Tag: poetry

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Science Poetry

Reverse Engineering

“This National Chem Week draws near its brink.
This year’s celebrations passed in a blink.  
We’ve seen metals marv’lous
(And heard some rhymes ard’ous)
In heralding species from ‘Ac to Zinc.’”

The 26 October 2019 limerick commemorated the end of National Chemistry Week 2019.  

“This National Chem Week draws near its brink. /
This year’s celebrations passed in a blink.”  
It was an interesting challenge to think of several metal-themed poems for National Chemistry Week 2019.  With a few, as with this one, the rhyme scheme was retrosynthesized from the target of a specific metal’s name in the final line: working in reverse to frame the structure of the limerick around that end goal. 

As described further below, this was a poem in which the rhymes were somewhat forced and the lines required some chemical shorthand to properly fit.  The title here thus provides both a discussion of this particular writing process and an acknowledgement that this entry, along with much of this website, could be read as “re: verse engineering”: regarding the structuring of these brief poems.

“We’ve seen metals marv’lous /
(And heard some rhymes ard’ous) /
In heralding species from ‘Ac to Zinc.’”
The end of the limerick highlighted the general theme of 2019’s National Chemistry Week (“Marvelous Metals”) while acknowledging that this theme often led to language that was more awkward than elegant.  In lines three and four, “marvelous” and “arduous” relied on elision to fit into their assigned rhyme scheme.  Line five necessitated a stylistic mismatch with respect to the chemistry content, in highlighting metals as a category in their entirety: from start to finish; from stem to stern; from A to Z.  “From ‘Ac to Zinc’” was used as a metallic variation on this last phrase, using the chemical symbol for actinium and the element name of zinc, for the alphabetical start and near-finish of the metals on the periodic table.  (Zinc is more rhyme-friendly than the metal in the final alphabetical position, zirconium!)

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Science Poetry

Roots of the Matter

“A prevalent metal is sodium;
Its tabled place: row three and column one.
The symbol seems mismatched;
From Latin, it’s dispatched:   
An abbreviation of natrium.”  

The 25 October 2019 limerick was the second of two to focus on a particular example of the “Marvelous Metals” generally celebrated in National Chemistry Week 2019.  This poem discussed sodium, specifically, examining its placement on the periodic table and the etymology of its name.     

“A prevalent metal is sodium; /
Its tabled place: row three and column one.”
Sodium is found in many settings on Earth.  On the Periodic Table of the Elements, sodium resides in the first column of the third row, classifying it as an alkali metal. 

In teaching, I have never looked up where the word alkali came from; given the etymological focus of the poem, this seems a fitting chance.  This word is derived from Arabic originally, meaning “from ashes of the ‘qaly,’ or saltwort.” Saltwort refers to any of several plants that live near saltwater; aqueous solutions of these plants’ ashes are basic. The alkali metals, likewise, react with water to form basic solutions.

“The symbol seems mismatched; /
From Latin, it’s dispatched: / 
An abbreviation of natrium.”
As seen in “Clashing Symbols,” some chemical elements’ symbols seem misaligned with their elements’ names.  Sodium’s name is derived from the Latin word natrium, which in turn refers to the Ancient Egyptian word natron, which historically referred to a salt mixture found in Egypt.  Sodium is found in many salts (ionic compounds), including sodium chloride (NaCl; table salt).   

Today, interestingly, natron is defined as a mixture of multiple compounds, each of which includes sodium.  While this likely is not dramatic enough of a change to qualify as an example of word drift (and, certainly, such a discussion quickly moves beyond my expertise!), the shift points to another challenge of learning chemistry: sifting out when detailed nuances are important to clarify and when they can be disregarded.  The dense rules of chemical nomenclature must be understood to learn General Chemistry; however, the etymologies and roots of the element names used in nomenclature rarely are explored. 

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STEM Education Poetry

Unmitigated Gallium

“This metal in hot tea will fast succumb,
Its melting point readily overcome.
So spoon disappearing
Is chem feat endearing–
A keen fact reported re: gallium.”

This was one of two limericks written for National Chemistry Week 2019 that focused on specific metals; this one was posted on 24 October 2019.  This particular poem referenced gallium via Sam Kean’s entertaining 2011 book about the history of the Periodic Table of the Elements: The Disappearing Spoon.     

“This metal in hot tea will fast succumb, /
Its melting point readily overcome.”
In The Disappearing Spoon, science writer Sam Kean describes a practical joke common to chemists.  A spoon can be fashioned out of pure gallium (“unmitigated” gallium, justifying the pun used in the title!) and served alongside a cup of piping-hot tea.  Gallium’s melting point, at around 86 degrees Fahrenheit (or around 30 degrees Celsius), is “readily overcome” by the tea, and so the spoon quickly melts in this setting. 

“So spoon disappearing /
Is chem feat endearing– /
A keen fact reported re: gallium.”
This phenomenon is well known enough as a popular parlor trick that it became the central image of Kean’s book; it is a “chem feat endearing.”  The structure of this particular poem, in which the riddle of the element is not revealed until the final few syllables, was particularly fun to write, reminding me of the weekly limerick challenges on NPR’s “Wait, Wait… Don’t Tell Me.”  

A common theme in these essays is the challenge inherent in teaching General Chemistry of balancing the fascinating narratives and biographies of science with the content required in a general STEM course.  I thus often find myself alluding to or describing Kean’s book when I introduce the Periodic Table of the Elements, to better acknowledge these many underlying “Science 2” stories. 

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STEM Education Poetry

Calculated Efforts

“With Avogadro’s number–
And a molar mass to boot–
We can practice stoichiometry
And many calcs compute!    
(If using six times ten
Raised to the power twenty-third,
Be sure to check your answers
So their scale is not absurd!)”

The Twitter poem posted on 23 October 2019 can be viewed as a STEM education-themed poem; it is written in a “teacher’s voice” and examines a chemistry-specific metacognitive technique.    

“With Avogadro’s number– /
And a molar mass to boot– /
We can practice stoichiometry /
And many calcs compute!”
The first four lines specifically were posted on Twitter during National Chemistry Week 2019.  “Avogadro’s number” is named in honor of Amedeo Avogadro, who has been cited in this space before regarding his gas law, which related the amount of a gas to its volume.  The SI unit for amount is the mole.  Chemists use Avogadro’s number to convert between moles of a substance and the number of atoms or molecules of that substance.  A useful and common analogy is the concept of a dozen.  Saying someone has a dozen eggs is equivalent to saying someone has twelve eggs.  Saying someone has one mole of eggs is equivalent to saying someone has 6.022 x 1023 eggs.  Given its magnitude, Avogadro’s number is useful in converting between the particulate scale and the macroscopic scale. 

The concept of molar mass relates moles to the more familiar unit of grams.  The number underneath an element’s chemical symbol on the periodic table is its molar mass: the number of  grams in one mole of the element.  For example, measuring out 12.01 grams of carbon is equivalent to measuring out one mole of carbon, which is equivalent to measuring out 6.022 x 1023 atoms of carbon. Mastering these concepts opens the door to a wide array of interesting calculations, collectively termed stoichiometry.        

“(If using six times ten /
Raised to the power twenty-third, /
Be sure to check your answers /
So their scale is not absurd!)”
I refrained from posting these final four lines on Twitter last fall since, without additional context, the second set of rhymes could sound critical.  As alluded to above, though, this is a common refrain in my classroom, whenever Avogadro’s number (“six times ten raised to the power twenty-third,” poetically) is involved.  I remind students that as they are converting between grams, moles, and numbers of atoms, the scales of the numbers will be very different.  (For instance, a 10.00 gram sample of carbon is equivalent to 0.8326 moles of carbon, a quantity which is equivalent to 5.014 x 1023 atoms of carbon.)  A student can always use common sense and these very different scales to double-check that they’ve not reported an incorrect answer where the scale is accidentally “absurd”: they can think about their thinking, via a chemistry-specific metacognitive technique.   

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Science Poetry

Textbook Definitions

“The metals are elements wondrous:
At room temp, most, solids; dense; lustrous;
Also ductile, conductive.
But this form’s reductive;
In textbooks: more info, illustrious.”

The 22 October 2019 limerick was part of the National Chemistry Week 2019 sequence, focusing on another aspect of “Marvelous Metals.”  

“The metals are elements wondrous: /
At room temp, most, solids; dense; lustrous; /
Also ductile, conductive…”
Chemistry textbooks compile much technical information in a relatively small space; this limerick takes this a step further, cataloging several traditional definitions and properties of metals via the syllabic constraints of a limerick.  

Metals exist in the solid phase at room temperature, with the notable exception of mercury.  Metals’ densities are high: even a small volume of a given metal has a significant mass (and these densities are characteristic to specific metals, as commemorated in Archimedes’s famous realization).  Metals are lustrous, reflecting light and appearing shiny.  They are ductile and can be turned into wires; they can conduct heat and electricity.  [As a sidenote, textbooks generally mention ductility (a metal’s ability to be made into a wire) and malleability (a metal’s ability to be flattened into a sheet) in the same sentence, but I couldn’t fit the latter property into this space.]          

“But this form’s reductive; /
In textbooks: more info, illustrious.”
The last two lines are a bit contradictory: they acknowledge the limits of the limerick and point an interested reader towards the more expansive information discussed in textbooks… even as the inspiration for the limerick arose from the brevity with which these books address metals’ many interesting properties, in introducing the periodic table.  

Usually, however, a textbook will include more extensive discussions of descriptive chemistry as well; these chapters expand on the general discussion of metals provided in the early overview, examining particular groups’ chemical and physical properties.  Likewise, some of the other limericks written for this week will address specific metals in more detail.       

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STEM Education Poetry

Midterm Assessment

Though I strive for increasing simplicities,
Class preps melt into muddled cyclicities.  
Here in Fall 2020,
There’s effort a-plenty
In balancing Chem’s synchronicities. 

This non-Twitter poem is not so much intended to elucidate any aspect of STEM education as to acknowledge this challenging autumn for faculty and students alike, here in the middle of the fall semester.   

“Though I strive for increasing simplicities, /
Class preps melt into muddled cyclicities.”
I’ve spoken with a few of my colleagues about how much the 2020-21 academic year reminds us of our respective first years on the tenure track.  It is a major shift to go from the research focus of postdoctoral work into full-time “class prep”: generating sets of notes with which to stay at least a day (or at least a few hours!) ahead of the class sessions that require those resources.  Since real-time teaching itself– organizing lectures, grading assessments, etc.– easily constitutes the substance of a normal work week, any term a professor has a completely new course is notable for the additional work it involves.  

The poem’s first two lines acknowledge that, although I attempted over the summer to prepare, it wasn’t fully possible.  Thus, recently, time has seemed to “melt into muddled cyclicit[y],” as it did a decade ago, when I began my teaching work; it’s easy to lose track of the days, moving through this befuddling term!  

“Here in Fall 2020, /
There’s effort a-plenty /
In balancing Chem’s synchronicities.”          
Teaching is very rewarding, but it’s also considerably time-consuming this autumn, mainly because I’ve been learning best practices pertaining to remote classrooms.  “Balancing Chem’s synchronicities” is a shorthand for those daily routines: preparing coherent lecture outlines and videos to be available asynchronously; maintaining synchronous classroom sessions, so that students and I can discuss questions on useful timescales. (I’ve been most fortunate to work with wonderful classes and colleagues; as I predicted in Week 1, the “effort a-plenty” is a shared endeavor throughout the department and across campus.)    

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Science Poetry

Clashing Symbols

“The marvelous metals are able
To make up quite a lot of the table
That we term periodic:
Collection symbolic 
Wherein lies each element’s label.”  

The 21 October 2019 limerick was written as part of National Chemistry Week 2019. It provides an overview of the periodic table of the elements (PTE), the relative populations of metallic and non-metallic elements on the PTE, and the use of chemical symbols on the PTE.   

“The marvelous metals are able /
To make up quite a lot of the table /
That we term periodic…”
A wide number of chemical properties and principles can be gleaned from an understanding of the periodic table of the elements (PTE).  For instance, metallic character versus non-metallic character can be assessed: the left side of the PTE includes metals, and the right side of the PTE includes non-metals.  Roughly 80% of the elements are metals; they thus “make up quite a lot of the [periodic] table.”  The dividing line between metals and non-metals is often referred to as a “staircase,” given its appearance; the semimetal or metalloid elements are collected in this range of the PTE.  

“Collection symbolic /
Wherein lies each element’s label.”
The periodic table uses chemical symbols as a convenient shorthand for the element names; the label for each element is a one-letter or two-letter symbol. 

Sometimes, these labels are predictable given the name of the element, as with cobalt (Co), for which the symbol is intuitive.  Other times, the labels reflect a name expressed in a different language, as with iron (Fe) and potassium (K); both of these take their abbreviations from the Latin words for the elements (ferrum and kalium, respectively).  The title of this piece alludes to the idea that these instances can seem frustrating and dissonant, as one is learning chemistry; the idea of “metallic symbols” here provides an intriguing play on words with “metallic cymbals.”

As with an introductory approach to any subject, some degree of memorization is inherent and important in learning to use the periodic table efficiently as a disciplinary tool.    

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STEM Education Poetry

Anchor News

In Intro Chem, texts can fight focus.
But chemists themselves oft convoke; thus
For study sans rancor, 
See concepts that anchor
And for big ideas, central locus.  

This non-Twitter, STEM-education-themed poem addresses the sheer volume of material in an introductory chemistry textbook and one interesting set of disciplinary resources that students may find helpful in organizing their approaches to that material.  

“In Intro Chem, texts can fight focus.”
An introductory chemistry course shifts between vastly different subjects on a weekly basis.  Chemistry textbooks, while wonderful and creative resources, can seem overwhelming with the breadth of their coverage, as a student attempts to find key themes to emphasize in studying.  

“But chemists themselves oft convoke…”
The second line introduces a chemistry-education-related project that the American Chemical Society’s Division of Chemical Education has developed in the past decade.  This project is not itself reported in a chemistry textbook but, as part of the scientific literature, has been published in journal articles and communicated at conference presentations.   This is acknowledged poetically via “chemists themselves oft convoke”: the substance of this project arises from disciplinary meetings and related written communication.    

“…thus/ For study sans rancor, /
See concepts that anchor /
And for big ideas, central locus.”  
The Anchoring Concepts Content Maps are resources that outline key themes for different subdisciplines of chemistry.  For instance, authors Thomas Holme, Cynthia Luxford, and Kristen Murphy have published the General Chemistry Concept Map, highlighting major ideas around which the content of a yearlong introductory chemistry sequence centers.  While the resources are described at the pertinent link for chemistry teachers, I have seen that students likewise find these resources useful, especially in approaching final exams.        

The language in lines 3-5 becomes a bit strained.  However, “study sans rancor… [through] concepts that anchor” is intended to say that these resources lead to a less stressful learning process!  Likewise, these content maps provide a useful “central locus”: a single place in which to find many key ideas of chemistry.      

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Science Poetry

Words of the Week

“Today starts a week that will readily  
Spotlight highlights for seven days, steadily,
As we celebrate nationally
Our science that rationally
Explores matter’s properties: chemistry.”

The 20 October 2019 Twitter poem began a series of poems written to celebrate National Chemistry Week 2019.    

“Today starts a week that will readily /
Spotlight highlights for seven days, steadily…”
As with Chemists Celebrate Earth Week, which I’ve written about in this space previously, National Chemistry Week is a celebration sponsored by the American Chemical Society.  I had not realized its longevity until writing this piece; the first occurrence was in 1989.  Each year, the week has a different theme, highlighting such myriad topics as chemistry and art, environmental chemistry, and nanotechnology.    

“As we celebrate nationally /
Our science that rationally /
Explores matter’s properties: chemistry.”
The theme of the 2019 National Chemistry Week was “Marvelous Metals,” as will be seen over several upcoming entries here.  This year, National Chemistry Week will be held from October 18-24 and will focus on “Sticking with Chemistry”: the science behind glues and adhesives.  The American Chemical Society provides a wealth of educational resources and activities each year to celebrate the pertinent theme, sponsoring events across the USA.  Chemistry examines the structures, properties, and reactions of chemical species, commonly phrased as the study of matter.    

(“Chemistry” is a word that doesn’t perfectly rhyme with too many others.  One of the rhymes I tried in an early draft of this limerick was “centrally,” building on chemistry’s characterization as a “central science.”  I was most familiar with this phrase in its capacity as part of a popular textbook title; again, it was interesting in drafting this essay to realize some larger discussions of that phrase.  As one might suspect, the connections between different STEM disciplines are complex and oft-debated!)   

Categories
STEM Education Poetry

Name That Tune

“The Alphabet” and “Twinkle, Twinkle,
Little Star” share a melody single.  
The tunes are the same,
But when just naming names,
Common content can be tough to signal!    

This non-Twitter poem highlights an interesting challenge of communicating in scientific disciplines; this challenge certainly extends to introductory science courses.  

“The Alphabet” and “Twinkle, Twinkle, /
Little Star” share a melody single.  
Several childhood songs, including the alphabet song (a.k.a. “now I know my ABCs”), “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” and others, have the same melody. However, that often is not obvious until one hums each tune to oneself. These initial two lines are rhythmically awkward, but they succinctly introduce a point that can resonate in a more complex context: during a STEM student’s undergraduate path, they often encounter common concepts in multiple courses.  

The tunes are the same, /
But when just naming names, /
Common content can be tough to signal!   
I remember one hallway conversation with a colleague teaching in a different STEM discipline; we were discussing the fact that thermodynamics had recently come up in both of our courses, but it was difficult for students taking both to transfer concepts and calculations between the two disciplinary presentations.  It didn’t take much time to identify the reason why. 

If we think about the process of heating a sample of water through all three of its phases, from solid ice to liquid water to gaseous steam, that process involves two “phase changes,” one from solid to liquid and one from liquid to gas.  At each of these, some heat energy is necessary to cause the phase change itself.  For instance, depending on sample size, it takes a certain amount of heat energy transferred at constant pressure to cause ice to melt to water: this was a concept that had recently come up in both my and my colleague’s courses. However, we soon realized that while I was discussing it in class as the enthalpy of that melting step, my colleague referred to it as the latent heat.  We each had learned the other term at some point, but it still took us a few seconds to recalibrate our discussion; we realized that students were likely hearing each unusual term as its own unusual concept, even with such an everyday process as the melting of ice.  

To directly link this anecdote to the limerick: the “melody” here is the familiar idea that melting ice to form water requires an input of heat energy at constant pressure.  However, that’s not immediately evident when “naming names” and learning the disciplinary vocabulary: the “common content” is challenging to realize. 

Different scientific disciplines require their own complicated disciplinary jargons for efficient communication among their specialists.  This can create quite a hurdle for novice learners, who often must take more than one introductory STEM course at once.  As with so many of these essays, my hope is that being aware of that obstacle might provide an important step towards navigating it.   

I will end here with a wonderful quotation from renowned organic chemist Percy Julian, whose words bring the essay to a close with a focus on another childhood rhyme.   

“I don’t want to frighten those of you who are not familiar with organic chemistry. I should have said in the beginning that one hardly expects an organic chemist to be able to speak without his gobbledygook in his language. As a matter of fact, one hardly expects a scientist to speak without that, and therefore scientists are usually and traditionally poor speakers, I warn you… The late Sir J. B. S. Haldane, the great biologist, put it rather aptly when he said that our language doesn’t lend itself to poetry. ‘Ladybird, ladybird fly away home’ becomes impossible when you must call the ladybird Coccinella bipunctata.”

Dr. Percy Julian, quoted in “Forgotten Genius,” NOVA