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Background Information: Have you noticed that

pennies quickly lose

their shine? Pennies

are made of copper.

When copper mixes with

oxygen, it creates a

coating called oxide.

Materials Needed: • Lemon juice

• Old, Dull Pennies

• Paper Cups

• Paper Towels

Process:

q Place the penny in a paper cup.

w Cover the penny with lemon juice. Leave the

penny in the juice for 5-10 minutes.

e Wipe the penny with the paper towel.

r Why do you think lemon juice is an

effective cleaner?

Answer: Lemon juice is very acidic.The acid

chemically removes the oxide from the penny. Think of other

ways that lemon juice could be effective.

Learning Standards: I can follow sequential directions

to complete a task. I can make predictions and draw

conclusions.

MAP CORNER

DID YOU KNOW?

Enjoy these activities

that help you get to

know your St. Louis

American

newspaper.

Activity One —

Diversity in

Science: When you

think of scientists, do

you think of men and women? Do you

picture people of various races? New

technology advances have been made

by a diverse group of people. Use the newspaper

to evaluate how an informative news article is

written. Next, write an article about a scientist

you have studied who has made contributions

with his or her scientific discoveries.

Activity Two — Job Hunt: Use the

classified section to view the job listings. How

many jobs require a high school diploma, an

associate’s degree, a bachelor’s degree, or a

master’s degree? Create a graph to display your

answers. Why are education and job training important?

Learning Standards: I can locate information in

a newspaper. I can write for a specific purpose and

audience. I can display information and draw conclusions.

I can make text to self and text to world connections.

The St. Louis American’s award winning NIE program provides

newspapers and resources to more than 7,000 teachers and

students each week throughout the school year, at no charge.

African -American Chemist and Educator Samuel Massie, Jr.

Samuel Massie was born on July

3, 1919, in Little Rock to parents

Samuel Procter (a minister) and

Earlee Massie (a teacher). Both of

his parents encouraged his love

of education. When he was only

13, he graduated from Dunbar

High School, with the second

highest grades in his class. Massie

then worked at a grocery store

for a year after graduation to

save money for tuition to attend

Dunbar Jr. College. In 1934, he

hoped to transfer to the University of Arkansas, but his

application was rejected because of his race. Instead, he

attended the Arkansas AM&N College and earned a bachelor’s

degree in chemistry with a minor in mathematics. Massie

wanted to study chemistry because he hoped to find a

cure for his father’s asthma. With the help of a scholarship

he earned, Massie was able to afford a master’s degree in

chemistry from Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. He

taught there a year before going to Iowa State University to

earn a doctorate degree in organic chemistry.

In 1943, Massie’s father died. When Massie returned to Iowa,

he was assigned to the Manhattan Project, the program that

created the first atomic bomb. Massie and his mentor, Dr.

Gilman, published several research papers in The Journal

of the American Chemical Society. Massie took a teaching

position at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, where

he met his wife. He taught at Langston University, Howard

University, and the National Science Foundation. In 1963,

Massie was named president of the University of North

Carolina Central. He served as the first African-American

professor at the U.S. Naval Academy. While there, he

established the employment opportunity committee and

helped establish a black studies program. He retired in 1993,

and two years later, his portrait was hung in the National

Academy of Sciences Gallery.

In 1994, the U.S. Department of Energy created the Dr.

Samuel P. Massie Chair of Excellence, a $14.7 million grant

to nine historically black colleges and one for Hispanic

students to further environmental research. Massie was

awarded with an NAACP Freedom Fund Award, the White

House Initiative Lifetime Achievement Award, and was

named one of the seventy-five outstanding scientists in

the country by Chemical and Engineering News m agazine.

Massie passed away in 2005.

Learning Standards: I can read a biography about a

person who has made a contribution in the fields

of science, technology, engineering, or math.

Teachers, if you are using the St. Louis American’s NIE program and would like to nominate your class for a Classroom Spotlight, please email: nie@stlamerican.com.

SCIENCE CORNER

CLASSROOM SPOTLIGHT SCIENCE STARS

MATH CONNECTION

What is Chemistry?

There's an atomic bomb museum in New Mexico,

where the first atomic bomb was detonated. The

museum is only open 12 hours per year.

10% of U.S.

electricity is

made from

dismantled

atomic bombs.

all about

Measurements! Scientists often need to use measurements. Answer the

following questions about measurement.

z Put these units in order starting with the

smallest: meter, kilometer, millimeter, and

centimeter. ______

x What are the abbreviations for all metric

distance units in question 1? ______

c How many millimeters are in one centimeter? ______

v How many centimeters in one meter? ______

b How many millimeters in one meter? ______

Learning Standards: I can identify units of

measurement.

What is chemistry? Chemistry is

a branch of science that studies

the properties of matter and how

matter interacts with energy.

Everything you can touch, taste,

or smell is a chemical. Some

popular chemistry topics are

atoms, molecules, and electrons.

If you’ve ever studied water as a liquid, gas, and solid—

you’ve studied chemistry! Did you know when

you cook, a chemical reaction takes place?

When products like medicine, cleaning supplies,

and cosmetics are created, chemistry is used.

Those beautiful fireworks on the 4th of July?

Chemistry was used in their creation. Chemistry

is all around.

Chemists, physicists, biologists, and engineers study

chemistry. Other careers that take chemistry courses

include doctors, nurses, dentists, pharmacists, physical

therapists, science teachers and veterinarians. Fire fighters

study chemistry so that they can learn about the chemical

reactions of products used to fight fires. If you’ve been to

a salon, you’ve seen chemistry in action as the customers

get their hair curled, straightened, and colored. Chemistry

includes math, logic, and critical thinking.

For fun chemistry experiments, games, and lesson plans, visit: http://www.acs.org/content/

acs/en/education/whatischemistry/adventures-in-

chemistry.html.

Learning Standards: I can read nonfiction text for

main idea and supporting details.

A Bonsai Tree planted in 1626

survived the atomic bomb at

Hiroshima and now resides in a

U.S. Museum.

SCIENCE EXPERIMENT

Fairview Elementary School 3rd grade teacher, Chantel Riley-Neal, shows students Michael Brown, Tyrone Wiley, Tanija Jefferson, and Alia Hawkins how to find non-fiction text features using the newspaper. Fairview Elementary School is in the Jennings Schools District. Photo by Wiley Price / St. Louis American.

Polishing Pennies!

The first bomb dropped

on Hiroshima was

made from uranium.

The bomb dropped

on Nagasaki

was made from

plutonium,

which was even

more powerful

than uranium.