Helpful Videos

Here are some other beneficial videos for this unit that might help:

Crash Course Redox

Bozeman Redox

Crash Course Acid Base Reactions

Crash Course Precipitation Reactions

AP Chemistry Acid Base Reactions

Overview of Lectures

Whew. Thank goodness we have another unit test over and done with! The exam wasn't horribly difficult, and I think I improved my score from my last unit test and the last quiz we took. Just to recap the avalanche of information we learned over the past few weeks, I had gotten a review sheet from a friend to help study off of, which was extremely helpful in getting all of the information condensed into one piece of paper. This unit we had covered redox reactions (synthesis, decomposition, single-replacement, and combustion), balancing chemical reactions, predicting products of a chemical reactions, oxidation numbers, reactivity series, net and complete ionic equations of reactions, what signals a chemical reaction, and acid base reactions. Wow, that's actually a lot more topics than I had expected, but after learning them, hopefully I will recall them all easily for the final coming up very quickly.

Preparation for the Unit Test... Again

In order to improve my unit test score, I printed out some practice tests from schoology and completed them with a friend constantly comparing answers and making sure that each of us knew exactly what was going on in each reaction. I feel pretty prepared for the test, more so than the last unit test. A friend also helped me put together a review sheet that highlighted the main points of the unit and listed the polyatomic ions, which now, I feel like a have a solid grasp on finally. I feel that the labs which covered the balancing and predicting of chemical reactions played a big part in the continuous review process. As the year has been progressing, I'm getting more and more used to a test or quiz each week, and even though they are a total pain, they are effective in letting students know exactly what they need to focus on to be better the next assessment. 

I also made use of the always reliable Crash Course Chemistry videos especially this one below discussing redox reactions:

Metal Lab Excitement

Yesterday during class, after our pre-lab quiz, Hamming and I set off to lab again to set off some pretty cool reactions. We were able to use the well plates again and set elements into them and use a pipette to put the solutions in the well plate. This lab was extremely similar to the one we had completed previously, but focused more on reactivity series, but still reviewed our knowledge of net ionic equations after completing the lab. Although we passed the pre-lab quiz, those who didn't also got to get into the lab, which, I thought, was great because even though they got the question wrong, they were aware of what they made a mistake on after an explanation, and they also got to participate in an awesome lab.

Reactivity series:

Lab of Epic Proportions

We did a lab a little while ago, but I forgot to post about it so here we go. After passing the pre-lab quiz, which wasn't too complicated this time, but involved predicting the products in a reaction, Hamming and I set off to the lab station. We were to combine 2 reactants in a well plate and watch the reaction occur and record which ones formed a product and which ones didn't. Many of them didn't have reactions, but some of the reactions were pretty cool. In order to complete the rest of the lab, we had to complete the net ionic equations that reflected the outcome of each reaction that DID occur. Doing this was good practice for doing this type of problem, which will definitely be on our unit test Thursday.