Making a Mole

The mole project was an oddly easy project, for it did not take much effort to complete. We made moles to display in class for Mole day, the celebration of the number 6.022 x 10^23. This number is significant to chemistry because it is a unit that we use very commonly in the class.
There were many different approaches to the types of moles. My mole had the them of being Santa Claws Mole, but there were other themes that were much more creative. There was a Whack-a-Mole display, a metal mole, a Mole-zou mole, and many more that were very interesting. In addition, we had a party in class in which we brought in food, so the celebration of Mole day was a success.


Helpful Links:
How to Sew
Information about the Mole (unit)

Measurement Pretest

The Pretest for the measurement unit was pretty challenging. I did not know most of the information that was on it, for I have never seen most of it. I did not understand what a significant digit was, and I didn't know how to convert some of the measurements from miles to kilometers or vice versa. I believe that once I understand the concepts of the unit, it will not be very hard, but until then, I need to study and practice to ensure I understand all of the concepts.

Helpful Links:
Conversion of Units
Measurement Video

Aspirin Lab

The past two days, we did the Aspirin Lab in class. We made Aspirin out of Salicylic Acid and acetic anhydride, using sulfuric acid as a catalyst. The process of making the Aspirin was really cool, and I learned a lot about the basic processes of Chemistry in the process. First, we combined all of the ingredients, and heated the mixture for 15 minutes in a hot water bath. Then, we let it cool, poured it in a beaker, and added ice cold water in order to form the crystals. In day two, we took the mixture, and ran it through a Buchner Funnel in order to extract only the crystals out. Once we had all of the crystals into the Buchner funnel, we pulled out the filter paper with the Aspirin on it, then placed it on the lab table to dry over fall break. I am very excited to see the results after break.

http://mumbai.all.biz/aspirin-powder-g551089

Helpful Resource showing the process:

Aspirin Synthesis

Final Thoughts on the Atomic Structure and Radioactivity Unit

Today, we took our Atomic Structure and Radioactivity test, marking the end of the unit. On the test, there were a wide variety of different questions, but I was expecting more questions on the different contributions by Dalton, Thomson and Rutherford on the Atomic model. The hardest part of the test for me were the half life questions that required me to do a lot of math. I had forgotten some of the formulas, but overall I think I did pretty well on this test.

http://staff.concord.org/~ddamelin/chemsite/c_AtomicTheory/dalton.html

Also, the end of the unit means that our Star Log project is due. This project was much easier than the Frontier Chemistry Project, and took a lot less time to complete. I primarily used only three websites to gather all of my information, so the process was a lot of repetition of visiting the same sites over and over again. I learned a lot about different stars, and I also was intrigued by the different classes of stars and how their class related to their size and color.

Websites that helped me on my project:

Visual Representation of the Universe

Visual Spectrum of the Elements

Stellar Classification Help

Forensic Archaeology Lab

Today in class, we completed the forensic archaeology lab. In order to complete the lab, we had to cut out 567 squares, and simulate the process of half lives by dumping the squares out and removing the colored pieces of paper, representing decayed atoms. Then, the process was repeated 6 times in order to narrow the numbers down from 567 to about 12. The whole purpose of the lab was to correctly identify a fictional skeleton based on radioactive decay of the bones.

http://marionlocal.k12.oh.us/hs/studentwebs/2009-2010/MM/winner/CPChanges/PhysicalChanges.html

Next, we made a graph of our data in excel in order to show our results. The graph was very beneficial to me because it really helped me visualize the pattern of half lives and the severity of the drop off when half lives are accounted for.

Helpful links to reinforce knowledge of half lives:
HyperPhysics
Half Lives and Carbon Dating Video
Half Life basics

Radioactive Decay

Today in class, we learned about the three basic forms of radioactive decay: alpha, beta and gamma. The main difference between each type of radiation is their effect of the mass number and atomic number of the element. In alpha radiation, the mass  number is decreased by 4, and the atomic number is decreased by two; in beta radiation, the mass number is unaffected and the atomic number increases by one; in gamma radiation, neither the mass nor atomic number is affected due to the light energy that is given off in the gamma radiation. The basics of radiation are fairly easy for me to grasp, since there are only two big things that you have to remember for each type of radiation.

Beanium Lab

Today in class, we conducted the Beanium lab. The purpose of the lab was to determine the average atomic mass of a new element, Beanium. First, we divided up each of the isotopes of the Beanium into 4 groups; White, black, red and pinto. Then, we measured the mass of each isotope, then divided the total mass of each isotope by the number of atoms of the isotope present. Next, The average mass and percent abundance of each isotope was calculated, which gave us what we needed to find the average atomic mass of the Beanium. The average atomic mass that we calculated was .271g.

The total mass of the pinto isotope was 5.87g

Our sample was sample D, contain 42 Beanium atoms