Lutetium

So in my infinite wisdom forgetfulness, I forgot to post a video about the Ytterby elements on Ytterbium - the LAST possible element to do so with. Now I guess is better than never...enjoy!

In other fun and exciting news, I learned that rust colored tights are a bad choice. Apparently my students thought that I was diseased (my legs had suddenly changed colors!) or that I was half black/half white (but only bottom/top half). Needless to say, the tights have been retired.
 

Fun Fact: When in doubt, use elements in lighting. Lutetium is found in lutetium-bromide lighting which is used for high-intensity discharge lights (read: I have no idea what this means but go with it).

Ytterbium

The whole blogging once a week thing is a killer. There have been so many exciting things in science and education, and even some mildly blog-worthy things about me. As a super-speedy rewind with a promise to explain at length in other posts, here are some tasty morsels:

School
I gave out 4 lunch detentions the other day. Instead of feeling righteous and powerful, I felt like the ultimate scumbag (Lunch detention gets handed to you if you amass 3 tardies for a single class). I'm pretty sure the next time these kids walk in to class, I'll get a scowl in return to me saying "Good morning!" But hopefully the lesson in lunch detention will be received: get to class on time.

I got to teach a full lesson! My mentor teacher asks me (somewhat spontaneously) if I wanted to teach the class that was coming in (literally as we were speaking). I of course say "Yes!", after waiting ages to pull out and use the techniques loaded in my back pocket (as another point of imagery - there are so many, I'm surprised my pants haven't fallen down). The lesson went as well as what is to be expected with approximately 5 minutes of preparation, but the kids seemed attentive and my mentor teacher even took some of the things I did and used them when she taught the lesson the next period.

While teaching, two of my kiddos were one step away from getting into a huge fight. As in they were standing up, with looks of pure aggression, and I was at the front of the classroom trying to remain calm and hoping to talk them down. Turns out I didn't have to do anything, because this disruptive kid who spends more time out of his seat than in his seat gets in between the two of them and puts his hands up like Jesus and they both sit down. Sometimes I just don't question things...

Science
Apparently some scientists got neutrinos to go faster than the speed of light. This is worthy of a full blog post, but I'm not about to post this until I see some cold hard evidence that suggests the experiment was valid. I'm not one for salacious science gossip. 

Ann Arbor
It's finally Fall! With that comes a bazillion apples at the Farmer's Market and gorgeous mums. So excited!

Football season never ceases to amaze me. While walking to the Farmer's Market this weekend, I got stopped by a police escort for the football players on their way to the field. The players all pile into the U of M commuter buses to travel to the stadium and each bus says something goofy on the screen at the top of the bus like "Go Wolverines" or "En route to the Big House." It's even better that people line the street like it's a parade. Thank goodness the woman next to me was as utterly confused by this as I was.


Common Occurrences: Ytterbium is primarily found in lasers, but is also used in stress gauges that monitor land deformation from earthquakes and explosions.

Fun Fact: The mineral xenotime can contain either ytterbium or yttrium.

Thulium

I hope in my absence this week, many of you have explored the new "Periodic Table" tab! There are a few interactive tables, a traditional table, and a song about the elements, so I encourage you all to check it out! (Thanks to Nick for giving me the inspiration and to Katherine for a fabulous periodic table!)

So in my busy week of being in the high school and university classes, it dawned on me in my hands-on-Physics-lab-teaching-class (I have no other way to describe this class) how much I truly missed rigorous science. I add in 'rigorous' because I have been bored half to death with the pace of my ninth grade class, where we haven't made it out of the scientific method yet. Understandably, high school - especially ninth grade - does not move at the lightning pace of college classes, but when students are given three worksheets about the scientific method and not a single question is related to actual science examples, it is mildly disheartening (if you're wondering, the worksheets are on Spongebob, The Simpsons, and Jersey Shore).

I miss digging into the sciences and really thinking about why things happen. No joke - my physics instructor at U of M ended the class by squirting out a mountain of shaving cream onto the desk and asking, "Is this a solid, liquid, or gas?" Seems simple in practice that you would choose one of the physical states, but being in a room of science nerds, we started to question the necessity of gas when squirting it out, if the cream was liquid in the can, etc. It turns out the answer is not so simple (d. none of the above). What we learn about states in elementary, middle, and high school is that they are static and have clear cut lines that define them. In real life, not so much. So in short, shaving cream is somewhere in between our ideas of solids, liquids, and gases.

Why do I expound so much time on this? In my need for science, I have been devouring the Science Times whenever humanly possible. I have even been going back into the archives to read stories that I may have missed because I need something scientifically stimulating right now. And in the archives, I found this gem of an article from August (clearly I didn't have to go back too far) talking about the isolation of scientists from politics and general society. A group of scientists who have had former political careers have formed a campaign called Ben Franklin's List (fitting name right - scientist and founding father) that encourages more scientists to run for political office. Think about this for a second - we are currently making decisions about science and math education, technology, ground-breaking research (i.e. stem cells), NASA, etc. and a mere 22 of 435 people in the House of Representatives have any science background. That's a bit scary, right? The saddest part about the article is that Ben Franklin's List suffered a setback when one of its founders decided to run again for office. Being that he wanted to create a nonpartisan organization, he had to pull himself out from being a part of what he had started. You don't see that very often in other political organizations...

Anyway, I encourage you all to read the article - it is pretty enlightening. And along with the article is a "Name that Scientist" quiz with current, living scientists. See how you do and I'll let you know how I faired.

Trivia Answer: Other cities that have elements are Berkeley, CA (berkelium), Dubna, Russian (dubnium), and Darmstadt, Germany (darmstadtium). Unlike the elements from Ytterby, Sweden, the aforementioned elements are all short-lived radioactive elements developed in a laboratory setting.

Fun Fact: John Emsley, a British writer about chemistry, cited thulium as "the least significant element there is." His statement comes from the fact that thulium has few applications in our society, is extremely rare, and is difficult to purify. To exemplify this, in 1911, it took scientist Charles James 15,000 recrystallizations to purify thulium.

Erbium

Dearest Fellow Readers - I miss you. Terribly. Waking up at 4:30 a.m. and going to graduate classes after being in high school is rough...as you can tell from my pathetic attempt at blogging lately. To brighten your moods, here are some of the goofy things I do to survive hour and a half commutes, working with ninth graders who have egos bigger than the Michigan defensive line, and getting up at times that college students go to bed.

In the morning, I've found that picking out clothing before 5 a.m. leads to some horrifying outfits. I remember having a Spanish teacher who talked about getting dressed in the dark and for the most part she never looked that great (one time she was wearing a yellow and a purple sock with a skirt...yikes). So I literally lay out my clothes the night before, including shoes and accessories. It saves me at least 5 to 10 minutes that I can use to sleep. At the beginning of the week, I must look like I have OCD though because I have every outfit with a post-it note attached saying the day of the week hung up in my room.

Set two alarms. The other morning I questioned why my alarm went off so early and promptly went back to bed. Thank goodness the second alarm knocked some sense into me.

Leave a checklist at the door. If you think remembering your laptop (and charger), water bottle, lunch, phone, car keys, wallet, and school stuff is plausible in the morning, power to you. I'm lucky if I remember to consult my checklist, which is why it is directly above the lock for my door.

If you can't make dinner in a pair of shoes, there is no way that you can teach in them. End of story.

Always pack extra lunch. I pack enough for myself and then for myself again. Because you will be hungry at 7:30, 11:00, and 2:00. Teaching gives you a voracious appetite.


Fun Fact: Erbium, terbium, ytterbium, and yttrium are all named after Ytterby, Sweden where they were discovered in a single mine!


Trivia: What other cities have elements named after them?

I recently got a "scientific inquiry" about where we are on the periodic table. Here is a blank table for reference, but I'll post a new page with just a periodic table in the near future!

Holmium

Happy First Day of School from Michigan! Here's to waking up at 4:30 in the morning and not getting home until around 8. Because I've scheduled this post to publish, I'll tell you more about my first week in coming posts, but in the meantime enjoy these education articles. They are an interesting lot - especially the last one. I usually read the NY Times, but I thought it would be great to find a new perspective, so the Wall Street Journal hit the spot.

Michigan gets a new chancellor for improving public schools statewide

The one room schoolhouse could teach us a lesson about school community

An interesting look at "super teachers" and charter schools

Fun Fact: A slug of holmium, also called a pole piece, can be used to increase the intensity of a magnetic field. This is particularly useful for MRI scans, where a stronger magnet leads to better imaging.

Dysprosium

Happy Labor Day! Because most people are not laboring and are instead enjoying the Monday off, here are some funny videos with "science tricks." Watching these videos reminded me of a professor I had in college who shared "party trivia" with us, which was essentially fun facts about what we were learning. So in that spirit, enjoy these "party tricks!"

Fun Fact: Dysprosium is named from the Greek dysprositos, meaning "hard to get at." The element has few uses, but despite it's name, it is ubiquitous in commercial lighting. Fun(ny) story :)

Terbium

I never went to a high school with a football team. Though many people tried to get a team, the school was just too tiny and could never have filled a roster. In college, no football team again. The lack of football was due to the school's past as an all girls college - so yeah, no football. The Midwest - football country. Don't be fooled - Texas isn't the only state that loves football. Here is what I've learned from U of M's football game today (just to be clear, I didn't go - I'm still a hockey girl):

1) It's MAIZE and BLUE. Not yellow, not gold, maize.

2) People will pay ridiculous prices for parking. If you live a block away from the stadium, you can get $40 to $50 a space. Me? Saved an extra space in my parking lot for a cohort member for free. (You owe me Nick).

3) There is no reason why tailgating should not begin at 9 in the morning. When the marching band starts playing, you start drinking.

4) NEVER leave your home without wearing Michigan apparel. Despite wearing a Michigan shirt, "M" earrings, and a maize headband, I was underdressed.

5) As a fan, pull out the stops. That means decorating your car, your home, etc. That also means having a satellite dish at your tailgate, a giant 10 foot tall wolverine, and at least 5 Michigan flags.

6) If people ask you if you are going to the football game, lie and say yes. You are safe however in a jewelry store or a running store to say no.

7) Running errands in town on football days is ideal. I got a necklace fixed in under an hour because the jewelry store was quiet. I also had a rousing chat with the girls at the running shoe store. And of course, the farmer's market...where you are safe without a Michigan tee.

8) When they say you will be disrupted by living so close to the Stadium, that's a bunch of lies. You only get disrupted when somebody scores.

9) Hail to the Victors.

10) GO BLUE!


Fun Fact: Terfenol, an alloy of terbium, will change shape when placed in a magnetic field. This is useful for turning a solid surface into a loudspeaker (read: you can crank up the volume of your dining room table!).

Gadolinium

I could use the excuse that I've been busy (because 5 a.m. wake-ups really put you down for the count), but the fact of the matter is, I've just been lazy. Here are some pictures from home that I should have uploaded eons ago aka less than a week ago, but who's counting?

Sunset on the Loj Road.

There is quite the story that goes along with this rose bush about the Momma's brown thumb, but nevertheless, it gets beautiful blooms.

I wish this could have been bigger, because trust me, it's my favorite from home right now.

Do you see the rainbow? Because I totally pulled off the road and balanced on the guard rail like a fool to take this picture, so you better think the rainbow was worth it.

Brodie's "adopted" collar. So cute.

Brandy, the world's loudest and most persistent dog.

Nothing better than s'mores with JUMBO sized marshmallows.

Common Occurrences: If you've ever had an MRI, gadolinium is the main contrast agent (read: allows the images to have clear definition).

Fun Fact: Gadolinium has a "Curie point" at 66 degrees Fahrenheit. What that means is that at temperatures below 66, gadolinium will be attracted to a magnet, but at temperatures above 66, it is no longer magnetic. Cool, right?

Europium

Today? Humbling.

I was fortunate to attend the teacher "motivation" session at the school where I will be observing this fall. It involved music from the marching band, a showcase of school talent, student guest speakers, and celebrating successes from the past school year, but most of all it set the goals for this coming school year.

If you had only attended the first part of the morning, you would think that this school district thrives, that it's teachers love their jobs, that the students love their school, and that the highest academic achievement is reached. Wrong. While many of the teachers cited in a survey that they "liked" their job, very few said they loved it. And the students leave in droves from their school - last year alone, the school lost 400 kids from the high school (which has 1200 in attendance). As for academic achievement, the school has not made adequate yearly progress (a No Child Left Behind buzz phrase) for the last seven years. Yikes.

The worst part? Listening to how the community doesn't respect their school. I get it, I totally do - it's easiest to state a school's faults then it is to state it's successes. As I learned today, we don't often take pride in our successes (the superintendent did an amazing job of that with the beginning of the session). But the message that struck me the most about the lack of respect was this - the school board president asked the teachers: How can we expect the community to sing its praises for the school when we can't even sing those praises ourselves?

Food for thought my friends.


Common Occurrences: Nearly all compact fluorescent bulbs contain europium phosphors (read: fancy chemistry term for pleasing light).

Fun Fact: Europium is used for labeling on the Euro.

Samarium

So once again, I break the whole wait until the periodic table titles end to talk about other science-y things. But with Hurricane Irene, I thought it might be appropriate to give a shout out to our good friend water. And since water is kind of a big deal, it will be mentioned plenty more times. On the topic of big deals, here are some pictures from LP's local newspaper documenting the big damage that water causes. Good thing I left early on Sunday...

This is a road pretty close to my house. Apparently water is powerful enough to strip off a layer of asphalt. CRAZY.

The remains of the firehall in the next town over.

Need I explain more than meets the eye on this one?

No joke, when the weather is normal, the water under this bridge is probably six to ten feet below the road. Not so much now.

Fun Fact: Samarium-cobalt magnets are found on electric guitar pickups, as the magnets are known to withstand high temperatures (If any of you are musicians, you might understand this more than I do).

Promethium

Once the periodic table titles ran out, I was planning on naming posts after scientists, scientific principles, compounds, etc., with one of those being combustion. But after blowing up my car today, I feel it is fitting to provide some knowledge about combustion.

Combustion involves hydrocarbons (read: compounds with hydrogen and carbon) reacting with oxygen to form carbon dioxide and water. Being fancy, the equation is as follows:

hydrocarbon + oxygen (gas) --> carbon dioxide (gas) + water (gas and liquid)

Here is where combustion gets interesting - you have all heard that you should never start your car in the garage with the door closed, as you'll produce carbon monoxide. Ever wonder why? You car engine is a combustion engine (aka it burns gas which is a mixture of hydrocarbons). With an infinite supply of oxygen (aka outdoors) it will always produce carbon dioxide and water. BUT, if you accidentally leave your car running in the garage with the door closed, the oxygen supply is limited, and the combustion reaction forms carbon monoxide and water instead. Cool, right? (well not really, since carbon monoxide is deadly :/)

Fortunately, I didn't start my car in the garage, as it's always parked outside. However, it's compressor did decide to die, which subsequently lit my fan belt on fire (another not so lovely combustion reaction). So I had a lovely morning standing next to my smoking car while I waited for someone to drive me home. Good thing I made it home from Michigan with two miles of driving to spare. Rest in peace Durango - you've been a good car.


Fun Fact: Like technetium, promethium is one of few elements above bismuth (element 83) that is not stable (read: radioactive). It was once used as a luminous paint after the harmful effects of radium were discovered and before tritium provided a safe alternative.

Neodymium

So I have been home for a couple days now and I am dreading the day I have to leave. I forgot how good it feels to be home and how amazing Lake Placid is. To give you a sample, here are some funnies from my time being home:

1. You know you've made it home when the first vehicles you see after crossing back to the U.S. from the Canada is a horse and buggy and a farm tractor.

2. You know you've made it home when about 3 miles from your house you see a former classmate hitchhiking.

3. Being covered in dog hair is totally allowable. Being covered in dog drool? Also totally allowable.

4. Having your dog as a copilot is the best person to drive with. When you want ice cream, he totally eats a bowl with you.

5. The neighbor dog totally lives at your house. He sits on the deck adjacent to the dining room when you eat dinner. He also is dumb enough to get his collar stuck on a lawn chair and drag it around the deck.

6. Mountain tops are higher than clouds. This is a definite when it's about to rain.

7. A random sudden downpour does not stop a farmer's market. Vendors always have tarps handy and everyone puts the hood up on their raincoats.

8. Your next door neighbor bakes a cake and brings it over. So sweet.

9. Pick-up truck. 'Nough said.

10. Everywhere you go, you see someone you know and stop to have a conversation, even if that means clogging up the supermarket line talking to the french teacher from high school you never had.


Common Occurrences: Neodymium is found in fake earrings, as it is a strong enough magnet to attract through an ear lobe. Along with earrings, neodymium is popping up in bracelets, where it is located at acupuncture points at the wrist (Side note: I have one of these bracelets and I thought it was whack, but it totally feels different when you wear the bracelet differently).

Fun Fact: The strongest magnets are made from neodymium. To give you an idea about its strength, neodymium magnets will be attracted toward each other from more than a foot away (don't put your hand in the middle :) )

Praseodymium

This post makes it official: We are halfway through the periodic table! I guess this is when I should start planning the name of posts after the elements have run out, but I still have 59 posts before I absolutely have to worry ;)

As a look back on the first 59, here are some of my favorites...

Favorite Post: Lithium

Favorite Fun Fact: Manganese
During the 1970s Howard Hughes commissioned a ship the Hughes Glomar Explorer to find manganese nodules (small round lumps) on the ocean floor near Hawaii. However, his real mission with the Glomar Explorer was to raise a sunken ballistic Russian submarine for the CIA. The manganese nodules were simply a ruse for treasure hunters and unfortunately worthless.

Favorite Video: Nitrogen

Fun Fact: The glasses that glass-blowers wear to protect their eyes contain praseodymium, as the element knocks out the bright yellow emission line from sodium that is the bright light emitted from a torch. Instead of seeing the blinding yellow light, glass-blowers see a dull blue glow from the torch and an orange glow from hot glass.

Cerium

Hi all! I am currently driving across parts of the United States and Canada, so I wanted to leave you with some videos. The first is produced by the American Chemical Society to emphasize the importance of chemistry (in case you haven't noticed - it's kind of a big deal). Also, enjoy the bloopers from The Big Bang Theory - if you haven't seen the show, watch it! My sister and I have even gotten our parents hooked - while Christine and I laugh at the subtle science humor, my parents still get a chuckle from Sheldon's mannerisms.

Common Occurrences: Cerium oxide powder is used for grinding and polishing glass. Cerium is also included in "mischmetal" (mixed metals) that are used as flint in lighters.

Fun Fact: Cerium is "pyrophoric," meaning that is catches fire when it is scratched, grinded, or filed. Because of this quality, cerium is used for special effects in movies involving action scenes like cars being dragged on concrete.

Lanthanum

Have you missed me? Because I have certainly missed blogging! I just finished up with my finals week, which consisted of three papers that each had more than one part...ick. But they are done and I am headed home on an 11 hour drive tomorrow and I couldn't be more excited!!

Despite being focused on a computer screen all week, so I have nothing super cool to report. Enjoy this video about today's title element instead!

Fun Fact: Lanthanum is one of the "rare" earth metals, yet it is three times more abundant in the Earth's crust than lead.