In order for us, educators, to be true to our message of heightening the value of what we include in our respective curricula, we must subject ourselves to what we assign our students. I have always liked the idea of assigning STEAM projects in all my classes. But, this belief of mine in the value of such projects must be practiced, not just preached to my students. So, I began a tradition of forcing myself to complete a project whenever I assign one to my own students. This way I would put myself in their shoes and experience what they go through to some extent on one hand and make them realize that I myself do value what I assign them on the other hand.
In this summer's Physical Science for Elementary Teachers course, which I teach at Central Michigan University (CMU) center in Traverse City, I assigned each student a specific chapter from the course eTextbook. The students have to complete a STEAM project that must center on the main concepts and ideas of their respective assigned chapter. They choose to invent a device (I call TinkerVention), write a piece of code, or create an art piece that encapsulates what they have understood and learned from the assigned chapter. Some students paint, others build gadgets, and yet others submit creative writing pieces. I chose to complete a creative writing piece, which is centered on the concepts of bonds in chemistry because this was the subject of the chapter that was my assignment. In addition, I wanted to impress upon my students the fact that as a student I always like the idea of being a bit of an overachiever. So, I assigned myself yet another chapter (while they had to produce a STEAM project for only one chapter) and I chose to write an acrostic poem and a couple of aphorisms and the subject of radioactivity. Below is my STEAM projects and in another future blog I shall share some of my students'. Enjoy but keep in mind that my command of the English language is that of someone whose English is a third language.
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Tale of Three Love Cities
by Mr. Le Nadj!
Long before time was a concept, and long before
space was an abode, and long before Linus and Lewis became household names,
there were three cities. They were cities where love was the law, passion was
the creed, and science was the lingua franca of the land. Unlike your typical
human cities, theses cities bore names that were exquisite in nature and
fascinating in type. There was ionic city, covalent city, and metallic city.
They were cities where bonds thrive, kisses fly,
and above all electric live reigns supreme. The dwellers of these cities of
love were strange creatures! They were not human yet all humans were made of
them. They certainly were not objects yet all objects contained them. They had
no limbs and they had no body parts, instead they had swarms of particles
around them, dots everywhere! Whenever one tries to spot them, they diffuse
into nothingness as matter waves. Instead of having bodies, like you and me,
these quantum creatures have emptiness that is eerily yet so beautifully adorned
with miniscule hearts that throb positivity and breath neutrality.
Ionic love city is the epitome of bilateralism.
Half of its population consists of generous givers and the other half is but a
band of selfish takers. This binary nature of the dwellers of this city made it
a prime example of what a love city ought to look like. The takers love the
givers and the givers could not resist being too far out of sight of their
donated dots. Thus, just as every Juliet long for her Romeo, does every Io in
IoNic city long for her Nic! Sodium loves Chlorine and from their love bond
springs crystals of exceeding beauty and of very salty attitude.
Covalent love city is the utopian communist
metropolis. Her dwellers share their dots a bit too equitably for my capitalist
taste. Of course, they do this Kumbaya type of sharing with their chosen loved
ones while keeping others at bay lest if they wish to form a commune. Their
dots tend to comingle and co-tangle as if they are all players in a tiny game
of twister. The love amongst these commies is mutual, the bond is strong, and
for every Co, you can bet your life, there is a Valent partner or more in this
red Bolshevik of all love cities. Dihydrogen monoxide is the Kremlin family.
Metallic is the grooviest and the hippiest of
them all. The patriots of this hardy city decreed long time ago that everyone’s
dots are the property of everyone else around them! Talk about Uber communism
with a dash of hippy laissez faire! Heaven help us, the sixties are back in
full swing, literally! There’s no monogamous love or polygamous love, rather it
is an all for all touchy-feely kind of love. The dots are everywhere and the
hearts within the sea of emptiness grab their fill of dots up and down and
right and left to quench their insatiable appetite for love and sensual
longing.
I, for one, am an old fashioned fellow; I’d go
for Ionic city’s code of conduct and choose it as my favorite city overall.
This is bourn by the fact that I have no interest in too much sharing of
partners nor of their parts. This covalent business and this metallic way of love-life
sicken me and may even induce polar feelings within me at times. But since I am
a person who loves to love, I have great admiration for these three cities that
built their very existence around the notion of celebrating bonds of love. One
never can get enough of a lot of love and friendship going around the world,
especially in these sad days of bickering, hatred, and establishing too many
othernesses.
The Nuclear Play
Acrostic Poem by Mr. Le Nadj
Radical in all its
craziest of senses,
Atoms shattered, and
hopes
Dashed, and strangely
It is as describable as
One can easily
Add two and two to get
3.9!
Crazy, isn’t it? Why not
four? You might ask.
Too many neutrons, mon
ami, induce
Instability that shakes
the
Very foundation of many a
nucleus.
It sheds protons,
neutrons, and yes, even electrons!
Talk about awesome
energies held at bay!
You and I, my friend, are
but actors in this radical nuclear play.
Alpha, Beta, Gamma Rays
Poem by Mr. Le Nadj
Alpha
is lame.
Beta
is a serious game.
Gamma
is the radiation queen, The Dame!
If
we unleash these radioactivity dogs, we have only ourselves to blame!
Fission & Fusion Inspired Aphorisms
by Mr. Le Nadj
If
fission is the anticupid of matter, fusion has to be its cupid.
Love
and fuse hearts so that you’d never have to fuse fissured family parts.
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Being a physics instructor, writing creative writing pieces that deal with chemistry was a bit of a challenge but I hope I gave chemistry its fair share of accurate attention.
Thank you for reading this post and I hope it would inspire you and your students to seek out pathways that fuse the sciences and the arts through STEAM projects. Any comments, questions, or suggestions are very welcomed in the comments section of this blog.
