Tag: writing

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STEM Education Poetry

Matter at Hand

“Clockwise or counter?  
Enantiomeric: 
We note designation as R or S, seen.  
Note how substituents 
Yield structure ‘handed’: 
A configurational naming routine.”

After National Library Week drew to a close, the 14 April 2024 Twitter poem shifted back to a more directly scientific theme, with a focus on a specific concept used to understand the reactivity of organic molecules.  Other posts on this site have engaged with the theme more broadly; this one examined a specific naming convention.    

“Clockwise or counter?  /
Enantiomeric: /
We note designation as R or S, seen…”

Part of learning organic chemistry involves understanding molecules in three-dimensional space.  Stereochemistry is the general discussion of this understanding.  

Within the broad topic of stereochemistry, enantiomeric molecules (enantiomers) are those that are non-superimposable mirror images of one another.  They contain the same atoms connected in the same order, but the implications of their different three-dimensional arrangements can be immense.     

The primary way students describe enantiomers is via the designation R or S, which is a shorthand for how attached atoms or groups are arranged as one sees them on a chiral center, when the least significant attached group is pointing away from the viewer.  

If the other three groups are arranged in a clockwise configuration in terms of their “priority”, the chiral center is designated R (from the Latin term recto, for “right”).  If the other three groups are arranged in a counterclockwise configuration, based on these rules, the chiral center is designated S (from the Latin term sinister, for “left”).    

Other pairs of vocab terms are employed with enantiomers, as well, such as dextrorotatory and levorotatory.  (Part of what is challenging in learning this material can be the lack of overlap across the distinguishing categories, which rely on different classification criteria.)

“Note how substituents /
Yield structure ‘handed’: /
A configurational naming routine.”

Adjusting to three-dimensional viewing can be a challenge.  It typically helps to remind students of the parallels between paired enantiomeric structures and right and left hands.  Just as a pair of hands would be a set of non-superimposable mirror images, so are two enantiomers. 

Classifying molecules as R or S is a “configurational naming routine.”

Categories
writing

Turtle Forward

“Picture-book classic:
Consider the terrapin,
Facing the day 
With defense first miscued;
Learning to balance 
A shell-set employment
With needed steps…
As a wise turtle would do.”

The 12 April 2024 Twitter poem highlighted Turtle Tale, a memorable storybook written by Frank Asch.  This was the last of three story-summarizing poems written during National Library Week 2024.  (In terms of the post title here, the rhyme with “hurtle forward” was both humorous and intriguingly contradictory.)  

“Picture-book classic: /
Consider the terrapin…”

Unlike the novels celebrated earlier here, Turtle Tale is a picture book, highlighting simple images of a “terrapin” learning to navigate the world.  (Author Frank Asch also composed and illustrated many other classics during his career.)  

“Facing the day /
With defense first miscued; /
Learning to balance /
A shell-set employment /
With needed steps…”

In this story, the eponymous Turtle learns when best to use his shell, facing the various hazards of the day.  

Initially, a falling apple strikes him on the head, so he decides to always hide in his shell.  However, he then realizes he cannot eat or drink (his “defense [is] first miscued”), so he fully reverses his resolve.  The storyline continues through a few more “all or nothing” moments, until Turtle strategically deploys his “shell-set employment” at a key moment: hiding from a hungry fox, then re-emerging to face the day, once the danger is past.  

Achieving the balance between stationary, defensive stance and “needed steps” brings Turtle’s story to a satisfying close.  

“As a wise turtle would do.”

Turtle’s refrain as he strives for this happy medium is: “That’s what a wise turtle would do.”  He first applies this characterization to the two extremes (always using the shell; never using the shell) before realizing the wisdom of moderation, at which point the line– now deployed more aptly– closes the book. 

During my childhood, this was one of my and my siblings’ favorite stories, and the status of “wise turtle” became a shorthand for achieving a sensible response to an everyday challenge.  It has been fun to revisit the book, years later, in this setting.  

Categories
writing

Open Books

“The week underway: celebrating
Books, libraries, tomes; elevating 
The frigates poetic.  
Next few posts’ aesthetic:
Some classics, verse-commemorating.”

The 10 April 2024 Twitter limerick began a new set of themed posts, as the week of the total solar eclipse was also National Library Week 2024!  This first poem simply introduced the week-in-progress, while each of the next three posts summarized a specific story.  

“The week underway: celebrating /
Books, libraries, tomes…”

The first two lines of the limerick shifted focus to National Library Week and noted that it was already underway.  The motto for this year’s event was “Ready, Set, Library.”  

“[E]levating / The frigates poetic…”

The third line referenced Emily Dickinson’s much more memorable celebration of the “books, libraries, tomes” alluded to previously: “There is no Frigate like a Book / To take us Lands away.”  (I am sure I am one of many who encountered that particular term for the first time in her poem, reinforcing her verse’s overall theme.)  

This in turn reminded me of one of the previous spring’s posts, which had highlighted a comparable quote by Anna Quindlen: “Books are the plan, and the train, and the road.  They are the destination, and the journey.  They are home.”  

“Next few posts’ aesthetic: /
Some classics, verse-commemorating.”

“Pro-book” is not a particularly surprising or novel (ha) stance to take, but I will always welcome the opportunity to deliberately revisit some favorite stories in this space, and the subsequent three Twitter poems were fun to write.  I similarly look forward to writing in more detail about them here, this month.  

The last two lines set up the goals for the rest of the week, in which the poems would aim to “verse-commemorate” some of my favorite classic books from years past.  

Categories
writing

Poetic Policy

In the midst of autumn hectic,
I am pondering eclectic
(With most lines acatalectic)
For October-posting goal. 
In the meetings by the dozens
Re: the calendar discussions,
Hear the essay repercussions 
Where extent exerts control:
Whence the structure, on the whole? 

This is a non-Twitter poem for which the general theme has been running through my mind since the late summer.  It uses the structure of a stanza of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven,” which the author contextualizes from start to finish in his absorbing essay entitled “The Philosophy of Composition.”  

For my part, this homage comments on some of the discussions I’ve heard in academic meetings in the past few months.  Since the poem didn’t have the Twitter constraint of 280 characters, I’ll give myself some more flexibility, with a 560-word limit, starting here.   

In the midst of autumn hectic, /
I am pondering eclectic /
(With most lines acatalectic.) /
For October-posting goal….

This essay will “ponder… [the] eclectic” more than typical chem-specific posts here do. The “lines acatalectic” seem particularly suited for this specific “October-posting goal”: few poems have as distinctive a syllabic rhyme scheme as Poe’s “The Raven.”  It is a fun challenge to match the structure.  

In the meetings by the dozens /
Re: the calendar discussions, /
Hear the essay repercussions /
Where extent exerts control…

Several of this semester’s committee meetings (but not, in all prosaic fairness, anywhere near dozens of them!) have involved discussions about future years’ academic calendars.

What I found initially counter-intuitive, but quickly convincing, is that the first step must be the choice regarding the actual calendar adjustment, before the substance of what that adjustment entails can be thoroughly discussed.  This is because many long-term, high-stakes campus plans— class modules, athletic teams’ schedules— hinge on what the calendar looks like in the first place.  The timescale for changing the calendar (years in advance) is longer than the timescale for using it (months or weeks in advance).  

When the pertinent conversations began, they thus suggested “essay repercussions,” as I was reminded of “The Philosophy of Composition,” in which Edgar Allan Poe recounts his writing process for “The Raven.”  His essay highlights some similarly unexpected points.  

For instance, rather than the metric feet used, or the scene depicted, or the voice of the narrator– all of which are quite famous– the fundamental requirement that Poe discusses is simply the poem’s length: “The initial consideration was that of extent.”  He comments that the poem should be read all at once to achieve maximum effect: “If two sittings be required, the affairs of the world interfere, and everything like totality is at once destroyed.”  Soon after follow similarly broad discussions of effect (“beauty is the sole legitimate province of the poem”) and tone (“one of sadness”).  

It is only after those three big-picture choices that Poe addresses what I would’ve initially thought to be more vivid inspirations: the raven itself, the bird’s “Nevermore” refrain, and the story of the narrator and Lenore.  And likewise, it is only after THAT discussion that Poe notes that he “may as well say a few words of the versification.”  The logistics of the intricate rhymes, employing trochaic feet in a primarily (but not entirely) “octametre acatalectic” scheme, are presented almost as an afterthought. 

When I first encountered this essay, I was surprised to learn that the dramatic saga of the “midnight dreary” finds its primary origin in a line-count requirement.  

Whence the structure, on the whole? 

In terms of this post, I’ll keep my focus on the comparison between poem and calendar.  It is interesting to see how “extent exerts control” in both literary work and academic planning, as the defining first principle.  The overall shapes of both works under consideration (“the structure[s], on the whole”) rely on eminently practical starting points.  

More broadly, it is fascinating to revisit such a generously retrosynthetic analysis of a poem.  Doing so evokes some chemistry themes generally: the creative process versus the final work, the varied ways in which “micro” elements combine to yield “macro” effects, and other themes I’ve enjoyed exploring in this space.  I expect I will return to Poe’s essay in the future. 

Categories
Science Poetry

Under the Sun

“One small note for view anthological;
Five lines citing gaze cosmological.  
A sight awe-inspiring;
Synapses rewiring.  
Remembrance is e’er astronomical.”

The 9 April 2024 Twitter limerick provided a brief postscript to the events of 8 April 2024’s “Eclipse Day,” as routine fully re-emerged for the area.  

“One small note for view anthological; /
Five lines citing gaze cosmological.”

Many others celebrated the 8 April 2024 total solar eclipse quite eloquently, via many media. 

My contribution of the five lines of a limerick to the general “view anthological” is rather inconsequential, but it was good to have the established NaPoWriMo 2024 routine with which to reflect on the “gaze cosmological,” even briefly.  

“A sight awe-inspiring; /
Synapses rewiring…”

It is likely that the April 2024 afternoon might be a once-in-a-lifetime sight for me, without significant travel to other areas of totality in the future. Certainly, though, it was the first time I’d seen a true total eclipse, and as a brand-new observation, the moment was awe-inspiring and inspirational.  

“Remembrance is e’er astronomical.”

I generally am wary of using disciplinary STEM terms I don’t know as well as chemistry-specific vocabulary, in these poems.  However, between the eclipse itself and the fact that it had certainly been a big day for the area, it seemed fair to consider the previous afternoon as “astronomical,” in multiple senses of the word.   

Categories
Science Poetry

Midnight’s Due

“A Monday moment; time stands still: 
Semester’s main attraction; 
A midday midnight madness made
From orbital infraction.  
Crowd celebrates and congregates in 
Spring term’s prime distraction:
A learning goal unparalleled…
Eclipsing interaction.”

The 8 April 2024 Twitter poem continued the previous day’s theme; this verse celebrated the actual day of the Spring 2024 total solar eclipse, visible across much of the midwestern USA.  

I enjoyed the interdisciplinary focus of such a major event, reading several essays that highlighted the unforgettable nature of such a day, as with Annie Dillard’s “Total Eclipse.”  I also had not been aware until the spring of just how many times Emily Dickinson noted solar eclipses in her prolific work, and I was glad to learn more. One of her verses in particular vividly centered the jarring arrival of totality, beginning:

“Sunset at night — is natural — /
But sunset on the Dawn /
Reverses nature — Master— /
So midnight’s — due — at Noon —” 

This post title uses a variation on Dickinson’s fourth line here; the essay is intended to give the day of the eclipse more of its deserved attention (i.e., midnight’s due) than the April poem alone could.    

“A Monday moment; time stands still: /
Semester’s main attraction…”

This Monday had been on my mental calendar for a while, since seeing a partial solar eclipse early in the 2017-2018 academic year.  I had wished I could make the trek to totality during August 2017, and so I anticipated seeing the phenomenon in person until and through 2023-2024. It was striking at a busy semester’s close to watch everyone take the same pause to observe the once-in-a-lifetime sight; afternoon meetings were canceled for an hour, and buildings were empty, as we all looked to the sky.  

“A midday midnight madness made /
From orbital infraction…”

Totality was nearer the prosaic hour of 3 p.m., but I can rarely resist reaching for alliteration.  The “orbital infraction” was a periphrastic take on the eclipse itself, highlighting the way in which the orbit of the Earth around the sun and the orbit of the Moon around the Earth intersected so fortuitously.    

“Crowd celebrates and congregates in /
Spring term’s prime distraction… /
A learning goal unparalleled… /
Eclipsing interaction.”

The ending lines linked the historic sight (the “prime distraction”) to… chemistry vocabulary!  

When a molecule rotates in three-dimensional space, it is possible that some of its atoms can occasionally block one another, incurring an energetic penalty via an “eclipsing interaction,” described in detail in this entry.  The same phrase came to mind, with a much more human-focused interpretation, as I watched groups congregate on this Monday, both on campus and nearby, via conversations and encounters facilitated on a predictable-yet-astonishing afternoon. 

Categories
Science Poetry

Around the Block

“On the eve of a sight far from typical–
Thanks to junction of orbits elliptical–
Moon-o’er-sun: brief obscuring
Will prove mem’ry enduring 
In tomorrow’s occasion ecliptical.”  

The NaPoWriMo 2024 routine included multiple themed sets of poems, although none of this year’s sequences were quite so esoteric as previous years’ celebrations (e.g., those that had focused on enthalpy or reaction mechanisms in previous Aprils).  The first such set was the sequence of Twitter poems from 7 April 2024 through 9 April 2024, in which all three posts celebrated the spring term’s total solar eclipse.

The corresponding essays will be posted here today and in the next two weeks, celebrating the day before, the day of, and the day after the memorable event (the time “around the block,” perhaps).  

“On the eve of a sight far from typical– /
Thanks to junction of orbits elliptical…”

It is useful to remember how little I need to deviate from a chemistry-only focus before I am apprehensive about using creative writing to celebrate STEM themes!  The total solar eclipse of 8 April 2024 was certainly an event best discussed knowledgeably by an astronomer.  

However, it also felt absurd to ignore such a historic event during a monthlong celebration of science themes, so I confined my “Eclipse Day Eve” limerick to two big points.  One, the orbits of the Earth around the sun and the moon around the Earth both take the shape of an ellipse (as denoted in Kepler’s laws), so I made the case that the famous encounter causing a solar eclipse could be considered a “junction of orbits elliptical.”  Two, I likewise felt confident in designating the event “far from typical,” given that it had been several years since I’d seen even a partial eclipse.    

“Moon-o’er-sun: brief obscuring /
Will prove mem’ry enduring /
In tomorrow’s occasion ecliptical.”

The points raised in lines 3-4 were similarly straightforward.  I knew the time of the actual total eclipse at my location would be brief but memorable, especially if weather predictions held and we had clear skies for the minutes leading up to totality.  

One last point– probably an unsurprisingly one: the spark for this specific poem was the potential rhyme between the “elliptical” nature of the astronomical orbits and the “ecliptical” theme of the day.  (The latter was a newly coined term, but ideally a logical use of poetic license.)

Categories
Science Poetry

Taking Stock

“STEM verse: historic, 
Cross-disciplinary, as
Intriguing efforts will
Semaphores yield.  
Enduring case:
Coleridge, lectures attending 
From Davy, to find 
‘Stock of metaphors’ filled.”

The 6 April 2024 Twitter poem celebrated a famous interdisciplinary intersection of science and poetry, via the story of Humphry Davy and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.  

“STEM verse: historic, /
Cross-disciplinary, as /
Intriguing efforts will /
Semaphores yield.”

This near-double-dactylic verse built on the previous poem; the discussion of constructive interference as a metaphor for rewarding collaborative teaching reminded me of another interdisciplinary endeavor.  

As I’ve written about here before, Humphry Davy, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and William Wordsworth were contemporaries, working in the areas of chemistry and poetry in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.  

Davy isolated multiple elements and invented an arc lamp, among many other scientific achievements; notably, he often gave public lectures on insights, presenting scientific material to a general audience.  Coleridge and Wordsworth are two of the names most associated with the Romantic era, the beginning of which movement is often traced to the 1798 publication of their Lyrical Ballads.  (A fascinating sidenote in Davy’s biography is that he helped to facilitate the editing and publishing process for the second edition of this work in 1800, among other collaborative efforts.)  The cross-disciplinary conversations among Davy, Coleridge, and Wordsworth yielded rewarding insights and ideas, potentially viewed as signals across traditional disciplinary gaps: “semaphores,” figuratively.  

“Enduring case: /
Coleridge, lectures attending /
From Davy, to find /
‘Stock of metaphors’ filled.”

This poem celebrated the most famous quote that I am aware of in terms of the collaboration itself: Coleridge’s comment that he attended Davy’s public lectures on chemistry to build up his “stock of metaphors.”    

The overlap of science and literature is complex and fascinating, and these blog entries are glancing at best.  However, whenever I do use one of my own “stock of metaphors,” accumulated now over the past fifteen years of teaching (unbelievable!), this famous quote inevitably comes to mind. 

Categories
Science Poetry

Teaming Up

“The goal: cooperation while
Maintaining clear coherence;
Team-teaching, research projects:
Meet with increased perseverance.  
Please pardon an inevitable
Vocab term appearance:
Collaboration seeks to find 
Constructive interference.”

The 5 April 2024 Twitter poem shifted from exploring chemistry-specific themes to borrowing one for use in figurative language: using a property of the behavior of light waves to provide a metaphor for optimal teamwork in educational settings.  

“The goal: cooperation while /
Maintaining clear coherence; /
Team-teaching, research projects: /
Meet with increased perseverance.” 

One of my favorite classes to teach is an interdisciplinary seminar in creativity in science and the humanities, team-taught with a colleague in a different department.  This is partly because the subject matter is innovative and inspiring and partly because the act of team-teaching (a.k.a. “cooperation while/ maintaining clear coherence”) is itself an interesting and rewarding challenge.  Unlike my content-heavy chemistry courses, where the grades depend on traditional assessments like homework and exams, the seminar involves readings, discussions, and written reflections; it culminates with a set of research projects with which students explore themes in creativity.  Throughout the semester, “increased perseverance” towards cohesive clarity from the instructors optimizes the learning experience for all involved.  

“Please pardon an inevitable /
Vocab term appearance: /
Collaboration seeks to find / 
Constructive interference.”

Common themes early in several of my chemistry-themed courses are the behavior of light and the attendant “vocab term[s]” involved.  

When light waves interact, two (of many) possible pathways are called constructive interference and destructive interference.  Constructive interference means the peak of each light wave consistently adds to the peak of the other, resulting in a heightened wave and a brightening effect. Destructive interference means the peak of one light wave consistently adds to the trough of the other, resulting in a dampened wave and a dimming effect. [These wave effects (in combination with some others) can be seen in a fun and simple demonstration of “rainbow paper.”]  

This poem borrows “constructive interference” for its central metaphor, noting that a rewarding teaching collaboration can lead to enhanced learning experiences (and perhaps, metaphorically, to brighter days!).

Categories
Science Poetry

Guiding Lights

The spectrum electromagnetic;
The light waves e’er peripatetic 
With wide-ranging energies,
Inspiring reveries:
Exploring, insightful, aesthetic.  

The 4 April 2024 Twitter limerick commemorated another common theme seen in multiple National Poetry Writing Months: that of electromagnetic radiation (light) and its myriad roles in scientific explorations and creative work.  This poem sums up a few aspects of light’s behavior as described by scientists and artists.    

“The spectrum electromagnetic; /
The light waves e’er peripatetic /
With wide-ranging energies…”

What we consider typically as light is more precisely characterized as visible light: the ROYGBIV rainbow; light with a wavelength range of 400-750 nm.  It is just one part of the entire electromagnetic spectrum, which ranges from long-wavelength, low-energy radio waves to short-wavelength, high-energy gamma rays.   

Pertinent calculations and vocabulary involving light arise early in General Chemistry and General Physics. One of the earliest examples of one of the most frustrating themes of introductory scientific coursework– that the language can be frustratingly jargon-heavy in the service of precision– is that electromagnetic radiation (EMR) simply means light, just in a more encompassing, “wide-ranging” way.  

Light exhibits wave-particle duality, but many properties of light are more easily understood via the wave model, so that light could be defined in terms of its wavelength, frequency, and energy.  Light has a constant speed of 3.00 x 108 meters per second; it is “e’er peripatetic.”  

“Inspiring reveries: /
Exploring, insightful, aesthetic.” 

Keats famously wrote about the tendency of natural philosophy (science) to “unweave the rainbow”; while I read that action as having both benefits and challenges, it is undeniable that the first three limerick lines here are information-dense.  The study of light has been a historical and epic saga for scientists through the centuries, but the resulting, sometimes-dry language is just one aspect of light’s description and behavior.  

The final two lines allude to a few of the ways in which it is possible to experience and discuss light from artistic perspectives: the beauty of a sunrise or sunset; the warm glow of a candle; a metaphorical flash of illumination.