Life of an Atom!
Create an atom character for each of the nutrients we
learned about (carbon, nitrogen and phosphorous) and tell
a short story of one of its many “cycles.”
For each story, (you will write a total of three) your atom
must transform at least 5 times and must cycle through
land, water and air.
 Example: carbon may be stored in the soil and then
taken up by the roots of a plant (this is ONE
transformation)
 Recall, if you choose to do phosphorous, it DOES
NOT exist in the atmosphere (air)
Some stores are short-term and some are extremely long-term. Try to consider timing when
you write your story.
Example:
Story #1: Carl the Carbon Atom
Hi! My name is Carl (Carl with a C because I’m a carbon atom). I spend my days happily
hanging out and bonded with my two oxygen buddies, Ollie and Olga; together, we form
carbon dioxide. The other day, we were peacefully floating along when we were absorbed by
the leaf of an alder tree (Transformation #1: atmosphere  plant). Once inside the plant, we
combined with water and sunlight to form a sugar molecule. Within moments we were eaten
by a slug! (Tranformation #2: plant  animal). We hung out with the slug for what felt like
months! Eventually, winter came and poor slug died and started decomposing. With the help of
decomposing friends, we were broken down into our most basic forms and I started to nestle
into my new life as a simple carbon atom residing with other organic matter in the soil
(Transformation #3: animal  soil). Suddenly, a giant rainstorm came and washed me away. I
eventually ended up in the ocean (Tranformation #4: soil  ocean). I floated around for years
and eventually found myself at the bottom of the ocean with many other pieces of sediment. I
hung out here FOREVER! And I mean FOREVER! With time, lots and lots of time, and with
pressure and high temperatures, I and the surrounding sediment formed into sedimentary rock
(Transformation #5: ocean  sediment).
Above is an example is one story. You will write a total of three stories (one for each
nutrient we learned about in class). Use the story above as a rough guide only. Try to be
creative in your stories, transformations and storytelling.