Test Reflection

Oh my. This last test was 50 questions, and as soon as I saw it I got nervous. Even though it was so long, I only had a few questions that I had no idea about which gave me a little more comfort. The questions went fairly quickly and I felt pretty good about how I did. To prepare I reviewed all of the unit's notes and I took the final schoology quiz on periodic trends. The quiz online was extremely beneficial because most of the concepts that were on the quiz were also on the test. Plus the questions online that I didn't know, I was able to ask some classmates about and I understood them after they explained it so I knew it for the test. We'll see how I did soon!

New Periodic Table Activities

This week we completed two activities involving placing letters in place of elements on the periodic table to make a new one. The first one was just identifying which elements represented which letter and putting them on the blank periodic table (not including transition elements). This one was more straightforward and took a lot less time because we only needed to identify which description fit which element and put it in the corresponding position. For the second activity though, it was not based on the real periodic table and we had to place made up elements on a blank table using density, atomic trends, and its reactions with other elements. This activity took a lot longer, but it was a little fun because it was kind of like a puzzle, a very frustrating, and complicated puzzle. Although, it was difficult, it gave me a better understanding of how elements are placed on the periodic table and how atomic trends work in that regard as well.

Quiz Preparation and Reflection

For this quiz, I tried something new and completed all of the practice tests on schoology and felt a lot more confident after going over the ones I had gotten wrong. This unit comes a lot more easily to me it seems like. Once I miss a problem, it only takes a little bit of an explanation for me to figure it out, but for previous units, it would take continued effort all throughout the unit in order to see my score improve. After taking the quiz, I felt fairly confident and I understood every question on the test and felt that I did an adequate amount of studying to prepare. This quiz score, I believe was one of my best this whole year, meaning that if I want to keep doing well, I think I should continue to complete those schoology quizzes because they seem to be working!
 

Spectroscopic Analysis

This lab wasn't as fun as ones previous. It was still an interesting concept, and it was a good way to practice and see things put to practice from lecture. We used a very large machine called a spectrophotometer and recorded a whole lot of % transmittance and absorbency from the Chromium and Cobalt ions for many different wavelengths. This was just a time-consuming lab because we had to use the distilled water before each recording to re-calibrate the machine and we did over 15 different wavelength calculations.

Flame Test Lab

For this pre-lab, we were told to do a wavelength calculation for partner A, then partner B had to interpret the results of partner A's calculations to tell what color is produced. Mikayla and I both passed, so we were let back into lab. I found this lab to be particularly fun because we got to use a bunsen burner to burn different substances to produce different colors. This lab was a fun way to burn stuff, but also to practice our wavelength calculations for the upcoming quiz.

Fireworks Reading

Today, our teacher wasn't in class, so we were told to read a packet on how fireworks work and why they do the things they do. I found it really interesting to read about this because we see fireworks every year, yet we don't really know that much about how they work. I really liked learning through this reading because taking notes and filling out worksheets really helps me to learn faster and retain the information longer. It was a good way to ease into this new unit focusing on periodic trends and electronic structure, and I'm eager to get started with a lecture tomorrow.