Week 20b

After much confusion, I think I am finally back on track with my blogs.

So there I was. I walked into the Chemteam Classroom one day a little distressed. Why? An assessment lurked. But little did I know, this was a false event. I was glad to realize that the assessment had been postponed. I don't think I was ready. Nor were my peers.

I believe towards the end of the week we went over more practice guides that solidified the past concepts. I'm a little concerned though, as my group members aren't as interested as I am and therefore have a weak understanding of anything we've been doing lately. I try my best to help.

The beginning of the week saw the conclusion of the magnesium experiment. Last week I uploaded a picture of a similar experiment. This time I'll present a video I took on Monday:

Note: The video is a little over-exposed, so it's pretty hard to see the light.

I already elaborated on this last week, so I'll continue with the week.

Probably the most notable event during this week was the relative mass experiment with the cups of hardware. In whole, it was a challenging, highly effective experiment.

From the very start I was concerned with the initial objective: To find the mass of the object without measuring it itself. Sounds pretty challenging. I wasn't too worried about it though, because my immediate goal was to get my data. However, more complications came when I realized that my group was a one-man team. Even though our combined group consisted of six students (including me), I knew I would have to do most of the work...and I did. I usually don't rely on my teammates (for the exact reason ahead), but with my research project draining every free hour away available, I for once trusted them with some support. But as I guessed, zero provided any help. 

What really aggravated me was the blame that was centered on me. I'll admit it. I can't do everything. Sometimes you just forget. But during the confrontation about missing lab results, I was disappointed not only when I was let down by my peers, but when a fellow team member put the blame on me and made a big deal about it in front of the whole class. That's what you call bush league.

Naturally, I put this aside to focus on the topic at hand.

Once we had our data, we made some conclusions that all seemed logical at the end. The process was not easy. I really had to think my way through, not only through the new terms, but the general concepts. What I found to be very intriguing is that mass is always relative. Relative to something. What ever that something is, it really defines what we consider a quantity to be. I found this to be pretty amazing. Why? Because I realized that nothing is absolute...meaning that everything that we measure is always relative to something. The same goes for distance, size, and mass (no matter if it's the Earth or a single Hydrogen atom). These discoveries are really propelling me through the class, as I find more and more intriguing information  that further develops my unlimited understanding of the world I live in.

Looking forward for more.

Week 19

Hmm..so apparently I never posted this. I checked my blog count t and it said I had 19 posts. However, one of these was an unpublished draft that give me a misread.

So, please excuse my error.

I think this would would have been about...proportions, no? I believe so.

Proportions are such an interesting thing that I've learned about this year so far. Although I do agree that they are quite complex (making this part of chemistry to be the difficulty it is always branded as), I see this as an opportunity to overcome this general fear of chemistry. I can recall all the way to my middle school years where everyone else and I struggled with proportions (and therefore also the balancing equations). Now, years after  the introduction it feels more "in-place" and "in-pace" with my learning order. Working my way up has really made progress over time.

I'd hate to interrupt this, but I feel like I'm talking about things already mentioned in my previous blog...oh, that's right, because most of last week was just a continuation...

Something that I don't recall talking about is the magnesium experiment. Although it never got finished last week properly, the conclusions were still obvious. After all the fun, I really felt something new from the demonstration. Not only is it very cool to see our matter transform, but its even more cool to watch a material change, but with the same amount of atoms. That really made it click for me; because if volumes must stay the same, and Oxygen is already diatomic, you would need 2 Mg for every O2 particle. Very cool:


Credit: www.daviddarling.info


The following week I will discuss relative mass.

Week 18

It's come to my attention that maybe I should discuss more of the actual chemistry material that we've been learning in class. So with that, I'll get started right away.

In the past week we've begun by going deeper into atoms, molecules, and such. What I've been learning is contradicting what I've learned in the past. It feels a little confusing to have been told so much, and then to start referring things by the terms that were originally given during the scientific revolution. An example is how the words molecule and atom are used versus their modern 21st-century definitions. At the same time, I find it a little more beneficial to "reset" what I know and start from the beginning. This time, I will be learning on a slope so to speak. Meaning that I am not given a ton of information to memorize. Rather, I am slowly building my understanding with how these things work.

Besides that, something else I found was pretty cool was the volumes and ratios associated with elements and compounds. In my prior years I would have never guessed that there were such ratios that can define the  pure substances that we use everyday. Plus, diatomic elements? That's another. Until this point, the elements and pretty much every related aspect of this sort of chemistry has been a big and scary subject, foggy and uncertain. It's still building on me, but I feel progress on the way. Some things I really need to check up on are the element symbols and names. I don't think I did well on that part of the assessment.

New seats? No problem. I don't really mind it, although I think I will miss the company of my tech-savvy friends at my table.

Exam? That was difficult. I really felt under-prepared. I think I could have done more to do better. At the same time I know I shouldn't complain so much because apparently I wasn't the only one with an okay grade.