Jan+3rd+Managing+Impulsivity+-+Charles+Wang

January 3rd - Managing Impulsivity

Certain things just take time; it's a fact. Not everything in life can present results in a snap of the finger. Sometimes the impulsivity present in the minds of all human beings can trick us into believing that certain unreasonable actions are justified. Our impatient tendencies drive us to do //stuff//. This "stuff" may be something harmless like tapping our fingers on a table or humming a tune quietly. In chemistry, some hands-on activities may take several minutes to show results, therefore triggering students' impatience and impetuous nature. An example in class, specific to me and my friends, of where we had to control our impulsive tendencies was when we used the Bunsen burner to evaporate water to show the solid precipitate in a solution. The Bunsen burner contains a feature called the "safety" flame, a flame that doesn't hurt when touched. Although this flame is "safe", my friends and I had the urge to put our hands in the flame for as long as possible (yes, it sounds ridiculous //now//). The idea seemed harmless enough, though a flame can never be 100% safe. I can imagine if we were to hold our hands in the flame for too long, there could be drastic outcomes. Though, we did realize eventually that this wasn't the best idea, and //didn't// touch the flame for more than a split second (we assumed that half a second wouldn't do any harm from Ms. Knowles' demonstration). The experiment carried on for quite a while, as it took time to evaporate all of the water from the bowl. This extensive time took a toll on our patients and if we had not thought about the consequences, we might have acted impulsively. Keep in mind, at this point, the bunsen burner was //not// on safety flame. If we were to fool around (like many teenage boys may), we could have cause serious harm, especially since this experiment dealt with flames and gas. It's important to control your behavior, even when you're not in a lab environment, to make the most use of school time, and achieve the strongest education possible. Whether you're influenced by your own impatience or others' poor influence, you should always think twice about every action you make, not only in school, but also outside of school.