Unit Test over Matter and Measurement

Personally, I thought this test was kind of hard. There were many questions that I knew the answer to and were very easy, but there were also a few that I didn't exactly know how to complete or questioned my answer. I didn't pace myself well because I ended up running out of time! The question I ended on I KNEW how to do it, but just didn't have the time to complete it. I am very frustrated with my performance on the test and hoping it doesn't bring my grade down too much. Wish my grade good luck!

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Review of Test

The test today was not that bad at all. I was pleasantly surprised that there were no review questions from other chapters that I had to worry about answering. Also, I felt confident that I knew all the material on the test and I think that I did well overall. Hopefully my grade reflects this! There were a few that I was unsure of, but like I said overall I think I did well. Now I just have to prepare for the unit exam. Wish me good luck!

picture location: http://www.innercirclecorona.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/gty_standardized_test_jef_121213_wblog.jpg

Mind blown......

Today was an insane day.

After coming from my math class (we were preparing for a hard test), I walked into Chemistry and looked at the smart board. I read the first couple lines and realized that today was going to be very difficult. We learned many lessons one day with some information being easier than others. The hardest part for me was the addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division differences between math and chemistry because in Chemistry you have to worry about how many values and decimals you are allowed to have in your answer. With addition and subtraction, you have to look at the fewest amount of numbers behind the decimal; in multiplication and division, you have to look at the smallest number of significant figures. This type of rounding off with take me a little bit of time to get used to, so hopefully I can understand it by Monday!

Other things we learned and websites to help understand it:

• The difference between Accuracy vs Precision
• Scientific Notation (Test Your Knowledge: Quiz 1, Quiz 2)
• Uncertainty in Measurement
• Significant Figures
• Chemistry Math (+, -, x, /.)  More information 
• Conversions Within the Metric System

Picture Location: https://online.science.psu.edu/sites/default/files/chem101/Chem-101-Fig-1-2-Significant-Figures-II.jpg

Thoughts on the Last Meal Conversion Project

Let me start of by saying that THIS WAS THE BEST PROJECT WE HAVE DONE YET! All we had to do was think of our favorite appetizer, main course, and dessert and find the recipe. Then, we just had to convert all the measurements into the metric system units. It was so easy and took very little time. This project helped me memorize the converted units used in baking/cooking and helped me understand the correlation between our measurement system and the metric measurement system. Overall this project was good not only because of the level of difficultly, but it also was a great segue into the new unit we are about to start.

Some websites that helped me with converting the measurements include
Pinterest (great picture to help with units)
SouthernFood (to check my answers)

RapidTabels (helped to convert degree measurements into kelvin)
MetricCoversions (also a good reference for changing degree into kelvin)
MetricKitchen (helped with everything!) 

During my break.....

On Monday of my fall break I completed my mole for national mole day! We got to pick any theme we wanted for our mole and since I my high school softball team (that I play on) just won our districts I thought I would make a rally mole! I went to a couple of fabric/craft stores after practice to look for materials that I needed. I wanted to make sure I picked the right fabric and assessories. My mom was more excited about this project than I was. When I got home I dug out my grandmas old sewing machine and followed the steps on the handout. It was actually kind of fun to be creative with it!

Without further ado, I present......... RALLY MOLE! (He even has a glove, softball, rally flag, and his own personalized Howell jersey)

Day two of Aspirin Lab

Set up of Buchner funnel

Pouring contents into funnel

Aspirin crystals in funnel

Today we completed the second part to the experiment which included steps 5 and 7. In step 5, we set up the buchner funnel, placed the filter paper into the funnel, turned on the water to create the vacuum, set the filter paper with distilled water, and poured the crystallized aspirin into the funnel using distilled water to get the crystals out of the beaker. (This video about the set up and procedure will help you through the process ff you don't understand how to set up a buchner funnel or how to set the filter paper) We let this sit for 15 minuets to get out as much water as possible. I enjoyed learning how to set up and use a buchner funnel because I had never done it before. After, we let the crystals sit in the buchner funnel for the allotted amount of time, we took out the product by picking up the filter paper with the aspirin on top of it. We placed this onto the watch glass and transferred it to a lab bench. We put our label next to our filter paper in the section given to our class. It was awesome to see that the amount of product made by my lab partner and I was the most in our class. Hopefully this observation stays true when we actually measure the mass of the substance when it fully dried. I feel extremely accomplished and ecstatic with how this experiment turned out!

5th hour results

My groups product

Start of the Aspirin Lab

Today was a bit of a crazy day. Before I walked into class 5th hour, I had heard from three classes about the pre-lab question and was honestly very nervous for them. Apparently, only one group passed the questions in first and second hour and in the hour before us no one passed them. I felt like I knew the experiment from start to finish, so I felt okay about the pre-lab questions.

Once the bell rang, we got out a piece of paper and Ms. Frankenburg pulled up the questions on the board. I took one look at them and I was relieved because they were both relatively easy questions if you had any idea what the experiment was about: How much salicylic acid do you first start out with? (5 grams), What is the purpose in wearing safely googles in this experiment? (to protect yours eyes from possible fumes or splatter so that they do not get irritated or itch). My partner and I both answered the questions correctly so we were able to move onto the experiment.

(top left) ice cold distilled water, (top right) measuring ice cold distilled water into a graduated cylinder, (bottom left) cooling contents of flask on hot plate, (bottom right) tracing onto the filter paper

(top left) boiling contents of flask in water bath, (top right) weighing watch glass, (bottom left) weighing filter paper, (bottom right) scrub brushes for cleaning dishes

Today we completed steps 2-4 in class. This entailed:

Ryan showing off his proper safety precautions

1. Putting on googles
2. Measuring out 5.00 g of salicylic acid and transferring it to a Erlenmeyer flask, adding 7.00 mL of acetic anhydride (completed by teacher under the fume hood), then finally adding 8 drops of sulfuric acid (as a catalyst) using a pipeter. 
3. Connecting flask to ring stand and heating it in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes.
4. Cooling mixture for 3 minuets, transferring contents into a beaker, and adding 15 mL of ice cold distilled water to the cooled mixture under the fume hood. Then, labeling it with a post it note and setting it on top of the lab bench. 

boiling the contents in our Erlenmeyer flask

After this we  cleaned our station and we were done for today.

Data we collected:

1. Mass of starting material: 5.1444 g
2. Mass of watch glass: 36.9207 g
3. Mass of filter paper: .4077 g 

For a little refresher: Watch this video on How to Use an Electronic Balance

First Day of the Measurement Unit

FINALLY A EASY PROJECT! 

Today, we received our new project for this unit. For the first part, we get to use our creativity and design a mole and sew one together (it will be due on National Mole Day)! What we will put on the blog is the second part of the project. For this part, we will pick our favorite appetizer, main course meal, and desert and research a recipe for them. We will then convert the measurements to the metric system and post this on the blog of you to see. After we complete all of this, we get to make our meal and bring it in for a in class party! I love this project!

In addition, we also talked about the new changes to the aspirin lab and how we set it up. We assigned roles for each of the partners so we are ready to go on Monday. I am honestly a little nervous for the pre-lab questions because if we do not correctly answer them we will not be able to do this project. This would be detrimental because this project will be used throughout the whole year.

Here is a video about the procedure for the Aspirin Lab!

Wrap up of the Atomic Structure and Radioactivity Unit

 Today, we took our Atomic Structure and Radioactivity test, signaling the end of the unit. The test was not as difficult as I thought it was going to be, but there was one question for sure that confused me. (A certain element's half life is 3.1 minuets. How much of the 155 g sample be left after .40 hours. I knew how to solve it, but the answer I got every time didn't match any of the answers on the test which was frustrating) I also thought there would be more questions about the scientists that discovered the different parts of the atoms or more questions about Average Atomic mass/percent abundance. Overall, I thought the test was fairly easy and I think I managed to do pretty good on it.

http://tse1.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.Me5a5efe153f6211e018671dacab33138H0&pid=15.1

Some study tools that I used are:
SoftSchoolQuizzes for reviewing half lives
ProProfs for reviewing chemical equations and parts of the atom
Study Guides and practice sheets on Schoology
Notes from powerpoints in class