11 chem, FPT
Part 1
After some research, I know what my chemistry job will be: a forensic scientist! People in this profession search for possible evidence at crime scenes and use their knowledge of chemistry to analyse the evidence. It can then be presented in a court of law to back up a prosecution. In some cases, the forensic scientist who analysed this evidence may be called upon to explain to the jury what some parts of the evidence mean.
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| This baby is gonna be the new Horatio |
To become an entry-level forensic scientist, a post-secondary bachelor's degree in natural or forensic science is required; for higher-level positions, a master's degree may be needed. The skills of a forensic scientist are varied, but typical for any applied scientist: problem-solving, critical thinking, organizational, and research skills, as well as good communications skills as both part of a team and as someone who might potentially need to explain their technical findings to a not-so-technical jury. A forensic scientist also needs to be knowledgeable in court proceedings, in the event that they have to sit in on a session. In terms of work experience, an internship within the field is usually required.
Here's an interesting interview with a forensic scientist with almost 30 years of experience (at the time of the interview) and here's a super-simple video on forensic DNA testing.
Part 2
Article
A lot of time and energy is put into thinking about how to prevent and remove pollutants from entering waterways, but I can't recall anyone mentioning bodies of water becoming saltier as a threat to ecosystems. A large yet overshadowed issue, the increasing salt levels in freshwater is an ever-present threat to the ecosystem. While water salinity levels rise rapidly, animals who have adapted to freshwater climate will find it hard to adapt, slowly dying out; the fallout from this will be far-reaching. The issue will only continue to grow until preventative action is taken.
Radio interview (original format of the interview) and associated news article
Summary
The article starts with the host, Bob McDonald, introducing John Olson, a freshwater scientist based in the USA. Olson outlines the dangerous rise of salinity in streams and rivers, and tells McDonald that while his study was in America, similar things are likely happening in Canada. In the case of Olson's study, "salt" does not refer to table salt. Rather, it refers to any ionized salt compound; magnesium, chloride, sodium, and bicarbonate are a few examples. These compounds often get forced into rivers through activities such as road salting and mining. As an example, when mining, the fracking waste (which is often very salty) can get into the water supply; coal extraction can expose long-buried rocks to air and water, releasing the salt inside said rocks. Olson's study found that a large portion of American streams and rivers are getting saltier, and by 2100 the salinity of these affected bodies will have risen by 50% or more; this could potentially destroy over 40% of America's freshwater habitats. According to Olson, "future salt levels will be higher than what some animals can adapt to".
Ethical Issues
The effects this issue could have on the world as a whole are quite large. Let's take the Indigenous community of Kashechewan, where my dad lived and taught years ago. Half of their entire diet is goose, which come to the community to feed on plants at the bottom of the Albany river, which the community is situated on. (The Albany river also drains an area of 135,200 square kilometres) It has already been proven that these plants contain many pollutants that travel through the river, and that the geese eating these plants pass the pollutants on to the inhabitants of Kashechewan as a result; these people have many chemicals in their bodies that they shouldn't because of their goose-heavy diet. However, were the Albany to drastically rise in salinity levels, Kashechewan might be out of a major food source. The plants that the geese feast on would not be able to adapt, not replenishing as fast and slowly dying out. With this, the geese would begin to stop coming to Kashechewan, thus leaving the inhabitants high and dry. In effect, to continue the operations (mining, coal extraction, etc.) causing the rise in salinity levels would be to deprive the inhabitants of Kashechewan of their main source of food.
Personal Opinion
As I stated earlier, there is not enough emphasis on the increasing salinity of freshwater bodies. There are many implications beyond the one I explained earlier, including the industrial or irrigation problems that will arise when the freshwater supply starts to diminish. The dangers presented in the CBC article are not immediate, but in my opinion that makes the need for a thought-out, logical answer all the more urgent. Take, for example, the issue of human-generated global warming. As a species, we have been aware of it for quite some time, but only relatively recently has it become a major issue. If the same attitude is taken towards the rapidly-increasing salt levels of freshwater bodies, we may have an incredibly serious issue on our hands before we do anything about it.
Part 3
Metaphor
As an aspiring concert pianist, much of my life is based around the piano keyboard. I feel that this course is no exception. When first learning the piano, you have to start small, playing with one hand at a time, on the white keys only, and never very quickly. As you start to learn the proper playing technique, you're able to play a bit faster, maybe play with both hands or use some accidentals. This is where I started my journey in chemistry. I knew how some things worked, and I was eager to learn more. Starting with unit one, learning the basic interactions between elements was learning how to do basic triads; which notes sounded good together, and which did not. Moving into unit two was akin to learning not only the names of those notes that sounded good, but how to recreate and change those combinations. The mole and the introduction of stoichiometry was to me the basic chord structure of any successful song (warning: strong language at the beginning), while titrations were the analysis and breakdown of songs (very important in music theory). In this course, all of the knowledge I have gained has turned my head into a concerto of chemical equations, stoichiometry, and polyatomic ions. From a few simple rules comes a symphony of complexity.
Synthesis
Four things I learned in Unit 1:
Part 2
Article
A lot of time and energy is put into thinking about how to prevent and remove pollutants from entering waterways, but I can't recall anyone mentioning bodies of water becoming saltier as a threat to ecosystems. A large yet overshadowed issue, the increasing salt levels in freshwater is an ever-present threat to the ecosystem. While water salinity levels rise rapidly, animals who have adapted to freshwater climate will find it hard to adapt, slowly dying out; the fallout from this will be far-reaching. The issue will only continue to grow until preventative action is taken.
Radio interview (original format of the interview) and associated news article
Summary
The article starts with the host, Bob McDonald, introducing John Olson, a freshwater scientist based in the USA. Olson outlines the dangerous rise of salinity in streams and rivers, and tells McDonald that while his study was in America, similar things are likely happening in Canada. In the case of Olson's study, "salt" does not refer to table salt. Rather, it refers to any ionized salt compound; magnesium, chloride, sodium, and bicarbonate are a few examples. These compounds often get forced into rivers through activities such as road salting and mining. As an example, when mining, the fracking waste (which is often very salty) can get into the water supply; coal extraction can expose long-buried rocks to air and water, releasing the salt inside said rocks. Olson's study found that a large portion of American streams and rivers are getting saltier, and by 2100 the salinity of these affected bodies will have risen by 50% or more; this could potentially destroy over 40% of America's freshwater habitats. According to Olson, "future salt levels will be higher than what some animals can adapt to".
Ethical Issues
The effects this issue could have on the world as a whole are quite large. Let's take the Indigenous community of Kashechewan, where my dad lived and taught years ago. Half of their entire diet is goose, which come to the community to feed on plants at the bottom of the Albany river, which the community is situated on. (The Albany river also drains an area of 135,200 square kilometres) It has already been proven that these plants contain many pollutants that travel through the river, and that the geese eating these plants pass the pollutants on to the inhabitants of Kashechewan as a result; these people have many chemicals in their bodies that they shouldn't because of their goose-heavy diet. However, were the Albany to drastically rise in salinity levels, Kashechewan might be out of a major food source. The plants that the geese feast on would not be able to adapt, not replenishing as fast and slowly dying out. With this, the geese would begin to stop coming to Kashechewan, thus leaving the inhabitants high and dry. In effect, to continue the operations (mining, coal extraction, etc.) causing the rise in salinity levels would be to deprive the inhabitants of Kashechewan of their main source of food.
Personal Opinion
As I stated earlier, there is not enough emphasis on the increasing salinity of freshwater bodies. There are many implications beyond the one I explained earlier, including the industrial or irrigation problems that will arise when the freshwater supply starts to diminish. The dangers presented in the CBC article are not immediate, but in my opinion that makes the need for a thought-out, logical answer all the more urgent. Take, for example, the issue of human-generated global warming. As a species, we have been aware of it for quite some time, but only relatively recently has it become a major issue. If the same attitude is taken towards the rapidly-increasing salt levels of freshwater bodies, we may have an incredibly serious issue on our hands before we do anything about it.
Part 3
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| A piano keyboard |
Metaphor
As an aspiring concert pianist, much of my life is based around the piano keyboard. I feel that this course is no exception. When first learning the piano, you have to start small, playing with one hand at a time, on the white keys only, and never very quickly. As you start to learn the proper playing technique, you're able to play a bit faster, maybe play with both hands or use some accidentals. This is where I started my journey in chemistry. I knew how some things worked, and I was eager to learn more. Starting with unit one, learning the basic interactions between elements was learning how to do basic triads; which notes sounded good together, and which did not. Moving into unit two was akin to learning not only the names of those notes that sounded good, but how to recreate and change those combinations. The mole and the introduction of stoichiometry was to me the basic chord structure of any successful song (warning: strong language at the beginning), while titrations were the analysis and breakdown of songs (very important in music theory). In this course, all of the knowledge I have gained has turned my head into a concerto of chemical equations, stoichiometry, and polyatomic ions. From a few simple rules comes a symphony of complexity.
Synthesis
Four things I learned in Unit 1:
- Trends in atomic radius, electronegativity, ionization energy, and electron affinity
- All about ionic and covalent compounds!
- Electronegativity and dipoles
- Hypervalent and hypovalent Lewis dot diagrams - for some reason I couldn't wrap my head around them for the longest time
- Proper nomenclature for all sorts of different compounds
- Rules for determining the number of atoms of a given element in any given chemical equation
- New types of reactions, including saponification
- Different types of compounds and ions
Four things I learned in Unit 3:
- Significant figures!
- The mole/molar mass
- Limiting reactants
- Stoichiometry
Four things I learned in Unit 4:
- Acids and bases, and how they react to each other
- Solubility rules and dissociation equations
- Different ways of writing concentration, as well as the C=n/v equation
- Titration procedures and equipment, as well as how to tweak stoichiometry to fir with titration problems
Four things I learned in Unit 5:
- The Ideal Gas Laws
- Different measures of pressure
- The Combined Gas Law
- Tweaking stoichiometry concepts yet again to fit with the different gas laws
Two life skills I learned from this course:
- Time management is incredibly important! With five courses on the go, it was a challenge to decide when to do all of my work
- Chemistry is all around us. My dad baked biscotti tonight, and all I could think about was how many reactions had to happen to make it
Thank you so much!
- L
- L
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