Before a few weeks ago, I hadn’t realized how many elements there were. We created this mind map at the start of the project, and added on to it at the end. There are so. Many. Elements. These elements can come together in a bajillion different ways to make a bajillion different compounds. Well, not technically a bajillion, but there’s a lot.

Elements form compounds in a few ways. One of these ways is forming an ionic compound, which is when electrons are transferred. This kind of compound forms between metals and non-metals. Elements have electrons on several layers of energy shells. The innermost shell has two electrons, while the shells further out have eight. Metal elements can have a couple extra electrons on their outermost shells, and the non metals that they bond with will be missing a couple of electrons on their outermost shell. The metal elements will transfer their electrons to the non metal elements, and they will bond after that. The other common kind of bond is a covalent bond, where non metal elements will share electrons instead of transferring them. 

The point of this project was to realize how elements act like characters. We did this by creating stories about compounds, which we turned into screenplays, which we turned into animated videos.

I worked with Amelia, and we created this incredible movie. It took a while, and editing it was complicated, but it was really fun. 

I think I’ve learned a lot from this project. Chemistry is way more interesting than I thought before.