Metals Research-Story of Alkali

In Science, we were tasked to make a project about metals. I chose to write a small story about the Alkali metal family:

Alkali metals: we lie on the left side of the periodic table, There are 6 of us, and we all work together in harmony. We are the first periodic table group. You could even call us a family! We are called alkali metals because we form alkalis (strong bases that can neutralize acids) when we react with water. We are very ductile, and conduct energy with little to no effort. We have a low melting point and we react most easily with oxygen and water. We are very popular metals, and everyone should know about us! So I am here to talk about our small Alkali family, what we look and what we do! I guess, let's get started!

Layla Lithium. She is the strongest out of all of us, tough, shiny, and incredibly light. She is used for many things, like heat resistant ceramics, cell phone batteries, mood stabilizing drugs, and much more! She is used mainly in psychiatric medications. She is a big help when it comes to major depressive disorder, and helps lowers the risk of you commiting suicide. She is very helpful to your health, so next time you take pills containing her, you should thank her. She is like the mother of our small Alkali family.

Next is Peter Potassium, Peter Potassium is important to your survival. He needs to be maintained for the survival of organisms, like you, animals, even fish and other sea life! He is also used for the growth of plants, used as a fertilizer, water retention, and is a crop maintainer. He helps your muscles move, including the ones that help you breathe and control your heartbeat. He also comes with the food you eat. You need him to survive. Peter potassium is very shiny when solid, and very tough. 

Rupert rubidium is not one to mess with. He is radioactive, and is worth more than gold! His name comes from the latin word rubius, which means ‘deepest red’. He is used in thermoelectric generators, fluid in vapor turbines, the manufacture of atomic clocks, photocells, and much much more! He was named after the two red lines of his spectrum. He is very soft, with a silvery-white colour. He has the periodic table symbol ‘Rb’, and has an atomic number of 37.

Caesar cesium (or Caesium) is one of the 5 elemental metals that are liquid at or near room temperature. He is a silvery gold colour and was a melting point of 28.5 degrees celsius (83.3 fahrenheit). He is used for atomic clocks, photoelectric cells, and as a catalyst in the hydrogenation of certain organic compounds. He was an atomic number of 55. Radioactive Cesium can be fatal if a person is exposed to large amounts of him, though being exposed to him for a small period of time may cause vomiting, bleeding, coma, nausea, diarrhea, and death of course. Cesium in tiny amounts is not fatal, even to children. Cesium hydroxide, created by reacting Cesium with oxygen) is a very strong base, and is corrosive enough to corrode glass very quickly! 

Francis Francium is the heaviest of the alkali family. She is a tough, reddish-brown metal and was the periodic table symbol ‘Fr’. She is extremely radioactive. Francium-223 was a half-life of only 22 minutes! That's not long! There is currently no uses for her except for basic scientific research, due to her short half-life and small amounts produced. Not a lot is known about her for these same reasons. Her atomic weight is 223, and was a 27 degree melting temperature. She is quite the strange, unusual member of the alkali family, but she is interesting to learn about nonetheless! She has once known as eka-caesium. 

Then we come to me! Sally sodium! I am an alkali metal that helps with your survival! I am one of your body's electrolytes, and commonly known as salt. I am a soft, silvery-white, very reactive metal. Though salt consists mainly of sodium chloride, if I am taken in high amounts I can cause heart cancer. I am essential to human health, but too much of me is poisonous. Poisoning because of me can cause seizures, coma, and even death. I have an atomic number of 11, and am used for a heat exchanger in nuclear reactors, and as a reagent (A substance used for chemical testing) in the chemistry industry. I was discovered in 1807 by Humphry Davy. My name was taken from the word ‘soda’.

And that is our small Alkali family! There's much more about us to be discovered, in due time. Be sure to find us around your home, or lying in the street, or even in your body! For now my time has come to a close, but i've had fun talking to you all!-Sally Sodium

children of blood and bone essay

In English, we read the story 'Children of blood and bone' written by Tomi Adeyemi. Once it was read, we were tasked to write an essay describing the book. We got to choose to write about the characters, the ideas and themes, or writing techniques used in the story. I selected to write about 3 writing techniques used, as I knew it would be the most challenging of the 3, and I was ready to take the risk:

Children of blood and bone by Tomi Adeyemi is the first book in a three part series that tells the tale of Zelie Adeboia. Within her written words, Adeyemi was used many methods and techniques to engage her readers into every battle, every betrayal, and every blood curdling romance that challenges the protagonists race against time to restore magic to the Maji of Orisha.

Her possibly most powerful method of writing is her point of view words of each chapter. Each word is spoken by a character in the story, as though they themselves are telling us their story. Within each chapter we see an insight of the thoughts and feelings of either Zelie, Amari, Inan, or Tzain. This technique is both useful and powerful as it gives us a clear look into the character’s thoughts, opinion, and reasoning behind their actions. Point of view writing is a method of writing as it helps the reader understand the characters within the story better than when they write in third person. In my opinion, point of view writing is a technique that everybody should learn, as it can help them truly understand how to write deep, meaningful stories.

Another technique Adeyemi uses is the detail she puts into each chapter. Detail in a story is the difference between a good, powerful story or a dull, not interesting one. Adeyemi uses just the right amount of detail to describe each character, location, problem, and action. This technique helps gain the reader's attention, and urges them to continue reading to see what happens next. Detail in a story helps a person understand the designs of the characters, places, and describes the intensity of each battle and betrayal. Within our story, Zelie describes to us just how heart shattering watching her mother hang from a tree has, keeping in mind at the time that event occurred she has just a child. She also describes mainly at the start how much of a screw up she sees herself as, even going as far to state that she has not worthy of bringing magic back to Orisha, despite being chosen by the gods. I think that the detail Adeyemi put into children of blood and bone has one of the things that grasped me into the story and allowed me to want to keep reading onward.

The third and final technique used that helped tie Adeyemi’s story together was her use of metaphors. The use of metaphors helped Adeyemi to state just how deep certain parts of the story where. Adeyemi uses quite a few metaphors within her story, and it helps the reader to understand certain aspects of her story. Metaphors are a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to something that is not actually there, or not actually applicable. Metaphors are very useful in story writing, as it can describe a certain aspect better than using a normal writing style can. An example of a metaphor is “The dark curtain of night feel upon us.” Adeyemi mainly uses metaphors in her chapters in which it is in Zelie’s point of view, as Zelie is the character who's opinion, thoughts and feelings we need to understand the most, as she is the protagonist of the story. The metaphors are mainly used to describe traumatic events in Zelie’s past, or describe the feeling of her being in the dreamspace with Inan, who was supposed to be her enemy, but became her lover. The use of metaphors is also a powerful technique to uphold and use, as it can be a very effective method when describing certain events or characters.

Children of blood and bone uses many techniques to intrigue the reader into reading it. Metaphors, Detail, and Point of view writing are just 3 of the techniques Adeyemi uses to make her story the best she possibly can, and it shows that she tried her best. In my opinion, Children of blood and bone is an amazing story that fans of fantasy, forbidden love and magic will enjoy. It is clearly shown just how much detail and thought she put into children of blood and bone, and I am excited to read the other 2 books in the series.