Week 33 Blog Reflection

This week Mr. Abud won teacher of the year!!!! Congrats! Anyway, we were going to do silver coke bottles but in light of recent events its been postponed. What we did do is work on chem quest 53 which was challenging but helped us with concepts were working on and also some new ones. We also started reviewing for the final! I'm having issues with unit 8 because of my absences but hopefully I can catch up before the final! 

Week 30 Blog Reflection

Wow! Week 30 already? Unfortunately it was another short chem week for me. I was only there for 2 days. In those two days though, I was there for the cookie lab test and debrief. Basically everyone except for one group made nasty cookies. They were nasty because the proportions were off. One group had the right amount and their cookie was great. Our group had a whole 1/4 cup of salt and it was like chewing on a heart attack.  I will now always remember how important it is for things to be proportionate.  

Week 29 Blog Reflection

Unfortunately I was only in chemistry once this week, but I did see the awesome experiment that I posted on Vine! I learned that ALL combustion reactions produce H2O and CO2. I will be coming in to learn about BCA charts! 

Week 28 Blog Reflection

This weeks main focus was learning to further name and balance equations. We used worksheets and skill practices to help us learn and I liked that we did a ton of examples with different representations and even a lab to help us learn how to do it. I really struggled with it at first but with the help of magnets, mr. Abud and my lab table I think I've got it now.
On the group assessment Friday I was understanding at the level I wanted to and was able to get the problems with ease. Below Are links to Evernote notes I've taken this week and

https://www.evernote.com/shard/s249/sh/8067be09-7dcd-4ac9-8a86-7f22605e6a40/28d3f92261468dbd60addd93a852b9a5

https://www.evernote.com/shard/s249/sh/0fc3c57b-853c-4c3f-91ba-9b0afca0010e/5cfc507428fcc5d3a2765d0221ff97d4

https://www.evernote.com/shard/s249/sh/b641e0d9-e88b-45cb-ac4b-30bf7594f41b/a559b8f0da910468281c796a18f926eb

Week 27 Blog Reflection

This week we were introduced to "infographics."  This is a new tool that I think will greatly benifit us in our future learining in Chemisty and even other classes.  An infographic is a visual way to orgainize information.  We were given a myriad of sites to explore and choose one to use for our infographic and I, like many other students, used the easy to use and understand site called Popplet.  On Popplet, you create a visual chart of sorts, were you can easily organize ideas that branch off of each other, perfect for the topic nomenclature. (Link to my infographic below).  I used branches off of nomenclature to connected topics of nomenclature, like how to write formulas for different compounds, branching off of that was what the compound was, off of that how to write the formula, and off of that was an example problem. This seems confusing but flows easily in this infographic.   This greatly benifited my learining of these topics and I really look forward to making more of these for chemisty and projects in other classes! 

Link: http://popplet.com/app/#/941478

Week 26 Blog Reflection

Worksheets. Formerly a foreign word to chemt3am, but not this week. This week we worked on 3 worksheets. Some were opposed, but I think we really needed these sheets to develop understanding of these new more complicated and mathematical ideas. These sheets were on naming and making formulas and after completing these sheets I think I really have a good grasp on these concepts!

Week 25 Blog Reflection

This week started with a lab using the electrolysis apparatus (picture below). We added copper chloride to water and made electricity flow through it. We asked ourselves major questions like what is the formula for copper chloride? And which side of the apparatus is positive and which is negative? We also tested substances like sodium chloride and ethanol for comparison and measured conductivity for each one. Our results of this test are pictured below. We also discussed the concept of solubility, in our lab a chemical reaction changed the color when the powder went in the water. This showed us that when in water, it was no longer a compound. Like lady liberty! It turned green in the water. This week we also had a beach party! We mixed a caloric acid with ethanol and made a lovely campfire to roast our marshmallows for our s'mores! (Shannon stirring the mixture pictured below!)

Week 24 Blog Reflection

This week was full of expanding on topics we were introduced to last week. We did a virtual lab showing us what dipoles were and how charges worked. In the lab, there was a balloon, wall, and sweater, and after "rubbing" the balloon to each virtual surface we saw where it was attracted too. The lab later was done showing the charges as it went on, and it all started to make sense. We then learned about dipoles and the way charges work in them. We also learned sigma which is the symbol for "slightly" just like hydrogen bonds in H2O. I learned about these bonds in AP Bio and I'm really glad that all the sciences are starting to come together now! We did some worksheets while we had a sub about how to write and understand formulas, which were helpful for the assessment Friday, but I do think I'll have to reassess. Links to my notes are below! We also had a weekend project to make an electroscope to detect magnetic fields, this was simple and really works! I tested it with a charged balloon and hairbrush. Picture below!

Charges: https://www.evernote.com/shard/s249/sh/c817ffce-d5b6-43ca-99dd-749ca95ae793/9a21ba558c7984c824db7545066448f7

Dipoles: https://www.evernote.com/shard/s249/sh/ac3fee28-3872-465e-a7b1-a12e02ed3ed4/a0537102b94dd6b8a3331f0abfb727d3

Bonds: https://www.evernote.com/shard/s249/sh/f75dae1b-832a-458a-bc73-02a90b67c99c/6990335d8dafbf65002f561a88cbd548

Week 22 and 23 Blog Reflection

Week 22 was a very short one in chemistry so I am combining these two weeks blogs because my week 22 one alone didn't consist of much. For what we were there of in week 22 we did empirical formulas and ChemQuests, week 23 was a week full of new concepts. We worked on a lab where we pulled two prices of tape from each other and tested to see what they attracted or repelled with. When asked for an explanation we all said opposites attract; but in reality we never knew exactly what that meant. We learned about how the friction from pulling apart the tape made charges in it, causing these attractions and repulsions to happen. We also used circuits to show the flowing of electrons through a system to light the bulb. Conductivity was the big theme of this week and links to my notes on the topic are below.

https://www.evernote.com/shard/s249/sh/403d698f-342e-46fd-ba18-e1b83480540c/e521fa624eabb14c77276d1a196f9335

Week 21 Blog Reflection

This week, we did a very interesting lab. Taking water and beakers we cranked a motor type apparatus and need up ppong one part hydrogen into a beaker and 2 parts oxygen into the other. (It looked like the picture below, taken halfway through the experiment.) This helped us to understand hydrolysis and what exactly happens in this process. We also discussed empirical formulas, what they are and how to make them. I would add notes but unfortunately I was trying a new note taking app on my kindle and it didn't save my notes. I suggest sticking to Evernote. It's proven to be my best app so far.

Week 20 Blog Reflection

Unfortunately, I missed out biggest lab this week but I have been debriefed on it and now think I have a full understanding of it. We took different hardware materials and measured their weights. We use the lightest substance as a denominator for other numbers to provide for even comparison of all substances. We knew a relative weight for each one. We also called 6 pieces of each thing a "Quinn" so we'd have a unit we could use to identify these. This taught us that atoms are not all the same size and also gave us a grip on what the newly introduced term a "mole" is. We know they're a group of particles that add up to a certain number. It's just that the magnitude of the concept is kind of hard to grasp. It's a really big idea but I think as we discuss it more, it'll come easier. The math problems involving moles though, I do understand. It's easy to be able to put them into a formula and grasp it in that way. Below is a link to my notes on moles and a picture from my notes telling how I think a mole math problem works.

https://www.evernote.com/shard/s249/sh/c2bb5fd6-90b9-485b-8f86-a4f5930107c2/36612d3e8b6b2ca6a2290c98656c5c9e

Week 19 Blog Reflection

This week got its start with a lab where we mixed 2 things (zinc and hydrochloric acid) to test how they would react to each other. They ended up creating Magnesium Oxide. (There's a picture of my notes from this lab below). Testing combustibility, we realized how chemical properties change when you mix two different chemicals. This concept is a bit fuzzy but I think I mostly understand it. This week we also did some skill practice and building. This consisted of things like balancing equations. It's very important I think to be able to go over these ChemQuests as a class, to give every group a question and have them share it with the class is more effective than overwhelming them with a 20 question worksheet to do all by themselves. This really allows us to do the problem quickly without losing focus and we get to fully understand each problem by our peers explaining them to us in terms we're able to understand. This helped us learn these skills and we will hopefully be using them for the rest of the year!

Week 18 Blog reflection

This four day week started out with some very new concepts like Dalton and his ideas. In the Dalton's playhouse lab, we were able to work through experiments as he did to figure out what they revealed about the chemistry of certain substances. This lab was really informative and I thought pretty fun, it had experiments that first didn't click with me why they were important, but as I worked through the worksheet and took the mini-quizzes after each section I was able to understand how much these experiments made chemistry what it is for us today. We also discussed Avagadro's Hypothesis along with working more on Dalton's atomic theory in a worksheet testing skills and understanding in these concepts.  On a side note,  most students have negative feelings toward using worksheets for learning, but when we do them as a class and all participate, I think it really benefits our learning and gives us a really solid base to study off of.  This week continued with learning Chemical Formulas based on gas volumes, this basic concept seems to be one that many things will depend on us knowing. This week ended off with an assessment of these concepts, and again, I think having the online lab and the worksheets to look off of helped me to better grasp these concepts before the assessment.  Also, when studying I found this really simply designed website summing up exactly what Avagadro studied and learned to benefit the world of chemistry: http://library.thinkquest.org/12596/avogadro.html

Pictures of my notes for the week are below.

Week 17 blog reflection

This was the last week of the semester! We started off the week learning new concepts and starting on new materials, finally exploring out of the realm of particles and into the world of atoms and molecules. We also took a day to review for midterms, the midterm for chemistry is unique because it will be taken online. We also cannot make a note card, but a note tee shirt. I'm a little worried because I think I can study hard and get a good grade, but the test is material we know plus things we haven't learned and I just don't want that to throw me off. Overall though I think it will be okay, and I'm excited to take my first online midterm! It should be very interesting to take it in that environment in front of a computer screen, And maybe even less stressful!

Week 16 Reflection

Back to school after an amazing holiday break, and back to learn more new and exciting things in Chem in 2013.  We started of the new year with a new unit on solutions, compounds, and mixtures, concepts none of us could really recall learning at any other time.  All through the week we developed our understanding of these concepts using simulations with different things like magnets of different colors.   We tried for the first time, separating matter.  We thought of distillation for things like water sand and salt, but didn't know how to get seeds out of the mix.  We then found that they floated on water! We used this information to let the seeds float to the top of water and took them out with a spoon.  The sand was taken out of the water using a coffee filter; now all we had left was salt and water.  What we did now was heat the water.  Since it has a lower boiling point than salt, it evaporated away and left us with just salt, now the substances were all separated.  These labs helped us see the different ways to use he properties of water to help us understand other things, helping us in our knowledge of chemicals and mixtures, compounds, and solutions.

Week 15 Reflection

The week before break is always stressful, especially for those choir kids like me who had to miss a lot of Chem class to Christmas carol. As fun as that was, I wish I was there for more debriefing and expansion on week 14's soap lab. But all in all the week was all leading up to the ICS test.  The first time Mr. Abud mentioned it he told us we could look it up if we wanted to know any more, well I did, and found out it didn't exist.  I finally came in Friday and found out what ICS really stood for; Ice Cream Social.  This lab was a lab to explore the phase changes and how temperature effects phase, using ice cream.  We made our own ice cream using a variety of ingredients and found that although the  temperature got too cold, the sweet treat didn't freeze.  It did taste delicious though.  This lab made us realize that some rules are not set in stone and the fluctuation is an important part of how temperature and phase change work. There are exceptions and it may not make sense to us all the time but it can happen.

Week 14 Reflection

This week was the start of a very informative and fun soap lab.  We started with doing research and looking at the detailed instructions on google drive.  We split into groups to discuss the materials, process, lab write up, and who was going to do what.  The day after we solidified our ideas (pun not intended) And got to work on preparations for the experiment like making an evernote document and writing down our plan.  We got the materials and got to work.  Thankfully we were able to use some of Mr. Abud's soap base and magnolia scent for our soap.  A girl in our group had fun chocolate molds we used for our soap.  These were in shapes of things like candy canes and stockings, but also eggs and burgers, which is how we got to our company name "Delicious Christmas."  The soap turned out great and made awesome christmas gifts for family and friends!  It also helped us understand the different things heat could do, I also thought it was a good activity to focus on teamwork because we had to work together and very quickly before the soap hardened so communication really was key.  Overall this experiment was very beneficial to all aspects of our class and even gave me a better understanding of Evernote in making our presentation.

Week 13 Reflection

Week 13 was all about our own understanding of what we were doing in class.  Monday we started with a self evaluation of the newly ended unit 3.  The next day we were to make our own definitions to new terms.  These were terms such as Heat of Vaporization and Heat of Fusion.  I believe coming up with the definition is much more beneficial than just looking it up.  It really gets you thinking about the concepts and bouncing ideas off classmates.  We continued the week with more new concepts like energy bar charts. These were a surprisingly simple way to represent what we knew, but it took a lot of work throughout the week to figure out a good way to use them and represent all of our ideas.  We did a lab to use all of our new skills, we did a lab finding the specific heat of copper.  We heated a copper pipe and used the color to indicate the specific heat.  This lab really helps us to understand how to use our skills to get through a process like this.  We later debriefed this lab to help us fully get the ideas expressed like the new use of energy charts and heat of fusion.