Unit Exam

This Wednesday we took our Matter and Measurement unit exam, and I am not very confident in my score. Although I studied, I did not account for the difficulties of the dimensional analysis problems and I got very confused when converting cubed units. Going forward, I will definitely need to complete more practice tests and worksheets to practice.

Dimensional Analysis Lesson

Khana Academy

Mixture Activity

After our lesson on matter and its components earlier this week, we immediately tested our knowledge through the matter activity. There were multiple stations set up to reinforce the lesson we had just learned and to determine if we had absorbed the information. In many of the stations we had to choose between physical and chemical changes, which I found was relatively easy. However, in other stations we had to choose between homogeneous and heterogeneous mixtures, which was not as easy for me. Altogether, I believe this activity helped me figure out what lessons and concepts I needed to study more.

 Difference between heterogeneous and homogeneous

Difference between physical and chemical changes

Last Meal Conversion Project Reflection

                                                               The Metric Kitchen

Yesterday we celebrated the end of our Matter and Measurement unit by bringing in the products of our Last Meal Conversion Project. Everyone was required to make one dish, whether it be an appetizer, main course or dessert. I whipped up a Dirt Cake in honor of today being Halloween. For the project, we were asked to convert our traditional, US recipe measurements into the metric system. This project was a good example of how we practically use measurement in everyday life and it exposed us to the rest of the world's measuring system. Also, we got to enjoy tons of delicious and unhealthy foods which is always fun.

Measurement notes- 10/21

Last week we began taking notes for our measurement unit which included scientific notation, accuracy, precision, mixtures and solutions. I found most of the concepts relatively easy to understand; however, I did struggle to comprehend significant figures. There are many rules used to determine the number of significant numbers in a problem. For example, non-zero digits are always significant and and zeros between two significant digits are significant. I understand the concept, but when applying it to actual examples I get confused. The stations at the end of class helped me to practice these concepts and strengthen my ability.
http://www.chemteam.info/SigFigs/SigFigRules.html

Mole Day

Last Friday we celebrated the national Mole Day holiday with a festive party and many interesting mole creations; my personal favorite was the "mole dancer" swinging from a pole. However, a mole in chemistry carries a drastically different meaning. It is the amount of pure substance containing the same number of chemical units as there are atoms in exactly 12 grams of carbon-12. This is represented in the scientific notation as (6.023 x 10^23). Our celebration was a fun way to end the week, but also lead into our new topic of matter and measurements.

http://www.chemistry.co.nz/mole.htm