Observation Lab: Day 2

Today's agenda for Chemistry was pretty much a continuation of yesterday's class.

We began with a small lecture from Mr. Lieberman regarding Chem Think, a website that teaches chemistry concepts through interactive, animated online activities. One of our homework assignments for today involves Chem Think, and that's to sign up [click here to learn how to sign up] and to complete the Introduction: Particulate Nature of Matter tutorial and question set. That's due tomorrow.

Mr. Lieberman also handed out a Particulate Nature of Matter worksheet and that is to work on as well.

After that lecture, we went back into our lab groups and finished up our Observation Lab.

Here are some photos to visually summarize some parts of the lab:

The first photo shows the main substances we worked with: Calcium chloride, sodium bicarbonate, and phenol red.

The second shows one of the reactions that occurred: bubbles and fizzing.

The third shows what Part A of the procedure looked like before mixed.

And lastly, the fourth photo showed what the substances looked like when mixed together.

After we finished our lab, we cleaned up and went back to our desks to work on the Post-Lab questions using our data. [Here is one of Mr. Lieberman's examples of lab data found on Moodle in case you don't have it.]

So that was pretty much what went on today in class.

HOMEWORK is to finish the Observation Lab, do the Chem Think assignment as mentioned earlier, and to work on the Particulate Nature of Matter worksheet!

Oh and the next scribe is...................................................Stuart P.

Good luck!

Photos

The easiest way that I have found to post photos to the blog from flickr is this:
1. go to my flickr photostream and click on the photo that you want to place in the blog.
2. Above the photo is an actions tab: click the actions tab and select view all sizes.
3. Choose the size photo that you want...I usually choose small. Right click on the image and select save as...
4. Save the image to your desktop.
5. In Blogger, click on the insert image and upload the image to the blog.
Let me know if you have any problems with this

Observation Lab

Ok, so here is the first post of the year for chemistry.

Today we began our lab by answering two pre-lab questions. We also briefly discussed the importance of wearing safety goggles at all times while doing any kind of lab experiment. After answering the pre-lab questions, we experimented with calcium chloride, sodium bicarbonate, and phenol red solution. We looked at each substance and recorded their descriptions in our lab books. After recording our observations, we placed the phenol red solution, sodium bicarbonate, and calcium chloride into a plastic bag where we also recorded the different reactions that took place. After part A of the experiment, students were asked to think of at least three questions that could be investigated to determine the interactions that were responsible for the changes.
DON'T FORGET, the homework for tonight is to do the WebAssign reading section 1.2 in the textbook and answering the questions that go along with the reading. It's due Friday.

Also, the next scribe is......................................
Nicole C.

Safety Part 2

Today's class we continued our discussion on safety and started to prepare for our first lab. We watched another clip from the ACS safety video. This shorter clip had to do with good lab techniques. There are several points that I think are worth highlighting.

1. The video made a point of telling us that it is always smartest to pour liquids from large stock bottles into smaller containers that are easier to manage in the lab.

AHHHH...the memories

2. The point of mixing acids is an important one but not done very often in our class. Acids should always be poured into water, not the other way around. "Do what you outta pour the acid into the watta" I know lame but I learned that in high school myself.

3. The video also commented on how we always pour out of stock bottles but never back in. If you have too much of a chemical dispose of it properly but do not put it back into the stock bottle.

4. Remember never mouth pipet!!

After that we briefly discussed how to do the pre-lab for Monday's Observation Lab. We will discuss the data tables on Monday also. Lastly we briefly talked about the unit objectives that were handed out. These are just the main topics for the current unit. They will be handed out at the beginning of each unit. Remember that if you missed a handout for an absence please go to our moodle site to download them. The last thing we did was took our safety assessment on WebAssign.

V-I-C-T-O-R-Y

Have a great weekend and go Titans!!
Oh yeah our first student scribe is...Erika G.

Scribe List

This is The Scribe List. Every possible scribe in our class is listed here. This list will be updated every day. If you see someone's name crossed off on this list then you CANNOT choose them as the scribe for the next class.

This post can be quickly accessed from the [Links] list over there on the right hand sidebar. Check here before you choose a scribe for tomorrow's class when it is your turn to do so.

IMPORTANT: Make sure you label all your Scribe Posts properly (Your Name, Unit Title, Scribe) or they will not be counted. Also please only choose those names in bold as they have active blogger accounts right now

Chris A.                    Amar B.                  Arthur B.                   Matt B           Trevor B.
Nicole C.                  AnnMarie C.           Lauren C.                  Danielle D.     Declan G.
Erica G.                    Sarah G.                  Paige H.                    Connor H.     Takashi I.
Justin J.                     Stephanie K.           Rachel K.                   Rachel M.     Bailey M.
Thomas M.                 Nirali P.                 Stuart P.                     Joe R.         Faith S.
Robert S.

Safety Dance

Today was all about safety. Our discussion centered around the Flinn Scientific Safety Contract. Also we watched clips from the ACS safety video. The first part of the discussion talked about appropriate laboratory attire and behavior. The movie clips were hilarious but informative as Mr. Lieberman was able to link them to our classroom. He showed us the location of all the safety equipment and some special safety considerations for our classroom. The second part of the discussion talked about what to do in case of an emergency our an accident in the laboratory.



Mr. Lieberman also showed us some cool demos that go along with the discussion. The first demo involved "Dave" the mannequin and acetone. This showed us how ordinary household substances can be dangerous in the lab and also how "horseplay" can result in serious injury. The second demo involved an egg and concentrated sulfuric acid. This showed us how sensitive the tissue in our eyes is and how quickly an eye injury could occur. The last demo was the vapor ramp demo. This showed the volatility of organic compounds and how we need to be careful with them near upon flames as the vapor is extremely flammable.

Now that we are all experts on safety...let's dance!!

Creating A Post

The video below will help you with how you create a post in our class blog:





There are two types of posts that you will create: 
   1. Scribe Post (scribe):  This is a daily entry of what happened in class that day
  2.   On My Mind (OMM):  This is an entry that you submit at any time to share something that is on your mind.

Every post should have at least three labels:
  1.  "scribe" for a scribe post or "OMM" for an on my mind post
  2.  your username
  3.  the topic addressed in the post

Digital Ethics

Blogging is a very public activity. Anything that gets posted on the internet stays there. Forever. Deleting a post simply removes it from the blog to which it was posted. Copies of the post may exist scattered all over the internet. That is why we are being so careful to respect your privacy and using first names only.

There are four principles from which we will operate as we create digital content that will be posted on the internet.


1.  Students using blogs are expected to treat blogspaces as classroom spaces. Speech that is inappropriate for class is not appropriate for our blog. While we encourage you to engage in debate and conversation with other bloggers, we also expect that you will conduct yourself in a manner reflective of a representative of this school.


2.  Never ever give out or record personal information on our blog. Our blog exists as a public space on the Internet. Don’t share anything that you don’t want the world to know. For your safety, be careful what you say, too. Don’t give out your phone number or home address. This is particularly important to remember if you have a personal online journal or blog elsewhere.


3.  Again, your blog is a public space. And if you put it on the Internet, odds are really good that it will stay on the Internet. Always. That means ten years from now when you are looking for a job, it might be possible for an employer to discover some really hateful and immature things you said when you were younger and more prone to foolish things. Be sure that anything you write you are proud of. It can come back to haunt you if you don’t.


4.  Never link to something you haven’t read. While it isn’t your job to police the Internet, when you link to something, you should make sure it is something that you really want to be associated with. If a link contains material that might be creepy or make some people uncomfortable, you should probably try a different source.



- Parts of this post were taken from a digital ethics post by Darren Kuropatwa.