Speculative Fiction Project
For the Speculative Fiction Project, our class worked individually or split up into small groups to produce a final product related to the chemistry concepts we would learn about. I chose to write a novella (a shortened novel), with a partner. Besides publishing it in the form of a legitimate book on Blurb.com, we also created a synopsis to provide a brief description of our project, which is posted to the right. A preview of the book can also be accessed using the button below.
|
|
The overall process behind creating our final product went smoothly, and my partner and I worked very well together. We started off by filling out the Brainstorm Organizer worksheet to get our ideas flowing. It really helped that we had already decided on what to write about before the assignment, so we could further develop our plot during the time we were given for the organizer. In addition, it was beneficial to our project to transfer that information onto a Google Document, so that we always had access to our ideas at any point in time. Once we had started to move forward with the project, we agreed to alternate writing chapters in the perspectives of two different characters. Not only was this an efficient way to write more, but we were able to stretch our collaboration skills with this method. I also enjoyed the fact that we took on the mindsets of the main characters – and even though it might sound cheesy – I felt like I connected with Henry Hydrogen on a literary level when I wrote about him. After we finished our initial draft, we went through multiple rounds of critique and revised our story, and then we had our final version. I converted the document into Rich Text Format, imported it to the software that Blurb.com recommended, and eventually published it. I am really proud to have a tangible and professional copy of our work, and I am happy with what we were able to accomplish.
During this project, my partner and I explored various chemistry concepts including the Schroedinger model of the atom, the relative size of atoms based on their location on the periodic table, the nature of bonding, Van der Waals forces, and nuclear and organic chemistry. These were actually the six benchmarks that we could choose to include in our work, and every group/individual needed to incorporate at least four of them in their content. My partner and I decided to use six of them since our story was longer, so we felt as if we had more room to detail such concepts. Because our novella actually revolved around science itself, we were able to learn a lot under the umbrella of chemistry. We had to have quite a bit of knowledge going into the project, but we also had to do some research about certain elements of chemistry (no pun intended) over the course of the process. The most challenging part of the project was revising and editing all of our work. We had written a longer piece, so it was difficult to go back and delve into the text in order to catch mistakes we made. I was sad to see that we had a small spelling mistake in our published book, but I was able to get past that fact when I remembered just how much we wrote. We started to read our story aloud, chapter by chapter to catch the errors we might have made. But once that process became too lengthy, we had to resort to a Plan B. When I was editing the document in Rich Text Format on the Blurb.com application, I used spell and grammar check for the entire story, and made changes accordingly. However, the word from the mistake that we had made was spelled right, but it was used in the wrong tense compared to the rest of the story. We were greatly disappointed by this development, but I still can't get over the amount of work that we completed to have our finished product. |
Our final story. (Digital PDF version)
|
The most rewarding part of this project was seeing our final product published and professional. In the past, I always liked to write stories but never followed through with them, so this was definitely a personal milestone for me. My partner and I were able to not only develop a detailed and intricate plot line with interesting twists and turns, but we also met the project requirements in including chemistry concepts. At the beginning of the unit, I had doubts about how much progress we would make when writing our novella, but I was proved wrong at the end. Sure, it may have costed some money to purchase the books, but no amount of money could be compared to the feeling of success that I have after this project.