Journal 8 Sunday, May 4 2008 

science joeking2 5:16 am

Today we did the Acids and carbonates. We had to mix sodium bicarbonate, ammonium carbonate and calcium carbonate with nitric acid and hydrochloric acid. We then had to test each of these solutions with matches first and then with limewater.

Often the smoke from the match flame got sucked down into the tube when a carbonate and nitric acid were mixed. When the match was tested with hydrochloric acid and a carbonate, it mainly started to bubble.

Most of the time when limewater was mixed with a carbonate and nitric acid, it went cloudy, this also happened with the hydrochloric acid.

Some safety issues may be with nitric acid, it is highly corrosive and toxic and in its pure state is very smelly. Also Hydrochloric acid is highly corrosive as well.

 

Journal 6 Tuesday, Apr 29 2008 

science joeking2 9:50 am

Today we did our combustion practical and it has been the best so far. When we burned the piece of magnesium, it went really bright and we were only allowed to look at it from the corner of our eyes. Ours also went green as well as a bright yellow/white. The Magnesium then burnt up.

A safety issue would be that if you looked at it directly when burning, you could damage your eyesight. The Bunsen burner could also burn students as well as set alight other objects in the room.

If we keep doing experiments like this, science will be something to look forward to. I find the journaling a pain because it takes up a lot of time.

 

Journal 5 Tuesday, Apr 29 2008 

science joeking2 9:37 am

Today we did the decomposition practical. It was good because it actually worked and the gas carbon dioxide was produced. The solution started to bubble and turned cloudy for other people when the copper carbonate was added.

There were not many safety issues except for maybe if you drank the lime water, you would get very sick, or if you spilt it all over someone else.

I think that the project so far is better than the last one because I am actually learning something this project and will have some notes to read over.

 

Journal 7 Monday, Apr 7 2008 

science joeking2 10:32 am

The prac that we completed today was called the pop test. It involved pouring some acids like sulfuric, nitric and acetic into some test tubes. We then placed little pieces of metal like zinc, magnesium and aluminium. After that we had to let them sit with a stopper in the top for about a minute. When this had happened, we had to light a match and hold it over the top of the test tube. We then had to listen closely toe hear any pops which meant that hydrogen was being produced.

Some safety issues may have been with the sulfuric acid, it could burn you to the bone if concentrate. The nitric acid is very corrosive and toxic, don’t spill and especially don’t drink. The acetic acid is a weaker acid and cannot do much harm but still be careful.

I think that this practical was good because it was different and involved matches, i like matches! Hopefully we can do more practicals like this.

 

Journal 4 Wednesday, Apr 2 2008 

science joeking2 9:20 am

The corrosion practical was a bit more interesting than the precipitation prac because there was more involved and we didn’t actually know what was going to happen. I reckon that the nail with nothing else might extremely slowly start to rust but probably not because it is not exposed to enough oxygen.

The nail in the water will definitely rust because water always rusts iron. I think that it will probably rust the most out of all the nails.

The nail in the oil will probably rust a little bit but not as much as the one in the water.

The nail in the silica gel will most probably be the same because the silica gel is not really a gel but more a hard substance. If the silica was in gel form then something might happen.

 

Journal 3 Wednesday, Apr 2 2008 

science joeking2 9:05 am

The precipitation practical that we did was simple but it still showed how when two clear substances were mixed, a precipitate formed. I sort of expected t see what happened but I still wasn’t sure.

I was glad that this project was a hands on project rather than a group research-based project. I think that our group is a good group and we can get a lot of solid work done.

 

Journal 2 Tuesday, Mar 25 2008 

science joeking2 2:53 am

The pracs that we did were a good change from the bookwork and I found them quite fun. I hope that all the pracs can be as fun and simple as these. Hopefully some can be a bit more reactive and something explodes.  

I think that this project should be more interesting and I should stay out of trouble. I think that I will probably get a better mark as well, I didn’t even understand how the last marking criteria worked.

My group is much better this time and we should work well together.

 

Evaluation Tuesday, Mar 11 2008 

science joeking2 3:29 am

I think that some changes i would make to my project would be:

  • to have a teamplan at the start of the project so that we could run by it and pace ourselves.
  • i would have made the questions easier to suit the level of learning
  • i would have made probably some things to help with the demonstration

I found this project fairly good because the other projects were a bit harder and needed more content.

To improve my presentation for next time i think that i would need to practice a bit beforehand and also spend more time on ther powerpoint.

In my opinion john had good presentation skills because he looked at the students when he said it and he projected his voice more.