Last Meal Project

Each unit we cover in class, there is a project that goes along with it, which we conduct ourselves outside of class. This unit the project is called the Last Meal Project. If it weren't already obvious, we are picking 3 specific foods we would want included as our last meal; the meal includes an appetizer, main course, and dessert. The three dishes I chose were Hot Crab Dip, Chili, and Pumpkin Snickerdoodles, which I find all very yummy and ideal for this last meal. The project called for us to convert all the english measurements into metric units. You can find all my work on my Last Meal Conversion Project Page.
Here is the link to the page that was extremely helpful for my conversions:
http://www.jsward.com/cooking/conversion.shtml

Here's a little sneak peak of what my conversions turned out to look like:

I did have a lot of fun with this project, especially since I explored Pinterest a lot for these three recipes and more! We also have to bring into class one of our dishes, and I chose to bring in the Pumpkin Snickerdoodles. I had never made them myself before, and now this is one of my favorite recipes, and it will definitely be a popular treat this fall!

Matter and Measurement

Today we took a quiz in class over all the material we have learned over the past week. This includes the states of matter, properties, and separation methods covered in one of my last posts. Other material we covered later in the week was accuracy and precision, significant figures, and conversions in the metric system. The topic I found myself struggling with the most when studying for this quiz was significant figures and heterogeneous and homogeneous mixtures. I have trouble remembering which zeros are significant when they are in front of the decimal or when there is no decimal present. Another silly mistake I believe I made of the quiz is switching accuracy and precision. After looking over my notes later in the day I found that accuracy is the proximity of a measurement to the true value of a quantity while precision is the proximity of several measurements to on each other. Also, accuracy depends on the instrument you are using, while precision depends on you as an individual. Our unit test is Thursday and I will be sure to focus on these things I struggled with on the quiz.
Here are some practice worksheets I will be using in order to prepare for the unit test
http://www2.bakersfieldcollege.edu/dkimball/Chemistry%20B2A/Problem%20set%201%20significant%20figures%20Answer%20Sheet.doc
https://www.everettcc.edu/files/students/rainier-learning-center/tutoring-center/chemistry/w316-significant-figures-worksheet.pdf
http://myweb.astate.edu/mdraganj/Sigfig1.html

Mole Day

Friday in class, we celebrated mole day. For this, we has to sew a mole of our own that had a theme to it. My mole was cookie monster was cookie monster or "cookie molester", and along with my friends' moles, elmo and oscar the grouch, we were able to make sesame street. During class we were able to look at the moles from all the classes and some of them were very funny and their sewing and decorations looked great, while others didn't as much. My mole took me a long time to make, not because it was difficult, but because I struggled sewing when my thread knotted up all the time. Overall, I didn't think the project was too bad and it was nice to have down time in class to celebrate this day. Heres some pictures of my mole and the three moles of our theme together.

 I also didn't really understand the reasoning behind why we were celebrating, so I looked it up and here is a link to what I found. http://www.moleday.org
I also found some jokes to go along with the day that some of my friends and I got a kick out of. http://www.mytowntutors.com/2014/10/mole-day-jokes-top-50-mole-day-jokes/

States of Matter

Today in class we covered the chapter in our book over states of matter. Some important terms we learned were intramolecular and intermolecular. Intramolecular includes ionic, covalent and metallic, where the break changes the identity of the material. On the contrary though, intermolecular associates the neighbors and includes hydrogen bonds, and when broken, the phase changes. We also covered the physical properties and changes, as well as chemical properties and changes. Physical changes can been easily observed without the substance changing into another. The opposite of this would be the chemical side, where the substance changes and results in a completely new substance. So determine which type of reaction it is, it is easiest to analyze if it is the same substance as what you began with. Finally, at the end of class we covered filtration, distillation, and chromatography, which are techniques to separate and identify the different components within the substances. This is the part of the lesson that confused me the most, since I haven't learned it before, but I think with a small amount of research, it should me a concept that I can learn quickly.
I have even found a small video here that explains it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iX4WlKIAuYg
Here is also a chart we used in class that was very helpful in organization and figuring out problems!

http://wpscms.pearsoncmg.com/wps/media/objects/3661/3749680/Aus_content_01/Fig01-05.jpg

Aspirin day 2

Since we did not do the experiment ourselves, all my observations are unfortunately coming from what I have heard and seen of others.
On this second day, we would have filtered the solution that was previously created on day 1 with a Buchner funnel. The funnel pulled out all of the water and other liquids within the sample, and all that was left present in the funnel were the crystals. With the final product, then a scale was used to make the measurements of mass. The three things that had to be weighed were the filter paper, starting material and the watch glass. After break we will be able to see the sample as dry crystals. I am kind of bummed we did not get to participate in this lab, especially because it carries through the rest of the year.
Here is a video I found that may help explain the basics of the experiment:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4NMpO1xI8U
This is what the lab setup would have looked like for today, and the measurements my friend got with her experiment- that I will be referring to for the rest of this school year.

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Aspirin lab day 1

Today during class we were supposed to begin the process of making Aspirin in our lab. Unfortunately, my partner and I did not pass the pre-lab quiz and therefore couldn't participate in the lab. For our pre-lab quiz, we were given a sentence directly from the procedure packet, and we had to fill in the blanks. This challenged us to know terms such as water, excess, acetic anhydride, and crystallize to fill these blanks. Because we did not conduct the experiment ourselves, I had to get the data from a friend, and now for the rest of the year I will have to refer to her sample and the calculations she gathers with the sample her and her partner made.

If we were to have conducted the lab today, we would have included the following:
1. Combining in an Erlenmeyer flask, the 5g of salicylic acid with the 7g of acetic anhydride, and then 8 drops of concentrated sulfuric acid to this mix.
2. We would have then heated these materials inside the flask by submerging it into a water bath using a hot plate. We would have left this to heat up for fifteen minutes.
3. The last step for this day would have been to wait for the mixture to cool for three minutes, then add 15mL of ice cold water and stirred to cut down o the exothermic-ness.

Here is the link to access our full procedure we were to conduct in class:
http://www.chem.latech.edu/~deddy/chem104/104Aspirin.htm
Some things we altered about the procedure were to use a hot plate instead of a bunsen burner, and to use ice cold water instead of room temperature in 4B.

This is what the setup of day 1 would have looked like:

Unit 2 Test Reflection

Today during our chemistry class, we took our unit test over atomic structure and radioactivity, which we have been covering for the past several weeks. The test covered determining the number of protons, neutrons and electrons, mass number, atomic number, calculating average atomic mass, abundance, radioactivity and the three particles included in that, fission and fusion, and the scientists and their experiments and the resulting theories. Overall, I think I was more prepared for this test than I had expected to be. I set aside a lot of time for preparation, and it appears it ended up paying off. The only questions I struggled with at first were half life, but when I went back to these questions I realized I had been overcomplicating the problems. From there I was able to easily find and check my answers for these problems. I think half lives will be a topic I will need to review before taking the next quiz or test. I am very confident in my performance today and I am excited to see what material we will be covering in the next unit!