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Why Chemistry?

Posted by saedigh at 09:07 AM on September 30, 2008

This is the title of the paper we've been asked to write in our Chemistry Curriculum class. The purpose it to persuade a high school student to study Chemistry. Said high school student will also be the one assigning us our grade. They'll mark us on grammar, style, voice, content, and organiztion, all on levels 1 to 4. For example, for voice, level 4 is "Individual and powerful", whil level 1 is "This paper made me yawn." Yeah.
So here's my first attempt. Feedback is welcome, particularly if you're an Ontario high school student or at least pretending to be an Ontario high school student.

Why Chemistry?
Or How to be Awesome When You’re Still too Young to Vote

Why chemistry? Good question. Had I not been sitting pretty much where you are 15 or so years ago, I would probably try to convince you that chemistry is important by listing a bunch of the trivia you’d be expected to memorize by the end of the course—that the chemical formula for table salt is NaCl, that the atomic mass of Silicon is 28.09, or that John Dalton’s model of the atom was nicknamed “the raisin bun”—things you’ll only really find useful as a future contestant on Are you smarter than a former Canadian comedian? Maybe I’d rhyme off a list of glitzy, high-paying careers that require at least a basic understanding of chemicals and their interactions—forensic pathologist, pharmacist, high school science teacher. Perhaps I’d even try to lure you in with some sort of exciting, exploding demo—potassium in water, for example. As a final plea, I might even try to appeal to your inner hippie, and tell you how chemistry is all around you, that it makes you one with the universe—the Eggo you burned for breakfast, the Sun in the sky on your way to school, the Post-It you used to remind yourself to bring your gym clothes home for a wash, the bubbles in the beer you are much too young to drink.

I am not going to do any of that.

No, instead I am going to tell you the short, simple truth. To be blunt, I think chemistry is awesome.

The universe is big. Really, really, really, mind-numbingly big. To even try to think about how immense it is could quite probably cause your head to explode. To figure it all out, we’ve had to cut it up into more managable, bite-sized pieces. The Biologists look at all the living things, many of which are pretty slimey; the physicists look at all of the non-living things, a lot of them way too far away to actually see; and the chemists... they get to see the really fun stuff. Chemists see the whole picture.

Chemists understand why your Eggo burns when it gets stuck in the toaster and will someday, hopefully, build a better burn-resistant waffle. It was Chemists who figured out why the Sun’s rays damage your skin and a way to protect you from UV rays while still giving you a nice, healthy glow for March Break. If that weren’t enough, Chemists can usually be counted on to come up with the coolest party tricks—google “how to freeze a beer in seconds” if you don’t believe me. See? Awesome. Oh, and we get to explode stuff, too.

So, how does all this tell you why you should study chemistry? I suppose it doesn’t. These are all reasons why chemistry is important to me. But maybe, just maybe, if I’ve done this right, you’ll be tempted to find out how chemistry could be important to you, too, even if it is just for the cool party tricks.

Comments

This is very good. I really enjoyed reading it. First of all, your writing is entertaining and the language accurately aims to hit your targeted audience.

I wish I could have had someone as enthusiastic as you for a chemistry teacher.

Keep up the great work, Ms. Currie!

Posted by: Marsha at September 30, 2008 12:17 PM

Sorry, Sarah. I was a bit trigger happy. There was a first of all. So I suppose I should include a "second of all". I think what was missing from much of what we read in high school was humour. I think it's a basic, but crucial, ingredient in captivating those fickle teenagers.

I'm confident that your judicious use of humour in this paper could encourage a normally slack-jawed kid to consider studying chemistry, someone who might otherwise pass it over as borrrrring, leading to zzzz....

So you've done chemistry a great service by writing well and being funny!

Now we return to our regularly scheduled program.

Posted by: Marsha at September 30, 2008 12:22 PM

I think is it great...I even had to google “how to freeze a beer in seconds” (although it is not REALLY seconds, as the beer has to be in the freezer for a few hours, but I digress).
I agree with Marsha, any teacher worth listening to added humour and interesting things in the class.

Posted by: Tracy at September 30, 2008 10:37 PM

I love it :-)

Posted by: heather at October 1, 2008 12:31 AM

What an excellent assignment. Your perspective sounds like the one I should have had for my high school chemistry class. It was definitely ZZZZZZ complete with the ancient teacher's collection of polkadotted bowties which I found infinitely more interesting. I also checked out how to freeze beer and found it fascinating.I've always consodered myself to be a life-long learner...
Keep up the great work!

Posted by: Dee at October 7, 2008 02:25 PM

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