Lab Disappointment With a Hint of Reassurance

Today, my lab partner and I attempted to complete the pre-lab question in order to get into the "Formula of a Hydrate Lab". My part of the question was fairly simple since it was just explaining what LD50 meant, which is 50% of the lethal dose of the given substance. Hamming's part was much more complicated as he had to complete the conversions for the lab and identify the chemical formula used in the lab. We ended up not passing the pre-lab and were not able to complete the lab, and we were fed data. Although sad, we were able to practice the conversions and I was very pleased that I knew what I was doing with that and got the correct answer. This whole thing was very good practice for our quiz tomorrow that will prove to be challenging because we will have a lot of conversions to complete in not a substantial amount of time. I will need to make sure to review polyatomics and naming in order to feel confident going into the quiz tomorrow!

Below you will see a quick review of these polyatomic ions we need to know:

Chemical Composition Pre-Test Woes

Today in class, we took our Pre-Test for the Chemical Composition Unit. Some of the things on the test were familiar because we had briefly touched on mols with "Mole Day" being 2 weeks ago and our project we were supposed to do for that. Because of this, I'm sure I got at least 1 question right because it referred to Avagadro and his ownership of the unit of moles and I remembered that from looking up funny mole puns to use for my stuffed mole project. Overall though, I feel that I have a lot to learn in order to succeed in this unit and I'm ready to feel confident on these upcoming quizzes and tests!

Mole Day 2015

On Friday, October 23, we celebrated "Mole Day" in class. I made a "Cave-mole" and I actually thought it turned out pretty well. Everyone else had clever and very cute ideas about what to make their mole as. We were given a pattern beforehand which made it a lot easier to figure out and I used a sewing machine, unlike other people, which took a lot less time. Seeing all the moles on the back table at the end of the day was amazing because our ideas and interpretations were so different and that was really interesting to me.

Below you can see all the fabulous moles everyone made from most classes:

Changes Activity

Last Wednesday, we went into the lab stations and completed a fun, yet challenging activity to reinforce what we had learned in the lecture just a few minutes before. We were told to go to each of the eight stations and solve each substance with the already given elements, solutions, and mixtures in their specified column. I really enjoyed science in middle school and we had worked with chemical and physical changes frequently, so this came as sort of second nature to me. It was also a great idea to immediately review the topic covered, especially in a creative way, using common objects and using the help of a partner of our choosing.

Below you can find a few of the stations we had to go through and attempt to solve:

Dimensional Analysis Lecture

Today, we went over the dimensional analysis portion of the chapter which felt like a review for me because I had done it recently during Trigonometry. After that, we reviewed density briefly and also learned the conversion for Kelvins. I found that to be the most confusing because I had never used Kelvins before because I had only ever used conversions for Farenheit and Celcius. The test is Thursday which is very soon, so today after I go home I will definitely reviewing all our information so far and maybe complete a few practice sheets and quizzes.

Below is the review sheet we were given tonight for practice:

Aspirin Lab Anxiety

Oh my goodness, I am extremely nervous for Cristen and my turn to complete the lab on Wednesday. Only one group in our hour successfully completed the pre-lab question, meaning only one group out of the five were able to actually complete the lab at all. Because of this, I will make sure to study the lab instructions very carefully and know the entire procedure inside and out. If I am able to do the lab, I feel that it will be a fun and interesting learning experience to deal with harsh chemicals and to be a part of making real aspirin. But, if I do not pass the pre-lab, then this experience will be taken away and I will just be given raw data with no explanation.

Here you can see a very helpful video of what I will preparing for in the next few days.

Post-Unit Reflection

Today we took our Unit assessment over chapters 3 and 11. I felt pretty good about most of the questions and the test didn't take me too long to complete. Since it is the end of the unit, we now need to have completed our guided readings, blog post requirements, and our most recent project about elements in the stars. It was definitely a lot to accomplish in a short amount of time, but it was all a good way to teach us to manage our time and keep up on daily happenings. Tomorrow we will be previewing the aspirin lab, which we were supposed to do a few weeks ago, so I am very anxious to see what we will be preparing to do on Monday!