Cosmic Chemistry Tic-Tac-Toe Project

Content

• The Big Bang- the prevailing cosmological model explaining the existence of the observable universe from the earliest known periods through its subsequent large-scale evolution.

• Nuclear Fusion- is a reaction in which two or more atomic nuclei are combined to form one or more different atomic nuclei and subatomic particles.

• Nuclear Fission- is a reaction in which the nucleus of an atom splits into two or more smaller nuclei.

• Radioactive Decay- is the process by which an unstable atomic nucleus loses energy by radiation.

• Nuclear Transmutation: is the conversion of one chemical element or an isotope into another chemical element.

• Alpha Particles- also called alpha rays or alpha radiation, consist of two protons and two neutrons bound together into a particle identical to a helium-4 nucleus.

• Atoms- is the smallest unit of ordinary matter that forms a chemical element. Every solid, liquid, gas, and plasma is composed of neutral or ionized atoms.

• Isotopes- are two or more types of atoms that have the same atomic number and position in the periodic table

• Supernova- is a powerful and luminous stellar explosion. This transient astronomical event occurs during the last evolutionary stages of a massive star

• Nuclear Stability- means that the nucleus of an element is stable and thus it does not decay spontaneously emitting any kind of radioactivity.

• Half-Life- is the time required for a quantity to reduce to half of its initial value. The term is commonly used in nuclear physics to describe how quickly unstable atoms undergo radioactive decay or how long stable atoms survive.

• Electromagnetic Spectrum- is the range of frequencies of electromagnetic radiation and their respective wavelengths and photon energies.

Reflection

Overall I really enjoyed working on this project and throughout the process I gained a lot more knowledge than I did prior. Since I was young I had always been very interested in the Sun, Outer-space, and the Big bang. And I remember the first time I ever saw a large periodic poster hanging up in a teachers classroom and wondering when we were going to go in depth and learn about it. Within this project we touched on all of those topics.

We were given the chance to choose our groups during this project which is a positive and a negative when it comes to group work. The group we chose was Vinny, Hayden, Eric, and I which was a good group because we are all close friends and get along well but that also resulted in getting off task quite often and wasting quality work time. We ended up getting all of our work done on time but we could have finished earlier with less procrastination and more time to reflect and revise our work. One positive concept about being in a group with close friends was that we did not have many arguments and collaborated very well together. Erik and I took decided to take a leadership role through dividing up all the work and choosing certain projects to do and making sure teammates stayed on task and all work was going to be done on time.

Two things I believed I did well throughout this project were collaborating and communicating well with my group. I made sure to always be an active participator and helped my group mates in areas where they needed help. Communication also plays a big role in working well with your team whether you are the one talking or listening. Ways we communicated well included deciding who was going to do which portion of the project, and helping each other in areas where they were struggling.

Areas where I could improve on are managing myself better through setting goals and having more organization- time management. Next project in order to improve this I will set a goal at the beginning to get done a certain amount of work every day so I do not fall behind. This will also help the quality of my work because if I get my work done early I will have more time to revise my work.