Period 5: Announcement - Quiz

A quiz on the Bohr atom and the Quantum Mechanical atom is scheduled for Period 5 tomorrow the 27th. 

This will be a summative quiz on the two modern models of the atom.  Topics addressed are foundational differences in these two models from the previous models of the atom studied.  It also focuses on the way in which electrons are patterned in an atom in terms of energy and position.  The quiz will focus on the work done in class and also chapters 2 and 7 of the textbook.

Another aspect of this quiz is that the students were given a non-graded "pre-test" on a few of these topics.  In an effort to assess my instruction for this unit, I have put these same questions on this quiz.  My hope is to evaluate the instruction and learning through this.  This was a recommended goal from the administration for this year as part of our evaluation process.

Active Chemistry & Community: Periods 1 and 8

Active Chemistry & Communitywill be finishing Chapter 1 of the text book by the end of next week.  There is a major graded assignments that will be due at that time. 

The Chapter Challenge Project:  Since the beginning of the chapter the student were asked to write a short script for a scene in a movie/show.  In that scene there should be a special effect of some sort.  The students get to choose the special effect and be the creative geniuses they are.  Two weeks ago a rough draft was handed in.  Last week a rubric of the areas of grading was handed out and should be a guide for crafting their final project. This week a period will be dedicated for time in the media center for the students to pool their work together and finalize thoughts.  The project will be due on the last day the class meets next week.

Period 3: Quiz!

A quiz on the Bohr atom and the Quantum Mechanical atom is scheduled for Period 3 tomorrow the 25th.  This will be a summative quiz on the two modern models of the atom.  Topics addressed are foundational differences in these two models from the previous models of the atom studied.  It also focuses on the way in which electrons are patterned in an atom in terms of energy and position.  The quiz will focus on the work done in class and also chapters 2 and 7 of the textbook.

Another aspect of this quiz is that the students were given a non-graded "pre-test" on a few of these topics.  In an effort to assess my instruction for this unit, I have put these same questions on this quiz.  My hope is to evaluate the instruction and learning through this.  This was a recommended goal from the administration for this year as part of our evaluation process.

  

Happy Mole Day!

Today is a day of celebration for chemistry folks called mole day.  The mole is a very specific number in chemistry and it is how chemists count and bundle atoms and molecules.

How many in a mole?  There are 602,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 particles.  Normally we try to write it like this 6.02 X 10²³.

For perspective:

• There is a one mole of water molecules in about 2 tablespoons.

• One mole of copy paper would stretch from the earth to the sun over a million times.

• One mole of pennies would fill in the all the space between the earth and the moon's orbit in stacks of 400 pennies.

• One mole of pennies would be enough to give everyone on the face of the earth about 1 trillion dollars.

Sometimes we forget how small atoms and molecules are.  Hopefully this puts atomic size into perspective

Happy Mole Day!

Chemistry 431: Period 3 and 5

Chemistry 431 has been working on Atomic Theory the past few weeks.  The concept of a fundamental particle called an atom has evolved over time.  The classes have been studying the key discoveries in the evolution of the atom.  There are two stages of evolution.  The first stage looks at the atom as a particle and the fundamental parts of electrons, protons, and neutrons and their inter-relationship.

The second stage of evolution focuses on describing the energy and position of electrons around the nucleus.  This stage draws a big distinction between the world of the atom and world we live in. They couldn't be more different and this is what is most challenging when studying the modern atom and the quantum mechanics that are used to describe it.  It is this current quantum mechanical model of the atom that best describes the chemistry of the elements. 

Active Chemistry: Periods 1 and 8.

To sum up the past couple of weeks.  The classes have been focused on Section 4 which is about a few basic physical properties of matter.  Properties such as strength, elasticity, malleability, and bounce were studied during the creation and testing of a Play-Doh like substance during lab. This introduced the concepts of composites when an additional material was added to see how the properties of the "Doh" changed.

Section 5 is focused on the property of density, another physical property.  Density is the ratio of a substances mass to its volume.  The lab work challenged the students to make mass and volume measurements of liquids and irregular solids.  This introduced the students to the techniques of massing by difference and water displacement. Lastly we will be practicing our problem solving skills using density.

The goal for the week would be to wrap up these concepts for a quiz at the end of the week.  

Been A While: Sorry!

Sorry to all for the lack of K in the Chemistry!  The past couple of weeks have been busy with progress reports and grades.  Also I have been fulfilling requests for letters of recommendation for the class of 2012.  This year I had quite a large number of requests and they all asked for them to get done at the same time as grades.  Talk about stars aligning!


I hope to get settled back into the swing of things, thanks for your patience!