Week Nine

The week number nine in chemistry was the week we turned in our first project. I did my project with James. We got together and looked up some designs to get some ideas and we found one that seemed like it would work. First, we took a plastic cup and covered it with saran wrap. Then we put a rubber band about the cup to secure the saran wrap around the cup. Lastly, we taped a straw on the top to measure the air pressure. We put a piece of paper with the starting measurement behind it so it would be easier to tell how much the air pressure increased or decreased. When we got to class and tested it out it didn't work as well as it could have. I don't think the saran wrap had enough flex in it. I wanted to improve it so I decided to start over. This time we decided to use a glass jar for more stability and we used a surgical glove instead of saran wrap so it would bend better. We then taped the straw on top like before. This time I wanted to go above and beyond. I decorated cardboard to tape up behind the jar that had measurements on the side and made the sign colorful. We also decorated the jar to make it more catching to the eye. 

This week we learned these problems using pressure, volume, temperature, and number of particle charts that showed the initial and final measurements and the effect they had. When we first started to learn these as a class I wasn't really sure that understood them completely. The morning before we had our test I went in early to get help. After Mr. Abud explained to me how to do it more in detail I started to understand the concept. Now that I fully understand how to do those problems I actually like doing them. Since I'm a math person I love when i can combine math and science.

Week Eight

This week we learned about temperature in Kelvin. We learned that absolute zero is -273.15 Celsius. Frame of refeence is like saying that east is an absolute directions. This is because it is the same directions for everyone. After discussing Kelvin, Celsis, and Ferinheight, we didn't a way to convert one to the other. We discovered that to go from Celsius to Kelvin you do Celsius plus 273.15. To go from Kelvin to Celcuis you do Kelvin minus 273.15. Lastly to go from Celsius to Ferinheight you do two times Celsuis plus thirty two.
I have been using evernote take my notes in class for a while now but one thing that bothered me about it was that when I would want to draw something I couldn't do it. I wanted to find an app like the one that Mr. Abud has. I was searching the droid app store and found this app called handwriting. It has pretty much all the functions of the app that Mr. Abud uses. It has different pages that you can go back and forth from, you can ride in different colors, draw or type, and I can easily save it in evernote in the notebook that I want. I really enjoy all the technology we use in the class and wish that more teachers would allow us to use our phones. I love that I don't have to open my backpack and that I don't have to worry about losing any papers.
On Friday we took an assessment. It was not what I was expecting. Before I got there I was kind of nervous because I wasn't sure if I understood everything that we needed to know. When we figured out that we just had to write everything we knew about each standerd and that we could work with our table, I felt alittle better. I was actually surprised with what I knew. Another thing we did this week that was really fun was when we did the experiment to see if putting glow sticks in cold water actually made them last longer. We figured out that putting them in ice water does help it to last longer but when you take it out of the water you have to put it in hot water to remotivate the particles. The fun part of the experiment was when we cut the glowsticks and the liquid went everywhere.

Week Seven

This week we learned about how temperature can affect matter. We made a thermometer with ethanol and we also just put water in one vial as well and put them both in water on a heating pad. Then we turned the stove on and watched what happened to the ethanol and water as it got hotter. We observed that the ethanol expanded faster than the water. We learned that ethanol had more volume and is less dense than water. From that we learned that the more volume there is the less density it will have. Energy was also a big part of this week. The more the particles are spread out to start the less energy it will take to spread them out more. We discovered that temperature is the mesure of the energy in particles. Temperature is the average speed or energy of all the particles. In this experiment, the molecules in ethanol are moving faster than the molecules are in the water. I hadn't had much experience with Celsius and I felt like I didn't know a lot about it but we learned that the person who invented Celsius was named Anders Celsius. He said that zero degrees was freezing and that one hundred degrees is boiling. His system was based off of water. This week I felt like we started to hear about more complex things. One day we did alittle demonstration about pressure that I helped out with. First I put my hand on a bed of nails then I kept my hand on the same bed of nails but we then put some weight on top of my had which caused more pressure on the palm of my hand. Then for the last example I had to put my palm on just one nail. We thankfully did not put the weight on because I imagine that would have hurt. With this experiment we figured out that there is a relationship between pressure and area. The smaller the area, the more pressure. One day we got to drink juice boxes. We were trying to figure out how the juice came through the straw and how pressure was involved. Mr. Abud learned how to make a juice box into a cell phone which we all seemed very interested in doing as well
.

Week Six

On Monday this week we got our assessments back. I didn't do that bad on this one but I didn't do as well as the last one we took. I think what I needed to do was go through my note more because I would know that the answer was in the notes but I couldn't seem to remember exactly what it was. I'm going to make sure I go over the notes more before I apply for reassessment tomorrow. On Wednesday we watched this cute video about particles and how they move in solids, liquids, and gases. The video referred to the moving particles as the dancing lumps which means molecule. We learned that molecules in a solid have a lattis structure. We also learned that matter never stops moving. On Thursday we came up with some characteristics about the three states of matter. We determined that as a solid particles move, they have a consistant lattice structure, is the most dense state, and is rigid. Rigidity is stiffness. In liquids particles move more than in a solid but less than in a gas, less dense than a solid but more dense than a gas, it has fluidity, a liquid is not a lattice, it takes the shape of its container, and is warmer than a solid. Fluidity is only in liquids and gases and gives the particles the ability to flow. Gases are less dense, have no structure, particles move most easily with more range of motion, and gases are the warmest state of matter. Another vocabulary word we learned is viscosity, which is the resistance to flow. The last thing we learned on Thursday was the three terms of motion. One term of motion is translational motion which is when the particles move from side to side or front to back. The second term of motion is rotational motion when the particles rotate. The last term of motion is the vibrational motion. This week we didn't really do any big experiments which I was disappointed about becasue we usually do almost one every day.

Week Five

This week did probably one of the coolest experiments I've done. We found the density of a girl and a guy in our class. To brainstorm ideas on how to do this the whole class talked using google docs. We came up with using the ice bath or just using a pool because we knew we were going to have to put the person in water. We ruled out the pool because it would be too big and the pool would have to have measurements on it to find the volume of the person. We then saw a big trash can in the back of the room and thought about that. We decided that a person would fit into it but we needed to think of how much water to put into the can. We figured that we would fill the can to the top with water that way we knew how much water was in it and when the person got in and water spilled we would put a baby pool under it to catch the excess water. After putting a plan together then came experiment day. When class first started it was a little crazy. We started by filling up the trash can with water. To do this we used the emergency shower and directed the water into the can with a shower curtain. After it was filled to the top we were all ready for the first person to get in. We gently helped her into the can and as she went into the water we watched it fall into the baby pool. Once she was completely under water we got cups to start filling pop bottles with the water that had fallen into the baby pool. We had to collect all the water from the baby pool so that we could subtract it from the volume of the trash can so we could find the volume of the person. After we got her volume we did mass over volume to find her density. We then repeated the same thing for the guy classmate. In this experiment I think that there is a lot of room for error though. With water spilling on the flour and maybe some people not filling the pop bottle up all the way.
This week we had our second assessment. I felt better going into this one because I had taken one already so I knew what it was going to look like and the format. Although with this assessment I didn't really know what the questions were going to be about. I studied all of my notes and Mr. Abud's notes but I'm not sure I did that well on it. I thought it was challenging.

Week Four

This week we got our first assessments back. I didn't end up doing as bad as I thought i was going to. The assessment only has eight standards on it and five of those standards I got a four on. The other standards I got a three, a two, and a one on. After I realized what I did wrong and needed to do to get a four, I applied for reassessment. Being able to apply to reassess to great because I can show that even though I didn't know that right answer at the time of the assessment I can show that I know what it is now.
The experiment that we started the week off with was playing with candy. We found the denisties of different kinds of candy; my group had starbursts. We took five starbursts and found the mass and volume of each. Then to find the density of each we did mass over volume. For each starburst the results were close in all three measurements. The next experiment we did was finding the height of aluminum foil. To do this our group first found the mass and we were already given the density. With this information we foun the volume by doing mass over density. Since volume equals length times width times height, we found the length and width of the aluminum foil. We then plugged everything back into the volume formula putting height as the variable. After solving that equation we found the height to be .0014cm. The class average ended up being .0014 as well. The last experiment we did for the week was finding the density of a gas. I had to leave early from class that day so I didn't get to actually participate in the experiment which I was kind of bummed about because the set up looked really interesting. When I came back we figured out that the average density of gas for the class was .003g/1mL. We then knew the density of a solid, 4.2g/mL, a liquid, 1.0 g/mL, and a gas, .003 g/mL.

Week Three

This week we compared the densities of different liquids. We started off by just finding the density of water. To do this we used a graduated cylinder to find five different volumes and then their masses. When trying to find the density of the water we realized that there were different ways to find it. One way was to use the mathematical formula which is density equals mass over volume and you can also find the density by graphing the mass and volume. After plotting all the points on the graph we used the line of best fit to calculate slope. After we found slope we realized that slope and density were the same thing, rise over run. After finding the density of water decided to find the density of other liquids and compare them. Every group took one of the liquids. My group chose apple juice. We then proceeded to pick five different volumes. After having some trouble pouring the apple juice out of the box and into the graduated cylinder. We then had our volumes and our masses and proceeded to find the density using the best fit line on our graph like we did for the density of water. That night our tweet 180 project was to list the densities of all the different liquids from lowest to highest. Which we got to see all the other groups data by posting all the data on to our lino board. My group decided that it was fruit punch, apple juice, oil, water, dr. pepper, coke and sprite. I wasn't in class on Thursday so I'm not sure if that was the right answer or not.

Friday was test day. I was nervous for my first test in honors chemistry, I didn't really know what to expect. I didn't find it that easy and I think that was because I may have under prepared. Also I didn't dress for success so that may have been a factor also. Now that i took my first one I think I'll know more of what to expect regarding the format and everything for next time.

Experiments of the Week

 This week we did experiments everyday and I loved it. I found myself looking forward to 7th hour more and more as the week went on thinking about what we would do that day. On day in class Mr. Abud told us that we wouldn't technically get  homework and told us about tests. Its definitely different from what I'm used to but as he started to explain his reasonings it started to make more sense to me. I like that the tests are short and to the point and the fact that we can reassess. I agree with that we should we graded on what we know and we able to go back if we didn't know it at the time.
We did a lot of experiments this week. The thing that i liked about it was that after we finished the experiments we would talk about it as a class so we could consult with other students and see what we did wrong or right. One of the experiments we did was comparing mass and volume of different objects. We would take five objects and measure their volume by using the length times width times height formula. Then we would weigh the mass by using a balance. To my surprise the two numbers were relatively similar. After getting all the data gathered we graphed it to see the patterns. Along with learning that relation between mass and volume we also learned that you just because an object is small doesn't mean it doesn't have a lot of mass. Sometimes a small object can have more mass than a larger object.
Another experiment we did last week when each group experimented on a different thing. My group experimented with calcium nitrate and sodium carbonate. To start we weighed the glass of calcium nitrate and the glass of sodium carbonate together. Second we poured on solution into the other and weighed the empty cup and the mixed cup together. The mass of the solutions separate and the solutions mixed together were the same. The only difference was that when we mixed the calcium nitrate and the sodium carbonate together it turned from clear to more of a white color. This was probably my favorite experiment of the week.

Starting in Chemistry

At the beginning of the week we started with an activity that made us take different things and find other things that had something in common. Being the kind of person that likes to know what is the right answer, this activity twisted my brain After rearranging and conversing with my classmates we realized that there was no right answer. The point of the activity was for us all to reach a mutual agreement.Working as a team the the class reached consensus. This taught us that sometimes there will be no right.

Next, as we continued to get accustomed to the classroom we had another activity and racked our brains. A cube with 6 sides was on the floor and and we had to figure out what the side faced down to the ground enclosed. First, we observed the cube. My group noticed that the cube was like a dye. On a dye the opposite sides add up to seven so since one was on the top we decided that the bottom number was six. Sadly, not all the groups agreed on our observation. Some groups assumed that the cube had no bottom. After we talked about it for a little all the groups were ok with assuming it had no bottom. After reaching consensus, the class went back to the cube to see if our observations were correct. When the cube was flipped over, it had no bottom. This activity shows that some things do have a right answer but the more important thing is how we reached the answer and the preparation we did. 

Later in the week, Mr. Abud informed us of the tweet 180 project. This project involves tweeting everyday something about class. That way we will have all these tweets about things that we have done in class. This also helps us to reflect on what we learned in class that day when we tweet about it.