Reflective blog 11-9/11-13

     This previous week was full of amazing labs and intense work. As we push towards our final week in class befroe finals, we are really trying to grasp every concept, especially the previous chapter, because most of the class struggled with it.

     To start off on Monday, we started with a Nail Lab. This lab topk place over the course of 3 days, where we had to take observations on both days. The first day, we were asked to place a nail inside of a beaker filled with chloride dihydrate and distilled water. As the nail was placed inside the beaker, you could see the copper slowly start to form on the ends of the nails. Bubbles were being produced as well. We then let it rest for a while and came back to take a final look for the day. The same thing could be seen again. The next day, we took the beakers out of the oven and found that the nails were fully covered in copper! We were then asked to rise the copper off the nail and seperate the copper from the nail. We then massed the dry nails and then discarded them. We replaced the beaker filled with copper (no liquid was left in the beaker), back in the oven and then waited for day 3. When we came  in on Wednesday we took the beakers out of the oven and massed the beaker with the dry copper. The purpose was to determine the ratio of moles of copper to the moles of iron, where we found the raio to be 1:1.

     In between the lab, we were asked to do worksheets related to balancing chemical reactions and we also did a special assignment on Wednesday. Considering most of the classes test scores were below average, Dr. J gave one day in class to work on what is called a Taskchain. They are mini quizes that allowed us to get a better understanding on the material by forcing us to get at least a 85% or better. We are allowed to retake the test next week, so this the perfect opportunity to really understand what the unit was about, especially with finals around the corner. We also finished the week with a chemical reactions lab, where we were asked to go around each table and produce a chemical reaction with the instructions given to us. We were then asked to take notes on the reaction and balance the equations on the back of the worksheet. We finished Friday by going over the reactions as a class, as especially reviewed the wording of chemical reactions.

     So with all this going on, this weekend will be quite busy with studying and taskchains. As we push towards out last week, I am excited to start reviewing for our final and to put everything we've learned at work. I feel confident with the strategies Dr. J taught us for balancing chemical equations, and now I just need to redeem myself on that last test, and go into the final with a strong mindset.