Lab Day 3 Calculations

Ok. Today was the last day to finish up our Copper lab which, I thought was one of the more fun labs we've done so far this year. We made sure to measure the mass of both the baby food jar and the nail again so that we could subtract those masses from our previous calculations. From that we needed to calculate these things: data table, theoretical yield, actual yield, percent yield, and be able to determine which iron ion was formed.

This is what we found in our jar when we came back to the lab today:

Preparing for the Unit Test

In order to prepare for this unit test, I made sure to again reference the infamous Crash Course Chemistry YouTube channel. After doing that, I completed the calculations for the 3-day lab we had finished today which went over again the concepts we need to know for the test. Since my teacher moved the test back a day, I felt like I was able to find and use more tools to prepare. Because it wasn't on a Monday, I had a chance to get in the swing of the class again which is nice to kind of wade in instead of just making a big splash. This time, I made sure to pick up my quiz from last week and looked it over to see what I had made mistakes on and what I could improve upon for the unit test. Again I utilized the all-powerful schoology to use the practice tests and check my understanding of the unit one last time.

Copper (II) Chloride and Iron Lab

We're on a streak! Hamming and I passed this pre-lab quiz yet again, so we got to participate in what I would say was a pretty fun lab. We first had to measure out Copper (II) chloride into a weigh boat and pour it into the baby food jar and added water. Then, we weighed the nail and then set it into the solution and left it overnight. This is what it looked like at the end of the hour on that 1st day:

The second day, we made sure to siphon out the excess water and made sure to leave as much of the product in the jar as we could. Then we added 25mL of HCl and siphoned that off after a while as well, again making sure to leave the product. This is what the jar looked like when we got into class on the 2nd day of lab:

                                                        

Helpful Links

As we started out this unit, I found these few links to help me get acquainted with the concept. Hope these help for you as well!

Worked out example

Khan Academy Example

Chem Collective Practice

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: