Reflection of week of 9/21/15

Sg Chem 2 reflection paper

Obi Ilozor 3rd hour

This week in Sg Chem 2, we did a fair amount of activities. We learned mostly about famous scientists who discovered elements and properties of atoms. We watched a movie on Gay Lussac, who experimented with many gases and studied electricity, and other famous scientists. Two really big scientists were Priestly and Dalton who layed the foundation for modern atomic theory. Also, Joesph Prust developed the law of definite proportions which is key in modern atomic theory. One really big discovery or assertion was Avagardo's hypothesis. We also learned about the compositions of compounds. Also how mass of 2 elements in a compound affect how many attach together. Overall, it was a cloudy week full of information that is to vast to state in a mere one page reflection, but I will try my best to present a thorough and informational overview of this week.

We white-boarded this activity today. It was about compounds and their masses. The compounds have ratios that determine how many of an atom are in a compound per another atom. In this case, O and C are the types of atoms and their are 4 O's per 3 C's

We learned about Avagardo's law this week. It shows that atoms will react in ways where certain ratios of atoms are in a compound. Atoms split up and bond together with other atoms to make compounds. Just like in this example, two hydrogen combine with one oxygen and the rest of the oxygen don't combine with anything.                                                                            

Prusts Law of definite proportions is like Avagardo's but builds upon it. It states that all compounds of the same type are made up of the same proportion of atoms. Take water for instance, it is always composed of two hydrogen and one oxygen. If there is more oxygen than a two to one ratio, some of it will not bond. Just like the video of a lab we watched this week as well. Oxygen gas was left over after the reaction. The reaction also caused a jolting reaction within the test tube.

Iodine was a big discovery back then by 2 scientists that named it iode. They weren't really remembered as much as the two scientists who elaborated on their discovery. Those two were Gay Lussac and Dalton. One of them named this new substance iodine but I think that Gay Lussac published his article on it one day before Dalton.

Sg Chem 2 reflection of week 9/14/15

Sg Chem 2 reflection paper

Obi Ilozor 3rd hour

This week in Sg Chem 2, we did a fair amount of activities, most of which were review. We reviewed terms and concepts from Sg Chem 1 and did a fair amount of white boarding on them. We did a white board on the properties of matter.We also looked at the differences between water and ethanol in several different ways. We put both substances in an electrolosis device and we also put sugar cubes into each substance to see how they would dissolve. Another thing we did was learn about the differences between molecules, particles, atoms and more. Finally, we read about primitive theories that eventually transformed into theory that we stand by today. That everything is composed of atoms. Overall, this week was more of a review and an introduction if anything. I know that more interesting weeks will soon come.

One white board activity that we did was identifying properties of matter. It was a short activity where we all shared what some properties were and in the picture below, it shows what the class came up with.

The electrolosis activity that we did to compare ethanol and water was one of the more interesting labs that we have done so far. An electrical current was put through a copper wire and did something to both substances. I think it heated it up so that the particles of H2O would split. I don't know how it was done, but somehow, hydrogen gas was collected in a tube. A lit match was put into the hydrogen gas and it made a loud sound. In a way, the sound was like a pop. When the ethanol was heated up, it produced oxygen gas and that was also collected in a tube. This time when a flame was put into the tube, it burned brighter for a quick moment. That was the end of the lab. This is what the electrolysis device looked like.

We had a mastery assessment on elements, compounds, mixtures, atoms, and molecules. We learned about this for two days and this is the white board that my table came up with. There was not much to this activity except for the informational part. 

This week, we also read about how the theory of atoms was created. There are no pictures because it was just a reading that we did on Friday.

Another lab we composed this week was the sugar solubility lab. We placed sugar cubes in water and in ethanol and observed. The sugar dissolved in water but not at all in ethanol. In a 50/50 mix of the two, sugar dissolved. It was a fun lab.

All of this occurred this week. Even though it was an introduction to chem 2, it was still filled with all of this information.