII. Perhaps you want to talk to the Social Studies teacher(s) at your school and find out if this situation is appropriate for discussion in their classes as well.

This Blog contains several entries that would be helpful to your chemistry classroom. Remember, you can check out the Topic List to help you to find past Blog entries.

The lab book Chemistry on a Budget is very useful to your Chemistry classroom with labs and class article ideas.
Order Soon!

Also, Write To Me about your successes, challenges, or questions in the Chemistry Classroom.

Have a good weekend, and Happy Halloween!

0 Comments

the future of nuclear fusion

10/22/2015

0 Comments

Friday, October 23rd (10/23) is Mole Day! Ask your class why it’s at 6:23am/6:23pm.

Some of my Mole related blog posts include: Celebrating Mole Day on 10/20/14; …Mole Labs in My Book on 10/23/2014; Mole Mathematics on 10/15/15; and, …Mole Conversions and [the] Moletown Map on 1/10/14. Check them out!

For inexpensive chemistry labs to expand your repertoire, buy my lab book Chemistry on a Budget for $21 at amazon.com or $23 at lulu.com.

http://www.amazon.com/Chemistry-Budget-Marjorie-R-Heesemann/dp/0578129159/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1389410170&sr=1-1&keywords=chemistry+on+a+budget

http://www.lulu.com/shop/marjorie-r-heesemann/chemistry-on-a-budget/paperback/product-21217600.html

There are two versions of each lab, one with a ten-question conclusion and one with directions for a full lab report. This way the teacher has the option! Each lab is two pages to allow for one two-sided handout.

It will take a week or so to get to you, so Order Now!

*Some of you have purchased my lab book – be sure to check out Page 141 !

A recent article about nuclear fusion at the CNN website is a useful source of discussion and inquiry:
http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/06/tech/pioneers-nuclear-fusion/index.html

Nuclear Fusion has been discussed in past blog posts, Introduction to Nuclear Chemistry on 2/11/15 and Nuclear Chemistry – Part II … on 2/18/15.

In this article, the terms deuterium and tritium (two isotopes of hydrogen) are used. Isotopes are discussed in the blog post dated 02/26/14.

Nuclear Fusion is the combining or fusing of small nuclei where mass is lost and converted to energy. Bringing particles carrying the same electric charge requires a great deal of energy to overcome the repulsive forces -- remember, like charges repel!

Overcoming the repulsive forces is accomplished at very high temperatures (about 200 million degrees Celsius) – the difficulty of accomplishing this is (a) producing more energy than is consumed and (b) containing the super-hot, charged gas (plasma) without touching and damaging the equipment.

Several ideas and designs are currently being developed. This topic could be a source of (1) a Homework article to be summarized, (2) Extra Credit research.

Another idea is to have each student read a different article and then meet in small groups to share their article.

One way to approach distributing the articles, assign five students 1 article, another five the 2nd article, repeating this for all five articles. Then students meet in groups of five, each having read a different article. In that small group, each can summarize and share 2-3 facts.

Here are six articles/sites about Nuclear Fusion Reactors that may be useful:

This article is very current and describes a new design approach meant to contain the very hot plasma:
http://news.sciencemag.org/physics/2015/10/feature-bizarre-reactor-might-save-nuclear-fusion

Here’s an article from MIT with the title:
“A small, modular, efficient fusion plant -- New design could finally help to bring the long-sought power source closer to reality. “http://news.mit.edu/2015/small-modular-efficient-fusion-plant-0810

For a bit of history, the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor in Princeton, NJ was used for research in the 1990s:
http://www.pppl.gov/Tokamak%20Fusion%20Test%20Reactor
The site contains links to several articles listed under “Research” .

Here is a webpage where the reader can scroll over a drawing of a reactor and view descriptions of the parts:
https://www.iter.org/mach

This site “Fusion for Energy” is from Europe and discusses various aspects of the efforts:
http://fusionforenergy.europa.eu/understandingfusion/technology.aspx

This 2013 headline reads, “Fusion reactor achieves tenfold increase in plasma confinement time -- Experimental design improved heat dissipation, reducing damage to reactor walls.”http://arstechnica.com/science/2013/11/fusion-reactor-achieves-tenfold-increase-in-plasma-confinement-time/

This Blog contains several entries that would be helpful to your chemistry classroom. Remember, you can check out the Topic List to help you to find past Blog entries.

The lab book Chemistry on a Budget is very useful to your Chemistry classroom with labs and class article ideas.
Order Soon!

Also, Write To Me about your successes, challenges, or questions in the Chemistry Classroom.

Have a good weekend, and Happy Mole Day this Friday!

0 Comments

mole mathematics

10/15/2015

0 Comments

The weather is getting colder as Fall, 2015 is settling in. You’re approaching the end of your first Marking Period. Great job!

For inexpensive chemistry labs to expand your repertoire, buy my lab book Chemistry on a Budget for $23 at amazon.com or lulu.com.

There are two versions of each lab, one with a ten-question conclusion and one with directions for a full lab report. This way the teacher has the option! Each lab is two pages to allow for one two-sided handout.

There are a couple of labs based on the Mole Concept, both good for introducing the idea.

It will take a week or so to get to you, so Order Now!

http://www.amazon.com/Chemistry-Budget-Marjorie-R-Heesemann/dp/0578129159/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1389410170&sr=1-1&keywords=chemistry+on+a+budget

http://www.lulu.com/shop/marjorie-r-heesemann/chemistry-on-a-budget/paperback/product-21217600.html

*Some of you have purchased my lab book – be sure to check out Page 141 !

Mole Day is coming up on 10/23!

Some of my past Mole related blog posts include: 10/20/14 about Celebrating Mole Day; 10/23/2014 titled …Mole Labs in My Book; and 1/10/14 titled …Mole Conversions and [the] Moletown Map. Check them out!

Upon reviewing my blog, I realized that my Mole coverage has been sort of spotty, so I’d like to focus on the math and worksheets; but, do make sure to check out the past posts!

For some history of the term “mole”:
“The unit "mole" was introduced into chemistry around 1900 by Ostwald, and he originally defined this unit in terms of gram."
http://www.kentchemistry.com/links/GasLaws/Mole.htm

As written in the 10/20/2014 entry of this Blog:
The term "mole" is short for the German word "molekulargewicht" which translates to "molecular weight" . … [Ostwald] was writing a paper and was required to use the term molekulargewicht over and over, and subsequently shortened it to the phrase "mole" .

Initially, it seems very foreign to students, but eventually is proven over and over in lab.

Dimensional Analysis or The Factor-Label Method (blog post on 09/02/2014) is very useful for mole conversion math.

Here is a 13-minute video using Dimensional Analysis to covert between moles, mass and particles:

The beginning of this video has a nice explanation of the usefulness of The Mole. The end contains problems with multiple conversions which demonstrate the typical, tougher problems of mole conversions, and the utility of Dimensional Analysis with these problems.

In addition to the relationship of moles and mass, and moles and particles, is that of moles and liters of gas at STP (standard temperature and pressure). Some teachers do not convert gas values until they are teaching about gases in class – the Gas unit can be rather packed with information to master (depending on the course syllabus), so it is up to the teacher to supplement or edit these materials as necessary.

Here is one image of a Mole Road Map:
http://missrobichaud.tripod.com/id12.html

Here are some Mole Conversion Worksheets for your class:

Here are 2 pages with 4 molecular mass questions and 10 mole/mass/particle questions:
http://www.gpb.org/files/pdfs/gpbclassroom/chemistry/moleProblemsWkst.pdf
It might be useful as an overhead that could be used for a class lesson.

This mole/mass worksheet is 2 pages with a 3rd answer page:
http://www.sheffieldschools.org/Downloads/MolestoGrmasandgramstomolesconversionsws-WITHANS.pdf

Here is a page with 10 questions containing mole/gram/particle/volume conversions with another answer page:
http://www.kenwoodacademy.org/ourpages/auto/2012/3/13/35750683/Mole%20Conversion%20Wkst%20_4.pdf
Maybe use this as a quick quiz?

This is a series of eight pages with worksheets and answers:
http://www.willametteleadershipacademy.net/uploads/2/2/7/0/22709016/extraconversionpractice2.pdf

In my lab book “Chemistry on a Budget”, there are several labs focusing on The Mole Concept that you might want to check out:

"Catching Moles” which is good for grasping the concept as it develops and proves the utility of relative mass;
“Moles in Your Name?” using chalk, the blackboard and a balance; and
“Molar Volume” collecting a gas sample and gathering the measurements needed to calculate useful information.

This Blog contains several entries that would be helpful to your chemistry classroom. Remember, you can check out the Topic List to help you to find past Blog entries.

The lab book Chemistry on a Budget is very useful to your Chemistry classroom with labs and class article ideas.
Order Soon!

Also, Write To Me about your successes, challenges, or questions in the Chemistry Classroom.

Have a good weekend!

0 Comments

current event - contaminated drinking water

10/8/2015

0 Comments

The school year is moving along – remember that Mole Day is coming up 10/23! Check out my blog post from 10/20/14 about Celebrating Mole Day!

For inexpensive chemistry labs to expand your repertoire, buy my lab book Chemistry on a Budget for $21 at amazon.com or $23 at lulu.com.

There are two versions of each lab, one with a ten-question conclusion and one with directions for a full lab report. This way the teacher has the option! Each lab is two pages to allow for one two-sided handout.

There are a couple of labs based on the Mole Concept, both good for introducing the idea.

It will take a week or so to get to you, so Order Now!

http://www.amazon.com/Chemistry-Budget-Marjorie-R-Heesemann/dp/0578129159/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1389410170&sr=1-1&keywords=chemistry+on+a+budget

http://www.lulu.com/shop/marjorie-r-heesemann/chemistry-on-a-budget/paperback/product-21217600.html

*Some of you have purchased my lab book – be sure to check out Page 141 !

The city of Flint, Michigan changed its source of drinking water about 1 ½ years ago, leading to E Coli contaminated water being delivered through pipes containing lead (Pb).

“…Flint, unable to come to an agreement on a short-term contract with Detroit, quit buying water from its system and signed on with a new system that will draw water from Lake Huron.”
http://www.npr.org/2015/09/29/444497051/high-lead-levels-in-michigan-kids-after-city-switches-water-source

We tend to take our drinking water for granted that it will be clean and safe from bacterial infection. Over the years, there have seen local “Do Not Drink” warnings because of heavy rains overwhelming the local water treatment plant or other source of contamination.

“Formerly, Flint took water from Lake Huron that was treated, then they switched to the Detroit water source, and finally to water directly from the Flint River. … The Flint water problems could take until 2016 to be resolved, when the city starts using lake water again.”
http://www.inquisitr.com/1747612/flint-michigan-water-putting-residents-at-risk/

Now residents are being advised to boil water and concerns about long term exposure to lead (Pb) have surfaced.

“City officials say coliform bacteria was found in localized areas of the Flint water system.”
http://michiganradio.org/post/boil-water-warning-flint-neighborhoods-after-contamination-found-0#stream/0

“Doctors are finding elevated levels of lead in the children in Flint, Mich., and local tap water is the likely cause. That's the latest alarming news to come out of the city, which switched its water source about a year and a half ago.”
http://www.npr.org/2015/09/29/444497051/high-lead-levels-in-michigan-kids-after-city-switches-water-source

“It appears that the toxic metal [lead] had been entering drinking water through corroded pipes and plumbing materials, according to Flintwaterinfo.com.”
http://ecowatch.com/2015/10/07/flint-michigan-lead-contamination/

Here’s another article outlining the history of this issue:
http://www.inquisitr.com/1747612/flint-michigan-water-putting-residents-at-risk/

Lead (Pb) is an element that is toxic:
“Researchers … in Flint said last week that lead levels in local children have risen since the city … started getting its water from the Flint River instead of the Detroit system in April 2014. … Lead poisoning can cause learning disabilities, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At very high levels, it also can lead to seizures, coma and even death.”
http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2015/10/02/health-emergency-declared-due-lead-flint-water/73196456/

Several activities could be derived from this current situation. For example your students could:

-Research the element lead (Pb) and report on its uses, sources of lead (including contamination) and its toxic effects;
-Research/discuss the situation of contaminated drinking water and research/propose solutions;
-Research/discuss the source of drinking water for their own household.

Different students could research the various topics and then report to the class and/or prepare a poster or display for the classroom.

This Blog contains several entries that would be helpful to your chemistry classroom. Remember, you can check out the Topic List to help you to find past Blog entries.

The lab book Chemistry on a Budget is very useful to your Chemistry classroom with labs and class article ideas.
Order Soon!

Also, Write To Me about your successes, challenges, or questions in the Chemistry Classroom.

Remember, Mole Day is coming up on 10/23!

Some Mole related blog posts include: 10/20/14 about Celebrating Mole Day; 10/23/2014 titled …Mole Labs in My Book; and 1/10/14 titled …Mole Conversions and [the] Moletown Map. Check them out!

0 Comments

current event -- Radioactive waste from wwii

the future of nuclear fusion

mole mathematics

current event - contaminated drinking water

Author

Archives

Categories