Conservation of Matter

On Monday we worked on our "meet the elements" project. We began researching facts about the element. My element was chlorine. One interesting fact I found in my research is that chlorine was named after the Greek word chloros which means pale green. During the research I found out many facts I didn't  know already. I didn't realize how much the element chlorine is used in our daily lives. In fact the human body couldn't function without chlorine because it is in the compound sodium chloride which is vital to human life.

On Tuesday we started a new lab. This lab taught us about conservation of matter. We did the first procedure, and our group's results were not what they should have been. The starting weight before the chemical reaction occurred was 6 grams but after it was 4 grams. According to the law of conservation of mass which states that mass stays the same throughout chemical changes, we must have spilled some liquid while pouring the liquids. This activity not only explained the law of conservation of mass better it showed me why it is so important to be careful while pouring and carrying out the lab procedures especially with chemicals. This is definitely one area in which I can improve.

On Wednesday we finished the experiments. For the first experiment we weighed the two beakers separately before combining them. After the chemical reaction occurred we weighed the beakers again and as the law of conservation of mass states the mass did not change. We did an experiment but this time to show that the mass still stays the same even when a gas  is let off. We put water into a bottle and weighed it, then added an alka seltzer tablet and sealed the bottle. The alka seltzer produced a gas, then after the chemical change we weighed it again. It remained the same proving the law correct.

On Thursday we painted our boxes for our "meet the elements" project. We painted the boxes according to the color on the periodic table. Each group had their own color. My element was Chlorine so I painted my box bright blue.Some people had problems with their paint color and had to switch colors many times. We also reviewed notes. We went over transition metals. The interesting thing I learned about transition metals is that they are very diverse and they have many different properties. We also went over Lanthanides and Actinides. Before reviewing them I didn't really know what they were. I learned that most of them are man made and radio active. Lanthanides are more natural and the Actinides are more man made.

On Friday we finished taking notes. We learned a lot more about how the periodic table is organized. We learned that the levels of re-activity vary depending on if the element is left or right. This week has been super fun and I hope that next week is way more fun. Just in case you wanted to know more about the element chlorine. http://education.jlab.org/itselemental/ele017.html