Today, we began to study acids and bases. This will continue throughout this short week.

For those of you who will be away on Tuesday, here's what you need to know for the chemistry unit project. Please contact someone in the class to be your partner and decide together what chemical reaction you want to research. Also discuss what method of presentation you would like to communicate your knowledge in. Please read what follows here.....

GOAL
Your assignment is to profile a chemical reaction that has had an impact—positive or
negative—on people’s lives. Your profile can take on any form that can be presented on the Internet: words, photos, slide show, video, audio–visual presentation, animation—or a combination of these forms that includes music, dance, demonstrations, or anything else that you think is appropriate. Your presentation must clearly provide:
• the chemistry of the reaction, including balanced equations and the necessary conditions
• the history and development of the reaction
• applications of the reaction: who uses it and how
• a description of the reaction’s impacts on people’s lives: whom does it help (or hurt)?
• a decision about the final overall impact of the reaction—is it good or bad for the world?

GATHER INFORMATION
1. Your team should start by identifying chemical reactions that have had impacts on
people’s lives. Examples include the following:
• an industrial process such as the production of nitric acid for making fertilizers from ammonia and oxygen
• a reaction that helps create a medicine that is important to people’s health
• a reaction in nature that is important to living things, or one that humans are trying to mimic for a particular purpose (humans trying to emulate natural fibres such as silk)
• a reaction that is important to the environment, such as the formation of nitrogen
dioxide in car engines
• a reaction that has been important in the history of art, such as the silver nitrate reaction on light-sensitive photographic film, or the development of pigments by oil painters
• a reaction that changed the course of history, such as the development of dynamite
• a reaction that is important to our everyday lives, such as the hydrogenation of
vegetable oils
• a reaction that helps us deal with environmental challenges, such as developing
electric cars, providing renewable energy, or creating new “high-tech” materials

2. As a team, decide on the chemical reaction that you will profi le. Then assign the
following tasks to team members.
• Research the origin of the reaction. Who discovered it and how?
• Research the chemistry of the reaction: How is the reaction classifi ed? What are the steps involved in the reaction?
• Research the development of the reaction. How was it used to impact the world?
What particular career, if any, is it associated with? What are the applications of the reaction that changed people’s lives in big or small ways?
• Research the impacts of the reaction (a) on its discoverer and (b) on the people who were affected by it.

3. Gather your information. Create some or all of the following elements:
• print: description, explanation, background, captions
• visuals: balanced chemical equations, photos, charts, graphs, data, diagrams, drawings
• video, music, sound

IDENTIFY SOLUTIONS
Consider any negative effects your chosen reaction has had. These could be effects on
individuals, on groups of people, or on the environment. Conduct further research to lookinto possible solutions to these negative effects.

MAKE A DECISION
Decide whether this reaction has had, on the whole, a positive effect or a negative effect.
Consider what criteria you will use to make this decision.

COMMUNICATE
Work together to develop your presentation. It should cover all the aspects of your research and decision making.
Remember, your presentation will be shown online so it can include music, sound, video,graphics, animation, or any other feature that the Internet can display.
Invite classmates to view your presentation. Have a discussion after the presentation toallow your audience to respond to your presentation.