Help with my chemistry project on the elements!!?

Question

can u guys give me some help please... ok so i got this chemistry project, I was assigned the element selenium. and now i have to make a poster board on it(needs to be creative) and i have no idea what selenium is and everywhere i look makes no sense

Answer 1

There was a big rage about selenium and Brazil nuts a couple of years back. I forget why selenium was supposed to be good for you ... I think I forgot because I didn't believe it. I'm a chemist, so it takes a bit more to convince me, I guess.

Selenium is a metalloid (has properties of both metals and non-metals), popular in semiconductor/electronic chip manufacture and photodetectors. It's in the same chemical group as sulfur. The selenium sulfide is the active ingredient of Selsun Blue, an anti-dandruff shampoo. That's just off the top of my head. I'm sure you'll find more if you search the web or look in an encyclopedia (encyclopedias are a very good place to start, to give you a very general view of the whole subject).

For a good poster, try narrowing down the topic. Concentrate on just one use, or one process (isolation of the element, or manufacture of one particular substance), or just about it's putative health benefits, and dietary sources of selenium.

Answer 2

Sample Poster:
http://www.pittsford.monroe.edu/pittsfordmiddle/rountree/rounweb_6_02/LarySE.htm


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selenium

Answer 3

1) Wikipedia

2) Any inorganic chemistry textbook.

Then imagine that you are trying to get someone interested in selenium. What would they want to know? Where it comes from, how it's isolated, how it's used ... ?