W33k 12: It really doesn't feel like 12 weeks

W33k 12

I sit writing with my note book  next to me and i;m still trying to grasp how we've all been a aprt of ChemT3am for 12 WEEKS! 12!!!  I have no sense of rtime, os it still feels like school started just last week.

This week in Chem Team was a bit....  fast paced. I felt like all the information thrown at us a bit too quickly, especially the concept of specific heat (although it was about the only thing we actually worked on, ) I was a bit lost when Mr. Picar handed out the worksheets, even though we had discussed what specific heat was the day before. Nobody wanted to work on wednesday and i kinda felt the lack of motivation getting to me.

Moday had been a long, almost heated, discussion of how heat is NOT!  energy and that energy can  be transfered like  music files.  The analogy  confused me forthe most part,  but i  understood it.

Tuesday was where you actually taught us the meaning of  specific heat which is how many joules of energy would it take to raise 1 gram of a substance by 1 degree celcius.concspt seemed a little crazy ( What are we gonna use this for??) but i got the basics down.

Wednesday was where i felt  like i was drowning in science formulas that made no sense to me,  the answers i kept on getting i kept being  very far off from the correct answer, which made me quite fustrated, i hate equations, i usually forget order of operations, which was what had happened.

By friday i felt confident enough to use my skill of applying specific heat. Lets hope i did good on the mini assesment we took on fiday.

W33k 11: Thermos Project Week!!

W33k 11 : Thermos Project Recap

 

Out of all the projects I’ve done so far this year, I think I’d have to say this thermos project is my favorite because of all the creativity needed to build a successful thermos, and how to keep the heat in as effectively as possible.

Originally, I was going to use a bunch of wool socks, wrapped around the cup, thinking that would hold the heat in, as wool socks are terrible heat conductors therefore good at keeping things warm. I quickly learned that in needed a sturdier container and then I turned to coffee cans. We had some old metal coffee cans in the basement back when they used metal coffee cans ( all they have is plastic now…) There was a smaller coffee can that fit the little 16 oz cup almost perfectly. There was a lager coffee can that the smaller coffee can could fit into, and I could just put insulating materials in-between the cans. The first layer in the big coffee can was a piece of cork, which after doing some research I found that it was a terrible conductor. The next challenge was what to put around the smaller coffee can so it still fit inside the bigger coffee can while it stayed warm, the solution was pool noodles. There were some in my basement, already cut in half for a game long forgotten. I took one out and took an exact-o knife to  it, cutting off sections that were the length on the coffee can and then when I had extremely short pool noodles I cut them open so there were two halves hinged at the uncut side. I wrapped duct tape around them to make a protective, heat trapping ring around the cup. The only other material I used ( besides duct tape) was the lining from an insulated reusable bag. I had a shiny foil-y surface and I lined the outside of the cup with this, as well as both of the coffee cans.

Last, I stuffed more insulating lining in-between the cracks of the pool noodle and the smaller coffee can and the lid, and I considered the project in the bag for me. it dropped twenty degrees in an hour,  which I thought was really good, for a thermos with a hole in the lids  for the thermometer.

On testing day, I heated water up as quickly as possible, and I got twenty minutes of measurements, and it dropped only 10 degrees, which I was very proud of until we were told we were going to retest. My stomach dropped because I worried would get worse results the next time. The only modification I did make was more duct tape on the surface of the pool noodles under the uppermost lid.

The next day  I was shocked to find my  modifications had proved successful, there was only an eight degree drop ( although  my temperature wasn’t exactly 353 K at the starting point it was 351 K).

Looking back I probably would have tried putting more material in-between the coffee cups or actually putting something inside the smaller coffee cup, which I had left completely bare, but over all I was happy. I like the science of  heat retention.

 

 

W33k 9

W33k 9 The states of matter are confusing.And so are Barometers. This past week I have stuggled to grasp what were learning in Chem. It's not that it's all new information and i have no clue what is going on, it's just that I can't seem to retain it. This week ( on monday)Our Chem Team made Barometers to test Air Pressure, and most of the barometers were highly sucessful in detecting the higher pressure of they day. My plastic wrap cover had a tear in it and the makeshife glove was too small, well i guess my fixing-barometers-on-the-fly skills aren't up to snuff but I have a feeling that it's not going to hinder me terribly in life. The resto f this week was spent preparing for our Assesment, which would THANKFULLY replace the last assesment grade we had, which i am not too proud of, I know how every state of matter is related, or why we can suck through a straw I just cannot seem to retain it. It really bugs me too. ON friday we did take the assesment. I looked at the paper and just tried the best i could, as that is all i could do at that point

Week 8 : The End ( of first quarter)

W33k 8

Ah. I swore i could hear the sigh of the relief when the quarter ended this week. Its a time to reflect or forget. More importantly, Chem T3am had a busy week. Monday, after we went without an assessment on the Friday before, we spent this week devoted to learning a few of the standards we had no idea what they meant ( Specifically 2.05  and 2.06). We learned what Kelvins are and how they relate to Celsius ( Absolute Zero= 0K = -273.15 degrees Celsius) and what absolute zero is. Absolute zero is where EVERY SINGLE PARTICLE in the WHOLE ENTIRE UNIVERSE ceases to move, no matter what, so nothing can be colder than absolute zero, nor can we achieve it either as there will always be a way for energy to travel, even if its just  a little bit of energy.
We also  learned how pressure affects  things like temperature and how temperature and volume relate to one another, this is basically the Kinetic Motion Theory or KMT. It states that Pressure is proportionate to Temperature and is inversely proportional to volume.

On Wednesday we did a "Halloween themed": Experiment:  How do you get a glow stick to glow brighter? Most of us predicted that cold water would keep it glowing the longest (which wasn't the point at all) but we all learned that the energy in hot water  makes the glow sticks glow the brightest because of the energy transferred into the glow stick form the hot water. This was surprising to me because I always thought keeping a glow stick cold was the best way to keep the glow going, but it would be a dim glow.

 By Friday, it was time for the assessment, most of us fearing it was going to be on first quarter and this ruin our final grades. Mr. Abud  promised the assessment would be on second quarter much to the class's delight. This was all great but there was one small hiccup,  there wasn't enough paper  to have our assessments printed on. While we all suggested " borrowing" some of  the math department's paper ( which they probably weren't gonna be happy about) we ended up having a "group assessment" where we had to provide ( on our own paper) that we understood all 8 standards. I really liked the group assessment, my group was focused and we finished right as the bell was ringing, but we all felt confident in our answers as we had  made a group effort to arrive at them. I tend to prefer group test because any little uncertainties about finer points can be addressed as someone usually knows what you do not and they promote team work. ( Yay teamwork!!)

I am really  happy with how first Quarter went. I feel privileged to be in 5th hour ChemT3am.

Week 7 ( posting this now because of computer issues)

<p>This past week made my head spin. Unit two is all about how.particles move with one another and how their movement affects the system.&#160; I feel the particles were making my head spin. I'm not saying I don't completely understand what were learning&#160; but its hard&#160; to keep all the terms and properties and types if motion. I'm good with facts not terms so I know I'm going to say Something silly on the exam like solids have fluidity or gases have more density than a solid. Okay, back on topic, we learned what makes a liquid driffrent from a gas from a solid. The densest of the three states of matter is a solid which keeps its rigid lattice shape thanks to vibrational motion and  they also have the least ammount of energy. Liquids have fluidity and take the shape of their container because the particles aren't connected as closely because of more energy than in solids.  Gases have the most energy out of three  states because it  needs the energy to overcome its barriers and move around. Ok maybe I know.these better than I thought I did.  Good thing the assesment is Friday .

W33k 6 ( Wow. cannot believe its been 6 weeks)

W33k 6 Reflection

ChemT3am has reached a milestone. We have completeted chapter one and have moved onto chapter two. I consider it a milestone for everybody and it should be applauded at least because this is validation that we can survive chemistry! ( not that we can't survive :)

We didn't actually start unit two untill later in the week but i think we needed a little transition from one chapter to the next. We started with how particles move in objects and through the air, one of the examples we had was a block of dry ice letting off gas... wait what? how is that possible? because it is made of frozen CO2 and it gets so cold ( cold enough to freeze the water in your hand if you hold it with your hand) that it goes straight from a solid to a gas, skipping the liquid state, or sublimation.The other example we had that day was a bag of popcorn and we raised our hand when we smelled the poporn even though mr abud stayed at the back of the room. The particles moved through the air, but how could we show this in our particle diagrams? We all decided to use arrows to show movement in particles, long arrows for lots of movement, little arrows for less movement.

Another thing we learned this week was how particles in each state of matter ( solid, liquid, or gas)
and that particles are always moving! So its possible, if all the partilces line up right, one could walk through a wall, theroretically, yay science! Another new vocab word we learned was fluidity, or having the tendancy to flow. This can be applied to both a gas and a liquid but not a solid, as solids do not flow, they stay compact and together.

Our first unit 2 assesment is friday, its supposedly 3 hours long, oh boy. wish me luck, im gonna need it.

W33k 4 review chemT3am

W33k 4 Review : ChemT3am,

W33k four was a big w33k for 5th Hour Chem T3am. This week our main goal was to find the density of a person, and furthermore, to find which gender was denser, this turned out to be a very challenging and fun.

On Monday, and Tuesday, we did the planning for the experiment and we figured out how to find the density of a person ( weight converted from pounds to  grams, and we used water displacement to find volume, the subjects displaced water in a plastic garbage pail.) We picked subjects ( Maria and Jack)  and they were to weigh themselves the night before so we could covert the punds to mass the next day.

Wednesday, oh,boy, that was an eventful day. We actually got to use the emergency shower ( for once) to fill the garbage can that sat in Mr. Abud's plastic kitty pool, which we would collect the displaced water from. Once we had a full ( or as close as we could ger it) 44 gallons we put Jack into the bucket and water rushed EVERYWHERE. I had to take my shoes off and wipe the floor with a lab coat, while this was a nusaince, this was alos a loss of data, which will come up as a point of uncertainty in our conlusion. After the inetial flood,  students srung into action, filling two liter soda pop bottles with water to count the displaced water. Jack, in the end, displaced 27, 2 liter bottles, or 54 liters.
Next, we reset the experiment and prepped for Maria to go in to the bucket. Maria, who went in a lot slower, and is a bit smaller than Jack, didn't send water  flying out onto to the floor. In the end, she filled 19 and 3/4  2 liter bottles so 38. 5 liters.

Chis Bahr and Harris Bunker recorded this info and put it into a power point presentation, to show the next day.

On Thursday, we all added onto the power point, adding video or pictures, or more information. After we all deemed it complete, we presented our findings, and it turned out ok, ( there were some minor errors) We discussed the success of the expirment as well, even with all of our uncertanties.

Finally, on Friday, we took our second assesment of the year ( andi felt confident about it, hooray)

Whew, big week, but im excited for the next.

W33k 4 Reflection : The week of Two labs

W33k 4

Four weeks, has it been this long already, it feels a lot shorter. Thiss week, per Mr. Abud's suggestion, i will actually really try to expalin, discuss and reflect our two labs this week

On wednesday. we had a sub, so this lab was one we were doing on our own even though Mr. Roberts is a sweet, sweet man. We had to find the thickness of aluminumn foil, of  the width of the foil. We concluded as a class that the Aluminumn foil is .0012 cm thick.  But what did this mean?  was each individual particle that thick, stacked along  side one another equally or was it more than one layer? if not, can the particles be any smaller? While these topics are still beign discussed in clas, i predict that while the particles have amaxiumn size they also have a minimum as well.

 The next lab we conducted was  the lab to figure out the density of a gas. We used the gas created when  Alka Seltzer  tablets mixes with water. we captured the gas using stange tools  but it all worked out in the end . Our gas had a denisty of one g/ ml which was kinda pitiful i believe but the alka seltzer was kidna weak, maybe the gas is really weak?

Together while these labs dont have too much to do with one another i feel that we will tie them together somehow, and relate  gas density to aluminumn foil thickness.

While this is not scientific, it is stil lchem related, we voted on shirts this week, i am so excited to find out the winner this week. I really hope it was one of the simplier designs or that we have our names on the back, i think the t-shirts really are like a team. which we are Chem T3am so it fits.

I hope i do well on the unit  2 assesment comming up.

W33k 3 :3

W33k 3 R3flection

I just took the first assessment in  chem class. I was really nervous, i mean that's my nature, to worry i worry over EVERYTHING mind you, so this isn't really a big deal but im kinda still on this endorphin high i get when i turn something in because i feel accomplished ( unless i know i totally failed) .

I really liked coming to Ch3m this week, honestly. The lab, well our main lab this week was on how to relate mass to volume ( If mass goes up so does volume) and how to use  this relation to figure out density, which is ( in my own terms) How many particles are in a single given space.

I think finally after going through  basic procedures and such, that the fourth w33k will finally start diving into chemistry, for which i am most excited for. Ch3mistry is so facinating to  me, how there are all these substances that can be mixed with one another and so on, its very versatile and varied unlike other sciences, which are rigid and precise. I don't like plans and precision all that much, I'm more of a make-it-up-as-you-go kinda person so the freedom that is avaiable in chemistry is a blessing and a curse, more things can go wrong and according to murphy's first law ( "if something can go wrong it willl") something will but we make mistakes and  grow from them, this is why we learn.

This was week one reflection

Sophomore year, Honors Chemistry, 5th hour. This class has not been what i expected, then again i had little expectations from the start, for all i knew on the 6th, Chemistry was all beakers and Bunsen burners, chemicals and equations. The approach Mr. Abud has to chemistry, is one that i have not seen before, that the answer isn't as import as the process it takes to get there. All the technologly we have seen him use in class and we have used ourselves, it to perfect and better our understanding of chemistry, which is the whole point of chemistry. On the first day we sorted ourselves into groups, and even though there was some speculation over the groupings, the answer was not the most important part, it was the process we used to group ourselves. In all other classes i have, its all about the final product, the answer on the test, the final performance, like the process to get there was tossed aside for the answer, but in Chemistry, this specific chem class, we learn to do the opposite and retrace and refine the procedure to obtaining the answer. And i just asked Mr.Abud for how many words this has to be, apparently i'm still focusing on an answer.

The next activity we did was the magic cube, the visible sides were numbered one through 5, and it was our job to figure out the missing number. Turns out the box had no bottom, go figure, but the thought process we all had was the most important part, which is what i found was the main idea of last week was not the answer but the path to it.

Week 2 r3flection

Week 2 Relection

I'm still getting used to school in general. Chemistry especially. Al lthe  technology were using is a bit overwhelming. I'm not into scoial media ( I know, shocker, right?) I don't know how to use Pintrest or i barely know how to facebook andi have no idea what tumblr is either. I may be social network enept but i'm ok with with all the other techology we use in class ( except i keep forgeting we can use our cell phones as a learning tool in class, oh well). The grading system seems reasonable but   i wish it was with all my other grades so my dad could see an actual letter grade, he likes letter grades. The idea of re assessing seems ideal for me because i am not oone who does everythign perfectly the first time, i make many silly errors that used to hurt the overall grade.

We left off trying to see if we can compare mass and volume, and explain it in our own terms. IT's hard to think  back to the very basics and not apply workds we think we know the meaning of and how to use as we havel earned ot do in  previous science classes.

Another thing i think that has been vital has been teamwork. My group consists of girls who have differnt approaches to science than i do and it's fustrating for me because i'm not as good with science as  they all are but we find middle ground here and there. I strive to use teamwork and apositive attitude to keep this productive nature up

Week three here i come.