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.