What's your Periodic Table style?

Do you like things:

• light (He)?


• with a bit of patina (Cu)?


• on the salty side (Na)?


• noxious (N)?


• fire-retardant (Br)?


• metallic (In)?


• radioactive (Pu)?

With 118 elements on the Periodic Table, there is something for everyone and plenty of chemical reactions to go around. If you have something to say about one of the six elements listed above, you should put your thoughts on paper and enter Nature Chemistry's essay competition, part of the International Year of Chemistry.

Each issue of Nature Chemistry includes a back-page essay called "In Your Element." Students (and recent graduates) are invited to enter the essay competition by writing a 700-800 word essay, in the style of an "In Your Element" article, on one of these elements: helium, nitrogen, sodium, copper, bromine, indium or plutonium.
Even student scientists can wax poetic (AKA "write with feeling"), especially when it comes to the properties of a favorite, or critical, or pervasive, or transparent, or explosive, or notorious element. What do you have to say? To get a feel for the tone and style of "In Your Element" articles, check out Ken Wade's "Bonding with boron." The "In Your Element" on the back page of the current issue of Nature Chemistry is titled: "W for tungsten and wolfram."

The deadline for entries is August 1, 2011. For complete rules and submission information, visit: http://www.nature.com/nchem/iyeessay/index.html

Students who completed one of the projects below could win one of ten $50 iTunes gift cards! To enter our random drawing, students need to complete the following steps by March 21: 

1. Make sure you have a free Science Buddies account. (To register for a free Science Buddies account, sign up here.) 


2. Click the link below for the project you did.


3. Sign in to your Science Buddies account. 


4. Complete the "I Did this Project" form. (Note: to be entered in the giveaway, you must upload a photo when completing the form. Your photo can be of your project display board or a photo from the experiment itself. Stock photos will not be considered.)


5. Look for the list of winners in our April newsletter!  

• Are We There Yet? Test How Migratory Birds Navigate   


• BLAST into the Past to Identify T. Rex's Closest Living Relative 


• Blasting Flu Viruses 


• Computational Exploration of Protein Function 


• Correlation of Coronal Mass Ejections with the Solar Sunspot Cycle 


• Do Migratory Birds Like It Hot? 


• Finding the Center of the Milky Way Galaxy Using Globular Star Clusters    


• Harbor Porpoise Movement     


• Harmful Algal Blooms in the Chesapeake Bay 


• Here Today, Gone Tomorrow: Saving Migratory Birds    


• Hurricanes and Climate 


• Investigate Native Plant Evolution with Chloroplast Sequencing 


• The Milky Way and Beyond: Globular Clusters 


• Using the Solar & Heliospheric Observatory Satellite (SOHO) to Measure the Motion of a Coronal Mass Ejection 


• Using the Solar & Heliospheric Observatory Satellite (SOHO) to Determine the Rotation of the Sun 


• Neanderthals, Orangutans, Lemurs, & You-It's a Primate Family Reunion! 


• Swimming in Acid: Understanding Ocean Acidification 


• The Cancer Genome Anatomy Project 


• The Tree of Life - I 


• The Tree of Life - II  


• Use DNA Sequencing to Trace the Blue Whale's Evolutionary Tree 


• Watch Out! That Wild Animal Might Be Rabid!  


• Water to Fuel to Water: The Fuel Cycle of the Future  


• What is the Woolly Mammoth's Closest Living Relative? 


• With A Little Bread as Bait Can You Make a Bird Migrate?  

(Note: Contest open to U.S., K-12 students. Entries will be verified and follow-up questions regarding the project may be asked. Authentic photo from student's project is required. Entries accepted until March 21, 2011.)

AMD and the Learning Games Network have teamed up to run a cool contest for video gamers who can turn on a video camera and capture in digital frames the educational underpinnings of video gaming.

Sure, video games can be lots of fun, but with the contest, AMD and the Learning Games Network hope to underscore the ways in which connections are made, educational skills advanced and put into action, and learning continued... while playing.

With entries being accepted in both the "My 'Aha' Moment" and "My Dream Assignment" categories, contest sponsors are giving students a chance to "tell their stories and share their ideas on how education can and will change with digital games."

First place winners will receive HP Pavilion notebooks, powered by an AMD Turion^™ X2 Ultra Dual-Core Mobile Processor ZM-84.

The contest is open to current US students 13 and older. Entries must be between 2 and 3 minutes in length. The deadline for entry is May 31, 2009. For complete contest details, rules, and regulations, please visit http://www.aha-moment.org.