Chemistry Is About You!

The Human Element

Introduction/Purpose:

Look around. Seriously, take a moment and look around.

Everything you see is related to chemistry. Chemistry is related to our lives and the lives of others. In the early
2000’s, Dow Chemical developed an ad campaign to highlight and educate people that we are surrounded by
chemistry and that chemistry is essential to our lives. We, in fact, are the “human element” of chemistry. It’s
now time for you to create your own mini-advertisement that does the same.

Procedure:
1) Take a Picture - Find a picture or take a picture of yourself. The picture must be appropriate for the
school environment. The picture can show you in an environment or highlights your relationship to
chemistry. The bottom line, the picture should somehow portray your use or the use of chemistry in
your life. Be creative. This can be complex but in all honesty – better to keep it simple!

The goal here is threefold:

A. Share a little about yourself.
B. Relate your life to chemistry.
C. Educate the observer on the fact that everyday things/routines that we do or are involved in
need chemistry. Anything from getting a drink of clean water to sliding on a brand-new cotton
shirt.

2) Create your Human Element (Watch video)

A. Make a copy of the google slide deck The Human Element
B. Import your photo and make it the background to your slide. (Right-click the slide and select
“Change background.” You can also watch this quick “how to” VIDEO.
C. Create your Element Symbol:
a. We want all of the slides to be uniform in design as we make a class periodic table from
them. So, all you need to do is to click on the different parts of the sample slide and
modify them with your details. DO NOT change the font style, the size, the color of the
text, etc.
b. Name of Element - Click on the “Name” and replace it with your last name of your
element.
c. Element Symbol - Click on “ES” and replace it with the first initial of your last name
(uppercase) followed by the first initial of your first name (lowercase). Place the symbol
in the center of the picture (see example).
D. In the upper left-hand corner, will be the “Julian Date” of your birthday. To determine the Julian
date, click on this LINK and find the month and date of your birthday. For example, Ms. Kast’s

Adapted from Tom Schultz

 birthday is July 13. Using the table, the Julian date of my birthday is 194. Click on “JD” and
replace it with the Julian date for your birthday.

3) Create a Description – Sure, a picture says a thousand words . . . but sometimes it’s nice to give it a little
help. And, we want to know more about you and how your picture is an example of your relationship
with chemistry.

The more creative your description, the better (crafty, deep, witty). Make it thoughtful. The description
needs to reinforce how your picture is relevant to your reader.
A. All Descriptions must start with the phrase, “I AM A BOND BETWEEN CHEMISTRY AND
HUMANITY.”
B. Your description needs to have 4-7 sentences.
C. Your description will be read by the public. Keep that in mind

4) Adding Description – To add your description to your slide, you will need to link your description to a
QR Code.
D. Add your description via QR code. Watch this VIDEO to learn how.

Adapted from Tom Schultz