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
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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.