Final Post!!!!!

I was just thinking about the ideas I submitted for the class that deals with an aspect of chemistry. I thought that some of the ideas I found were very interesting. I like the disappearing ink suggestion I made. I find that stuff fascinating. I went to my friend Sarah’s house the other day and she threw some of that stuff all over my new shirt and I was freaking out! I was about to cry but then it disappeared and she was like, “What are you whining about? I don’t know what you are talking about?” Then she showed me that it was disappearing ink and I starting throwing it all over the place and it would disappear within seconds. That stuff is so cool! I definitely think that would be something cool to look into. I also found this topic about why flamingos are pink? I guess it has to do with the food that they intake. I found that very fascinating and a very cool topic to think about discussing. I like the topic about mood rings too. How do those things work? I always thought it had to do with the warmth of your skin touching the ring or necklace, whatever type of jewelry it is. I would love to look into that. In my earlier post I said that I really like these blogs. I think that if there is a lot of time in my schedule within the next few months that I might actually open up another blog and keep it as a journal for my thoughts. I love to write and I think that I might actually keep one of these blogs for myself. It is fun and I think that it should be continued as a requirement for the class. I really think it gives the teacher a better insight to our feelings and knowledge on the assignments given to us. I think that the papers assignment weren’t that bad, sometimes a little confusing but if I read through the instructions a couple more times I got the picture. I had a good time taking this class and now that I have my AA transfer degree I am ready to get my career moving.

Malaria, Bayer and Chemistry

Malaria is a disease caused by the bites of infected mosquitos. These types of cases usually take place in Africa. Malaria really relates to our current society because there will always be cases of Malaria out there. There are ways to prevent getting it and it is curable. Bayer is relatable to our current society because they make medicine for people to take like aspirin and other pharmaceuticals that are meant to heal. There are many chemists who are responsible for such things to even be possible. The name Bayer is still known in today’s society and is still used often. I have completed my presentation for my final and I am very happy to be done with it all. I am happy now that I have completed all of the homework that I know of in this class and I think I have successfully passed all of my classes. I am off to MSU next semester and I cannot wait. Finals week was fairly easy for me and I am happy to say that I am done with it. This course was really interesting for me, I really thought it was challenging in some aspects but then not too confusing. I really like keeping these blogs because it keeps me thinking. It is like a journal I can speak freely to. I would definitely keep the journals even though I am turning mine in late. I just haven’t been able to get on the blog website in a couple of days so I am completing them while I still can. Sorry!!! I will admit thought that it is my own fault and nobody else’s. I am not making an excuses other than I am an extreme procrastinator. Don’t be like me fellow readers…..

Witches and Chemistry

Witchcraft and Chemistry is a very interesting subject. When I researched into this subject area I found a lot of interesting things but I also have my own thoughts on this matter. I think that we take the word witches a lot more lightly than people used to back in the days. I think that people now a day think of witches like a joke, take Harry Potter for instance. Who really thinks that anything like that is real? I do remember when I was younger and those movies came out that there were parents really against it. Kids will believe anything because they are naïve but parents seem to be more acceptable to the term witches. I think that witches play a big part into the make-up of our society today. In the past witches were thought of as evil beings that sold their souls to the devil. Witches to people back then were magical beings that cast spells and such nonsense. The term witches to me is more of a medicine woman. Most people accused of witchcraft were women that is why I say medicine women. I think that there is a lot of chemistry involved with witches because they make potions and they also have “magic” which in my case is just a combination of chemicals that make it seem like an unnatural explosion or mixture that most people are not used to. Witches are like Chemists! They know how to mix their potions. But most of the potions were meant for healing purposes and they used items that come from nature in order to cure other people.

I have written my outline. I felt a little better after making my outline because I thought the paper was actually easier knowing that all the information going into it came from my own head and that I didn’t need any sources. It was nice to be able to do that and I think a lot less stressful. I wasn’t surprised to submit an outline. I just didn’t turn it in until I had actually had most of my presentation finished. I knew that this week would fly by fast and I was happy. I am a little late writing these blogs so sorry if I am getting a little confusing. I wouldn’t change anything about this course. I really enjoyed taking this class a lot more than I thought I would.

Final Paper and Texitles/Plastic Discussion.

We are supposed to cover the topics of textiles and plastics. We have discussed this topic a lot in class. There are several different kinds of plastics and they can be made from several different sources. We used plastic everyday it seems. I am sure that the keyboard I am using to type this blog is made of plastic. A lot of things we use are made from some kind of plastic. Textiles are in many household items too, mostly clothing and yarn. I know that I probably mention this a lot but we really don’t think about what our items are made from until we are forced to do it. I didn’t know that a lot of these products and their materials had special names. I still like to research and read on the history and the making of products and what it takes to make each thing. I was pretty nervous about the paper. I think the thing that made me most nervous was how to organize it. I am still in the process of starting it and throwing it all together. I have done some thinking on what my products Kodak and Vitamin C mean to me since I am not allowed to paraphrase or take quotes. I am so used to being able to quote things for my papers because I couldn’t word the sentence any better myself. It is going to be different just giving my opinion on the matter of my two subjects, and then I also think it is going to be a lot easier on me because I don’t have to do any research. I guess it’s a win win situation. And now we are going into the subject of Natures Drugs. What I expect to learn is about medicine and things that come from our environment. I think of things like aspirin and what I just wrote my synthesis paper over, folic acid. I think of anything that comes or is made from nature that has healing properties. Even my topic of Vitamin C has healing properties, I remember reading from our book Napoleons Buttons that Vitamin C helps treat scurvy. I think that the final project will be due sometime around finals week. Maybe at the end of finals week….at least I hope :P

Natural Polymers

Natural Polymers relate to our everyday society through so many things. Some natural polymers are found in carpets, hardwood flooring, clothing, paper, cotton, textiles, etc. There are so many things that we have already discussed in our recent discussion board in our class. It was interesting to read in detail about 3 of the long list of natural polymers that we were given. I did mine over carpet, cotton, and hemp rope. If I would have gone into greater detail with my research I could have seen how close natural polymers relate to one another. I think that everything that we have in this world has to come from some kind of chemistry, because nothing can really be made unless we combine two different things to make something new. I think it is really cool how everything we have is even made possible just from chemistry. I never really thought about how much chemistry has influenced our everyday lives until I have taken this class. I feel so much more educated and my range of knowledge has increased, I feel a lot smarter. The Final Exam is in a couple of weeks and I am gonna be honest...I am not ready what so ever. I have been really stressed with school and me starting a new job, I just have so much stuff to memorize from both places I don't know where my head is most of the time. I chose to do my final over Vitamin C and Kodak. I am preparing an outline for my project, or paper. I haven't decided whether or not I am going to write a paper or make a powerpoint. I think that making a powerpoint would be less stressful and since I am mostly just a creative person I think I could have fun with it more that way. I hate to write papers that are boring and I have no interest or really care to whether or not I understand the subject completely. I don’t think that I can say I have any regrets or anything I would take back doing in this class. I feel as though everything happens for a reason and we shouldn’t regret what we do because it was probably what was meant to happen. If things go great for me….then YAY ME! But if not then oh well…..bummer. I guess the real decision for me is whether I am going to do a paper or powerpoint. I guess we shall just see what I have time for and what I feel like at that point in time.

Medicinal History and Group Project

I am so happy to be done with the group project!!!!! I feel a little less occupied but I feel as though I have been slacking off a bit. I feel horrible for doing that but I have so many issues going on in my life right now. I have been really stressed and it is nice to eliminate one of those stressors, being the group project. I will tell you all what I did in order to finish the project. I finished the annoted bibliography, completed parts, and any other outline thingy that needed to be dropped off in the drop box for the group project. I made an outline of all that I wanted on the powerpoint and sent it to Baron and Michael. Baron made a powerpoint template which we used and then we did individual slides. I combined them all, added transitions, pictures, and sound effects to finish it all up. I posted the project on blackboard in the discussion board and the teacher emailed me back saying it looked great. I was happy to get good feedback on it and get that off my shoulders. Now I have completed my group evaluation sheets and now I am catching up on these blogs and discussion boards posts for the class. I am beginning my final paper. I am getting a late start on it but I think after this week it should be completed. I have a lot of time to do my homework when I work the late shift at my job. I was pretty confused on what we were supposed to do or how the paper or powerpoint is to be set up. I think now that I have actually looked in detail as to what the teacher wants under the lessons tab I will be able to complete my project. Yes I was worried when he said no sources or bibliography but now that I think about it, it just leaves more room for me to talk with my own opinion or the whole subject matter. I will only discuss what I know about my compound and company. This blog post requires me to talk about what I thought of the Medicinal History lesson we did wayyyyyy long ago. I really found it quite interesting to see the different compounds that are used in medicine. I did my post over 3 compounds you can easily find on the periodic table, like gold and bismuth ( I can’t remember the other one right now). I also remember finding some very interesting information on all three of my compounds. I guess you could say if I got a little excited over the research that I enjoyed it. J

My Activities for the Group Pt. 3

We are at the finish line of our project. I just sent out all the emails attaching the powerpoint outline and I distributed the slides out to Baron and Michael. I asked them to send me their journals for when they worked out. I am doing the slides over our home research project and I am putting it all together for the last bit of our powerpoint. I was also thinking about making a video of myself showing exactly what we did for the work out so that the audience and class has a video idea of what we did. I think it would be fun and add an extra funny spark to our powerpoint. I am pretty goofy and I like to play around. I try not to be serious by any means. I hope that every one enjoys our powerpoint because we have put a lot of work and stress into finishing this. Some of the work may have been handed in a little late but I think that it will all work out in the end. This semester is almost over and since this is my last semester at OTC I am really wishing the semester flies by easily.

My Activities for the Group Pt. 2

I have been working really hard to pull this group together. I am trying to keep us in line to ensure that everything is being turned into the teacher in a timely manner. We are really behind on a lot of things and today was my day to just take control and get most of it done. Yes, I am getting kind of frustrated with nothing getting done on it's own. Sometimes I feel like everything is being pushed on me because I just feel really stessed. I do get emails from my group members periodically. Baron claims to have had internet problems and I can understand that, but things need to get done. Work needs to be split into even groups so that it is equal. It is a little late for things to be even but I am still trying to keep things in order. I have emailed my group members and told them that I am splitting the slides for our Powerpoint into even amounts, which should be around 4 slides a piece equally 12 slides altogether with informative information. I hope that this will all come together. I just feel really stressed. My life has had some ups and downs and homework just stresses me out even more.

My Activities for the Group Pt. 1

We are doing a group activity in our Chemistry and You online course. I am in a group with my friend/classmate Baron, and classmate Micheal. We are doing a research project on Powerade/Gatorade and its affects on athletes. I am not sure if athletes should be our only target group though. I think we would have a lot more to write about if we expanded our target group to people who exercise. These drinks can be effective and useful to anyone who is exercising. I have done a lot of research on what Powerade/Gatorade is, how it works, and who uses it. I have done research on electrolytes and what they are too.

Since doing the research I have been brainstorming ideas. I had an idea of doing a research activity testing to see if Gatorade or Powerade works for us. If we exercised for different periods of time and drinking these drinks. It may be an activity that takes several days of research but I think it would be beneficial to the paper creating a lot of things to write about to fill the pages of research we have to do. Our paper has to be 12-16 pages long. It is four pages double spaced per group member. When we were first assigned the group project my members emailed me back quickly. As the week has progressed though I havent heard much from either member about what they are doing. I send emails out every other day. I have strep throat right now so I haven't been feeling well. Yesterday I went to school and came home and fell asleep. Today I have been lying in bed all day, so I have been working on school work I am behind on. I read the chapters in Caveman Chemistry and think that the chapters relate to the chapters we read in Napoleons Buttons. I think that Napoleons Buttons is much easier to read and understand than the Caveman Chemistry book. I feel as though what I have read and understood that these chapters relate to one another in some way. I hope this group project starts to pull together and I get more help. I know that everyone has their own life and we are all busy. I can admit that I too am not always up on my homework. I am sure that we can get things going and it will turn out pretty well.

Isoprene and Steroids

    Steroids is a term I have far to much knowledge about. My mother has Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and she has to go to the hospital at least once or twice a year to get IVs of steroids to help with the pain. It is a miracle she is even walking still her doctors say. When my mother is on steroids she gets diabetes. There are many other side effects people can get when they use steroids, especially if someone is using steroids for the wrong reasons. When I think of steroids being taken I think of it more of as a shot or injection. People who abuse them will usually just stick a needle in a vein to pump themselves with steroids. I mentioned in my discussion board post about a man who was taking steroids for body building and his arms got so infected that they exploded. There is actually a youtube video that people can watch about it that I watched in health class a couple of semesters ago.

    I really didn't know the term Isoprene until I did the reading so I guess that says I am learning something in this class. Isoprene is rubber and rubber is so vital to our way of living, I don't know where we would be without it. But Isoprene is also the building block for steroids. It is very interesting to read about pills and injections and how closely things are related. Rubber is used in so many items that we use on a regular basis. In the reading it talks about birth control, mainly the pill form for women, and you can also think of condoms for birth control. Yeah rubber has a factor in the pill form but also the condom too. If we didn't have those our world could be so over populated because there was no effective birth control. But neither is 100% it comes close but doesnt always mean that it is ALWAYS going to work. It would be neat to eventually maybe have another birth control that men could take but like the book says its probably easier if the woman just takes the pill and be done with it. Rubber also make the all famous rubber duckies! I love those! Where would we be without that Rubber Ducky song from Sesame Street? I really feel as if I have learned so much in this class and have more knowledge of chemistry than I had before. I liked chemistry in high school a lot and it is awesome that I get to expand my knowledge by taking a different kind of chemistry class.
    Our midterm is coming up and at first I was a little nervous. But after I found out what everything meant and now that I have more knowledge after my research and reading that I think this will go over pretty well. I just need to make an outline and print off my sources and I will be good to go. I am not nervous about this one at all. Which is good to say, I hate stressing over things.

Dyes

Wow! Well dyes are something that people definitely use on a regular basis. I work at Sonic Drive In and we have different kinds of slush flavors. Each corresponds to a specific taste that the customer orders, they range in flavors like Watermelon to Blue Coconut. I was reading on the bottles of the different dyes that are in each of the containers after doing that one discussion board post about finding what dyes are in certain real foods and junk foods. To make the color purple for our grape slush flavor they mix Blue #2 and Red 40 to make purple.
     I don't think that the color has to correspond to what flavor it is that is asked for. I have drank Kool-Aid that was green but tasted like cherry and it was AWESOME! Things like that can entertain kids or kids at heart (like me!) When doing research on these dyes though I found some interesting facts. I found that these dyes aren't very healthy for the body. They can cause things like tumors and other reactions that can kill you. I read a story on how someone ate so many M&Ms and the dye that made them what they were was the leading cause of death. It is very intriguing to read about.

     Dyes are not only found in our food but in other products we use. I dye my hair occasionally when I get bored of my normal brown hair. It is used in products like mouth wash, toothpaste, soaps, lotions, etc. Really they're in anything that has color. Almost anything is dyed a color that is desired for that certain product. I love color and sometimes I feel as though it is important in our everyday life. I really never thought about these things before until I had to read about it. It is actually very interesting, it seems boring but it really isnt. My dad sat down to read my book and really enjoyed it what he read so far. I am actually very impressed with this class and what it has to offer to my intelligence.

Alcohol and Phenol

I don't think I could live without the necessities of living in a clean environment. I like to be able to clean and disinfect things when they are dirty. I like to take baths. I take one everyday. It is really interesting to think about how chemicals react to one another in order to get rid of germs and oils. I was just thinking about this not that long ago one day while washing my hair. I said to myself, "I wonder how this shampoo is getting my hair clean? Does it really work?" Now I have an idea of what that answer is after reading these past couple of chapters. There are somethings that are not healthy for our bodies. I don't use hand sanitizer and you can find it located in any location you visit. But if you come to my house there is none of that stuff here. We have to think about what we are putting on our bodies and what the consequences of it will be. It is really interesting to think about how sanitary things were in hospitals back in the day. Our chapter discussing this, and it was not that sanitary and they would reuse hospital beds which would cause more people to die from the spread of disease. I am thankful for how much more we care about how clean things are to prevent more people dying and spreading disease. Another form of alcohol other than for cleaning items, is what we drink. We can over consume alcohol and it can lead to an unhealthy life. But we use beer and other drinks in social events and parties, some people drink when they are stressed and upset. It can be abusive to drink for the wrong reasons. There is no need to drown your problems down with alcohol, it isn't going to do your future any good, but tell that to Homer Simpson.
The next chapter talked about Phenol and what things are made of it. The book talks about how so many things are made from Phenol because it is a lot cheaper than other kinds of plastics. It made me think about how many things I own that are made from Phenol. It made me sad to read about the elephants and how they used their husks for billiard balls. People really need to think about where their items come from and what sacrifices were given to make them. No animal should be killed in order to make things, there are other things that we can use to create the things we need.

Chlorocarbon Compounds and Pollution

This chapter starts out sounding like we have made a good discovery that would change our world for the better. We found a way to refrigerate things with the use of CFC's. CFC's were proven to freeze things without the use of other chemicals like ether, ammonia, methyl chloride, and sulfer dioxide that smell bad, are fire hazards, and are poisoness. We were able to preserve our food and that opened up a whole bunch of inventions such as premade food, household fridges, spray cans (hairspray, freon,etc.). What we didnt realize was that we were releasing pollutants into the world that were depleting the ozone layer. Eventually CFC's were banned due to the harmful effects the have. CFC's have made things like cancer, birth defects, and related deaths more accessable to people, things that are harmful to our bodies.

Eventually medicine was released into the world to help doctors and patients feel more comfortable during surgeries where there was less pain invloved. Ether was used as a anesthetic to help people sleep during surgeries until chloroform was used instead because it was less of a fire hazard and did smell better. But the use of chloroform wasn't as good as they thought, it did produce less deaths, but overall it was not healthy for people either. Morphine was used eventually.

Things that we use are not as healthy as we hoped that they would be for us. Everything we use has some kind of harmful aspect to it in our world. Nothing is as healthy as we thought they all wouldl be. Almost everyone drives a car and that is not environmental friendly. We try to make things healthier but will we ever have a pollutant free world? Who knows.

Salt

I am not much of a reader as I have probably mentioned before. I don't really like to read and to be honest the only reason why I was able to read this chapter was because I was able to relate it to my everyday life. I like to read about things that affect me in some way. This chapter relates to not only me but everyone because everyone needs salt in order to live. Salt is a neccesity that people need and without it people can get really sick and it can lead to death, but there should be a limit on how much salt people should intake. It may be needed but some people overuse salt to an extent where they can get high blood pressure. Salt is an electrolyte and it sends electrical charges in our bodies that helps control our heartbeats. People who play sports will get fatigued from sweating all of the electrolytes out of their bodies and drinks like Powerade and Gatorade to replenish those back into the body. I felt as though the chapter was understandable and I did gain a plethora of knowledge after reading it. I liked reading about how salt was extracted and how it is today. It is always interesting to read about how things were made and what the process was. The one I remember most was how they take salt from the ocean. It is one of the slowest processes but the most beneficial. Salt is used for things not only food, but salting icy roads to help keep roads safer to drive and walk on. There are several uses for salt and these are only some of them.

Chapters 1 & 2

After reading chapters one and two I am now aware of things I wasn't before. I am not much of a history buff, so most of this stuff comes as a first time learning about it. I find it interesting that cloves, nutmeg, and pepper were used for the items that they were. Some things I wrote down as I was reading was that cloves were often used as a breath freshener and the oil from those cloves were used as an antiseptic and remedy for toothaches. Nutmeg was used for stomach pains and the help of preventing the outbreak of plagues. There was a lot of work and trouble for the search and collection of these items back in the day. Now a days we take these things for granted. I don't think many of us realize what some of these items are used for and how they react in our bodies. I love to learn new things and even though I am not much of a reader, I was able to take a lot out of these first two chapters. I now know how to pick out a pepper if I want it spicy or hot. The first thing that caught my attention was how the book related what peppers are made of and how they react with our body, and it all has to do with the chemical make-up of the pepper. Chapter two was fasinating when it was discussing lemon juice/citrus fruits and how it is a cure for scurvy. Most of our natural items in this world provide what we need to cure disease, eat, and live a prosperous life. Everything we need is located in several locations all over the world.