Everyone takes chemistry in high school. It’s a fact of life and there’s no avoiding it. But, after nearly 40 years of reflection, I ask:
“Why would you want to avoid it?”
It’s just the coolest thing.
Of course, I didn't always think that.
When I was in high school I took Chemistry as a junior. I hated it. Now, after thinking about it, I understand why I hated it so much. First, my teacher didn’t want to teach it. I know this because Miss. Arsenault was the faculty advisor of the Astronomy Club, which I had founded with my best friend Joe Bodzoioch. She wasn’t comfortable with it, did a poor job teaching it and, as a result, all her students hated it. It was a lost year for science as far as I was concerned.
Last year, I had to relearn Chemistry so I could teach it to my 7th and 8th graders. I feel in love with Chemistry.
Think about this: Everything in the Universe is comprised of different combinations of just 119 things. One hundred and nineteen elements and you’ve got everything in the Universe - hamsters, pizza and stars and everything in between. And really, almost everything is either Hydrogen or Helium.
Chemical reactions? Don’t get me started. They are amazing. Things that you might not even think of being remotely related to chemistry are, in their essence, chemical reactions.
This week, we do a quick intro to Chemistry. Hold on to your hats, it’s gonna be a wild ride....... I promise.
A fact is a pragmatic truth, a statement that can, at least in theory, be checked and confirmed. Facts are often contrasted with opinions and beliefs, statements which are held to be true, but are not amenable to pragmatic confirmation.The word fact derives from the Latin Factum, and was first used in English with the same meaning: "a thing done or performed", a use that is now obsolete. The common usage of, "something that has really occurred or is the case", dates from the middle of the sixteenth century. Fact is sometimes used as synonymous with truth or reality, as distinguishable from conclusions or opinions. This use is found in such phrases Matter of fact, and "... not history, nor fact, but imagination."
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