I could easily rate this year four out of four stars. Every aspect of this year was not bad at any point. Of course there may have been a few flukes because I may have been overloaded with other things during the year, but if I were to ignore that I think even then this year would still be worth four stars.
With the standards & application based learning system in place, I felt that learning the concepts, for the most part, was a breeze. What I liked the most about this was that I had to teach myself to ignore outside information to learn. For example learning about proportions and the structure was a very cool process since I was building my knowledge as I went along and was not feeding off information that would otherwise skew my knowledge. I can say with confidence that the majority of the class (myself included) had a tough time with the final sections which includes stoichiometry. I think this was a hard concept to grasp because it was so involved and required a solid understanding of previous concepts like balancing equations, knowing the ionic formulas very well, knowing reaction types, understanding the excess reactants, ratios, etc.
Concerning participation, typically a difficult topic for myself, wasn't that bad. It really wasn't bad. To be honest, I felt very comfortable in front of my peers whenever I was called to talk in front of the class. If anything my only fear was that I might say the wrong thing or trigger a "block" (a form of studdering where you cannot even begin to get your words out). White-boarding went pretty smooth, since it it helped me learn by placing things together to be explained. Of course the only problem with this was when I was stranded with two other dependent people that really looked up to me to do the work. In that aspect it wasn't so great because it was my group that was not providing full participation. Projects felt a little like an inconvience to me (I'm just telling the truth), but when I looked past that I could see the learning experience behind it. After all, I think real-life application is one of the best ways to truly learn and test your understanding. Lab experiments were pretty nice, since they accomplished the same goal as the projects (application). I think the only *minor* kink though were the discussions afterwords, since I kind of have a difficulty of "converting" the lab-derived information into something I can remember, but that's just me.
If I could go back to September, I would tell myself not to worry about the future. Things will only get better, and it's not like the class will suddenly take a huge leap into some insanely difficult learning curve -- since that's exactly what I predicted would happen. Maybe it's just common word that the subject of chemistry is a difficult thing, and because of that I was a little hesitant about this class. However, as I would learn, it's nothing like that.
It seems a little embarrassing that I did not have a "real" digital device until around the second quarter. I did have some junk mp3 player, but that couldn't really do anything. I thought it was pretty nice when Mr. Abud let me use an Ipod touch though. Although I've never laid a finger on an Ipod before, the very short stint of experience was a good one (even though the only time I used it was when we were reading a PDF file). The reason why that was good was because it would foreshadow the real experience. So about two weeks later I finally acquire a worthy electronic device which I can say did it's part. Don't get me wrong, this wasn't super special or revolutionary; Most of the time I stuck to my good old paper and pencil. The apps that I used the most (by the end of the year) were the soccrative app, a simple google search, and NoteEverything. Note I never really used twitter or that Elephant-looking app. Why? They never really stuck to me. I used them, but they simply didn't work out for me. What I liked about the most was saving paper with the electronic files. Really, that's awesome. My chemistry binder is literary a quarter as heavy as my literature binder (the same exact design and size). Really a good idea!
As with most new things, I'm pretty skeptical and I need lots of time and use to really understand new things. The blog reflections aren't new to me but they still serve a good purpose and it allows me to prove my knowledge and experience. After this year, I think they've done good enough of a job to become something that I actually enjoy (although I often forgot to do them). They contributed because they allowed me to really think back over the week and bring things together. Without them I think my knowledge of chemistry would be total madness.
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Unit 4
Standards 4.03 and 4.05
4.03
You could separate mixtures a variety of different ways. You could separate them by size by feeding your mixture through a filter, you could evaporate a liquid and leave behind the others. You could boil (water and ethanol for example) so one (having a lower boiling point) could boil away first leaving behind the other. If magnetic elements are present, you could use a magnet to remove them.
4.05
Elements and compounds are two different things. Elements are essentially standalone in that they are by themselves. Compounds are multiple elements that are somehow bonded to each other. This may consist of many elements of different elements.
Unit 5
Standards 5.01 and 5.07
5.01
A mole is more than just 6.02x10^23. It is a huge number of something. It means that you literary have that many of something. In what we learned, this means that a mole of an element gives us the "molar mass" of something. That's a huge number. My favorite example was that if you had a mole of sand, it would completely bury the Earth!
5.07
To determine the molar mass of a substance, you would need to know how many moles you are dealing with and the each elements individual molar mass. Let's say we have .7 mol of H2O. You would determine the mass by looking up the MM of each one, so H=1 and O= 16. There are two Hydrogens so 1+1+16= 18g per mole. Times that answer by how many moles you have (.7) to get the mass 18*.7 = 12.6g
Unit 6
Standards 6.01 and 6.06
6.01
In the first lab we did, we proved the existence of subatomic particles known as electrons by performing the sticky tape lab. This showed us (based on repel or attractions) that they existed since they were ripped apart and transferred electrons to one of the pieces of tape.
6.06
Creating the name of a compound would require the knowledge of whatever element or compound is involved. Let's take for example Na(NO3). The name here would require knowing that Na is sodium and the ionic compound NO3 is nitrate. Therefore, this is Sodium Nitrate. If you had Ni(NO3)2, you'd need to mention that NO3 has two, so Nickel dinitrate.
Unit 7
Standards 7.03 and 7.05
7.03
Balancing an equation is pretty straight forward. Let's say we have the ionic compound involving Al and Cl. we know that Al has a charge of +3 based on it's place on the periodic table and Cl has -1 for the same reason. Since they must cancel each other out, you'd need 3 chlorides to balance the +3 charge on Al. Therefore, it'd be AlCl3.
7.05
You can predict the result by knowing what's on both sides. Let's take for example Nickel + Silver nitrate. This would be a single ion replacement since an ionic compound is present. Since it is replaced with the other, you'd end up with nickel nitrate and silver.
Unit 8
Standards 8.02 and 8.08
8.02
Coefficients of chemical equations tell how much there is in moles. This is a ratio that is used throughout the reaction. For example, if you had 2compoundX and 1compoundY, the ration tells us that there is teice as many X as Y, but does not depend on mass.
8.08
Percent yield tells us how much is really produced versus theoretical calculations. You could say that you should yield 100g for example based on these calculations involving the masses and coefficients, but if you only get 70g, then simply divide the theoretical over the yield. 100/70 so 70% yield.
