TASK DEFINITION:  You are given a background paragraph that describes one or more causal or physical relationships, such as a relationship in economics, scientific law, or nature. You need to come up with a fictional story that makes use of the concepts or the relationship described in the provided paragraph. Make sure that your story does not repeat the relation in the given paragraph (e.g., by avoiding verbatim copies of the given paragraph). Start by reading the background paragraph, and determine what relationship(s) are in the paragraph. Write a story that involves the relationship(s) that you determined are in the background paragraph. Try to use your own words as much as possible and not repeat the background paragraph. Feel free to make up places and events as long as they tie back to the background paragraph in a way that you can ask a question about.
PROBLEM: Background Paragraph: A After a rock forms, nuclei of a radioisotope inside the rock start to decay. As they decay, the amount of the original, or parent, isotope decreases, while the amount of its stable decay product, or daughter isotope, increases. By measuring the relative amounts of parent and daughter isotopes and knowing the rate of decay, scientists can determine how long the parent isotope has been decaying. This provides an estimate of the rock’s age.

SOLUTION: Gregory is a geologist who went on an excursion to Australia. While hiking in a cave, Gregory found two radioactive rocks containing Uranium. Gregory then brought the rocks back to his lab in Germany to conduct tests. Gregory discovered that rock A had high amounts of the original uranium isotope present, and low amounts of the daughter uranium isotope present. In rock B, however, there were low amounts of the original uranium isotope present and high amounts of the daughter uranium isotope present.

PROBLEM: Background Paragraph: Reactions are favorable when they result in a decrease in enthalpy and an increase in entropy of the system. When both of these conditions are met, the reaction occurs naturally. A spontaneous reaction is a reaction that favors the formation of products at the conditions under which the reaction is occurring. A roaring bonfire is an example of a spontaneous reaction, since it is exothermic (there is a decrease in the energy of the system as energy is released to the surroundings as heat). The products of a fire are composed partly of gases such as carbon dioxide and water vapor. The entropy of the system increases during a combustion reaction. The combination of energy decrease and entropy increase dictates that combustion reactions are spontaneous reactions.

SOLUTION: Mike and his family are going on a camping trip. Mike being the outdoors-man he is decides to bring an axe along so they can make an authentic campfire. When they get to the site he chops some wood, piles it up and lights it creating a nice strong flame.

PROBLEM: Background Paragraph: Gamma rays, X-rays and the higher energy range of ultraviolet light constitute the ionizing part of the electromagnetic spectrum. The word "ionize" refers to the breaking of one or more electrons away from an atom, an action that requires the relatively high energies that these electromagnetic waves supply. Further down the spectrum, the non-ionizing lower energies of the lower ultraviolet spectrum cannot ionize atoms, but can disrupt the inter-atomic bonds which form molecules, thereby breaking down molecules rather than atoms; a good example of this is sunburn caused by long-wavelength solar ultraviolet. The waves of longer wavelength than UV in visible light, infrared and microwave frequencies cannot break bonds but can cause vibrations in the bonds which are sensed as heat. Radio wavelengths and below generally are not regarded as harmful to biological systems. These are not sharp delineations of the energies; there is some overlap in the effects of specific frequencies.The word radiation arises from the phenomenon of waves radiating (i.e., traveling outward in all directions) from a source. This aspect leads to a system of measurements and physical units that are applicable to all types of radiation. Because such radiation expands as it passes through space, and as its energy is conserved (in vacuum), the intensity of all types of radiation from a point source follows an inverse-square law in relation to the distance from its source. Like any ideal law, the inverse-square law approximates a measured radiation intensity to the extent that the source approximates a geometric point.

SOLUTION:
A scientists has discovered two new types of radiation. He notes that radiation type A has the ability to break away atoms from molecules, while radiation type B simply causes them to vibrate.