The
first two weeks of Chemistry class this year have been filled with many new
experiences and many learning moments. Tagged along with that, there were many
instances that allowed me to recap some of my knowledge of science from the
previous years.
The activity I started with on the
first day of school was based on building a boat with few limited materials.
The goals of the project were many- to build the lightest boat, to build the
boat that held the most pennies, and to collaborate and work with new group members. Our group finished 5th, mainly because we didn’t have
enough time to think of a quality idea for our boat. We also should have
created a boat with sidewalls, because the boats that did held many more
pennies.
Another activity I did last week involved many properties
of chemistry and their relation to affecting mass after a physical or chemical change. For example, I held a
ball of steel wool over a flame, measuring mass both before and after. We also
did things like dissolving sugar into water, and then evaporating the water to
leave sugar. Experiments were mainly based on switching forms of the material from solid, to a liquid, to a gas that changed the structure, but not the mass of the
solid. I learned that when an acid and base are combined to create a solid, a chemical change occurred, but the mass remained the same. However, this was not the case when a reaction occurred and release gases like dropping Alka-seltzer into water because the particles evaporated and mixed with the air around us. I can recall a few experiments we completed in
my physical science class involving the same chemicals we were using in the
lab, and it is very natural to follow directions to complete a lab as of right
now.
One of the most recent activities I
did in class in groups was to determine whether certain tests my group members
and I performed were physical or chemical changes on specific subjects. I got to realize that physical changes did not affect the first components structurally, even if they changed in shape or size. Chemical changes involved altering structures of elements and other substances to get a totally new solution. As you
can see in this picture, we used group white boards to share our thoughts in
front of the class. For this activity, it was quickly completed, but the
previous one took two class periods-which is probably very quick compared to
other experiments we might do later on in the year. I understand all of the
material quite well, and am ready to get rolling in the school year.
All in all, the first two weeks of
school provided what I think to be an accurate insight of a glimpse of what is
to come this year. Hopefully we can continue to do fun little experiments with
the occasional “larger” projects that involve teamwork, time, and work because
in my opinion, they are even more rewarding when completed.
