Building Blocks of Matter

By the end of quarter 1, we learned that a long time ago, scientists thought that the building blocks of matter was called the atom, which is made up of three subatomic particles called the nucleus, which is the core of the atom, the proton, which are the positive charges contained in the atom, and the neutrons, which are particles that have no charge. In the beginning of this lesson, I did have a problem understanding this lesson and what it talks about, but as we got into bigger things, I started understanding every small detail. For example, there were things I didn't get, like how were neutrons just particles with no charges? And why weren't the electrons and protons put together instead of having the protons in the nucleus with the neutrons, and the electrons put completely aside from the nucleus? But as we got into the periodic table, I wanted to know why things are the way they are, so I asked Mrs. Ahmed for an after school class so we can go over everything we have learned so far in class and from that day on, I understood everything I was supposed to know about atoms and the Periodic Table. So from the beginning of the quarter till the end, I have learned a WHOLE new section about the building blocks of matter. Like, this is the first year I take chemistry. And I've always thought it was easy, which it is, but for me, I had trouble understanding, so I just asked for some help from Mrs. Ahmed and my friends helped me out a bit as well. That's when I learned about the whole section of atoms, and the Periodic Table. 

-Ghazal Ftouni