Mole day and more!

This week was awesome! If you didn't know already it was mole day last Thursday. A mole is a unit of measurement 6.02x10^23. We celebrate mole day on October 23rd.

On Monday I learned about the Lewis dot structure. The Lewis dot structure helps give a visual of how many valence electrons each element has. You can determine how many valence electrons each element has by its group number. Also, valence electrons are the most reactive.

On Tuesday and Wednesday we worked on our mole day t-shirts. While we worked on them we made sure to tell plenty of mole day jokes. "What is a mole's favorite soda?" Coca-Cola!

On Thursday it was the highly anticipated mole day. We got to wear out t-shirts that we decorated. We took lots of selfies and pictures. WECT news visited our school to report on our activities and captured our human/teacher whack-a-mole. We got a chance to play the game for $1, and the money raised went toward our Science Olympiad. It obviously wouldn't be mole day without the pledge and ten commandments. Mole day was also the first time I ever tried guacamole. I tried it because it was one of the mole day ten commandments.

On Friday we cleaned out our oh so heavy binders. We also worked on our study guide in class. I like when we work on our study guide in class because I can ask questions when I need to. One thing I definitely need to improve on is making sure I don't put things in the wrong tab. I realized this when I cleaned out my binder on Friday.
The week ended with the Halloween dance on Friday night. I went dressed as baby North West. It was a fun week but I am exhausted.

The following link is to the National mole day foundation  http://www.moleday.org/

Every thing you ever wanted to know about atoms

This week we learned a lot about atoms. On Monday we made a replica of an atom out of fruit loops and paper plates. The most challenging part about this was finding the amount of protons, neutrons and electrons contained in my element Oxygen. This activity helped me learn how to calculate the number of protons, neutrons and electrons in each element. We also watched a video that showed an experiment that helped scientists find out that the atoms were not hollow. I thought this experiment was cool and left me wondering how they were so smart to construct such a complex experiment that could determine atoms weren't hollow but that they contained a nucleus in side.

On Tuesday we played with fire. OK, not literally but we did do a pretty cool experiment using it. In the test we did a series of flame tests to determine the color each element would give off when we burned it. The color of the light depends on its energy level of the element. This experiment surprised me because before this lab I thought all fire was the same and couldn't change colors. If you don't believe that fire can change colors  click on the link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvLP1R9mUqM
I thought is was cool when the elements were on fire and it would change the color when you looked through a piece of cobalt glass. When burned, sodium is usually orange but when looked at through the cobalt glass is turns a white color.

On Wednesday, we finished burning the chemicals. This time we had two mystery chemicals that we didn't know what they were. We had to determine that by looking at the colors each one gave off. I thought this was cool and found it a little bit challenging. We also retested any chemicals that were not the color they were supposed to be. If you try this experiment, you will need to use distilled water because later we found that the impurities in the tap water affects the color it gives off.
On Thursday we had our quiz. I thought the quiz was hard. I mixed up atomic mass with atomic number. One way I can improve is associate the words with things I know like neutron and neutral.
On Friday we went over our quiz. When we go over our quizzes it helps me improve on the tests.

For Science Olympiad, I also met with my team member's coach and my coach last week and we discussed how to hold the maximum capacity with the least weight for our bridge. I have some ideas about how to do this. We met for one hour.

Atoms, Protons, Neutrons and Electrons

Why can't you trust an atom? They make up everything. This week we learned all about atoms. We also had a test this week. This week I decided to improve my studying habits a little bit by using the techbook study  assessment. This really helped me on the test. While taking the test it was a lot easier because I remembered all the questions from the techbook. This week we also learned about protons, electrons,and neutrons and the people who found out they existed. James Chadwick discovered that neutrons are inside the nucleus. Neutrons give off a neutral charge. However protons give off a positive charge and electrons give off a negative charge. Electrons orbit the nucleus like someone juggling balls.

John Dalton was the first person that discovered atoms. However most of his theories aren't relevant today I think it is still cool that he was the first person to discover atoms especially because they are so small. In fact the number of atoms in an orange would be like if the whole word was filled with blueberries. I think I can improve on remembering to print out my notes because I always forget. I learned that atoms are small but their nucleus is even smaller. A cool link describing how atoms work is attached. http://science.howstuffworks.com/atom.htm

Two Guys, Charles and Boyle

This week was consumed by two guys Charles and Boyle. Well not them, but their very important laws. Apparently they are like the super heroes of volume, temperature, and pressure. I guess Avogadro is also a super hero too. He is not the hero of avocados but numbers.

To start out the week to help us learn about state change we did a lab where we recorded data every 30 seconds on how fast water changed state. This lab was like watching paint dry because we had to stir water for 20 minutes. This week also I learned about Charles' and Boyle's law. To show us examples and help us apply our knowledge we did a bunch of experiments sort of like last week. In these experiments we had to determine whether they exhibited Boyle's law or Charles' law. A way that we could determine whether it was Boyle's or Charles' is if it had something to do with pressure  and volume for Boyle's law or  temperature and volume for Charles' law.

My favorite experiment we did was with the marshmallows. We placed a marshmallow in a syringe and then pumped out all the air. After that without letting any escape we put our  finger on the hole on the front. Then pulled back the handle. The marshmallow grew bigger and bigger and when you took your finger off the hole the marshmallow shriveled up. This is an example of Boyle's law because it involves pressure and volume.

This week I think I need to improve on remembering to get things done, like science olympiad papers signed, because I almost forgot this week. I learned a lot about Charles and Boyle's law. Is it just me or is everyone else super excited about science olympiad? Can't wait!
http://www.education.com/reference/article/boyle-gas-law/

Some new stuff and some old stuff

This week was full of chemical and physical changes. To help us understand more what physical and chemical change is we did a lab a to help us. During this lab we did a series of experiments and we had to determine if they were chemical changes or physical changes. My favorite experiment we did in this lab was the milk and red bull experiment. I liked this experiment because the chemical reaction resulted in a precipitate. In this case a precipitate would be a solid that comes out of a chemical reaction. The milk curdled in the experiment because of the acid in the red bull.

This week I also learned about and took notes on the different types of energy. Do you know the difference between kinetic energy and potential energy? Kinetic energy is the energy of motion but potential energy is stored energy.

This week we also had  a quiz. This was technically our first real quiz because our last quiz was just generic science stuff. I thought this was quiz was pretty easy but I had some trouble with the vocab. I can definitely improve on my studying by thoroughly studying the vocab.

This week we reviewed chemical and physical changes and learned about the different types of energy. I thought this week was fun even though we had a quiz. Since we were doing so many experiments I thought this link was relevant.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfqmzHXmTMY

just for laughs

red bull and milk station

Kanuga Week

Interesting week this was! Instead of having a regular Monday we had to get on a bus at 4:30 IN THE MORNING to get to Kanuga. After that we rode for six hours to get to Kanuga. The bus ride to and back from Kanuga was probably the worst part of the trip because it was so long. When we finally got to Kanuga we ate lunch. Just like any camp food there is always something everyone eats all of. In this case it was the tater tots. After lunch we took a hike. Walking up hill for two hours isn't exactly fun for some people. On the hike I had a visitor crawl in-between my feet. A SNAKE!!! It was a small harmless snake but a snake is still a snake. My favorite part of the hike is when we all got to lay down on a rock for ten minutes. Later that night we went to learn about the animals  of the Appalachian wilderness. My favorite animal the guy showed us was the ground hog. After he showed us the animal we got to touch some of them. I touched a snake for the first time and I also touched the ground hog.


On Tuesday we all had to get up early so we could go white water rafting. I had never been rafting before so it was a real challenge. We had Ben and Kenaniah  in our group so we all had to listen to howling and banging all the way down the river. My favorite part about rafting was that we got to jump of a cliff into the water. Even Mrs. Upton jumped. Halfway down the river we stopped so we could take the rafters pictures. Our instructor Tim tied us on the rocks and another raft hit us and knocked Mary out of the boat. Mary didn't fall that far away from the boat so we easily pulled her back in. Tuesday night we had our campfire inside because the campfire area was wet from the rain. We had to create a commercial  for a random object.Our group did Pokemon balls for unicorns. After that we tricked a whole bunch of people to think that they were auditioning for a new movie but really they were just acting and the things that they were doing was all taking place on a toilet. After that we played a game where we had to come up with as many songs as we could with the word baby in it. Our team loss because we couldn't think of any more songs. Then Mr. Simon sang and we had ice cream sandwiches instead of s'mores.


On Wednesday our group went to the climbing wall. The climbing wall was fun and I cant believe I made it up to the top. I was so tired afterwards I just fell asleep on the bus. I had a great time at Kanuga and look forward to next year. We returned to Wilmington around 8pm on Wednesday night. I was exhausted!


On Thursday we worked on our blogs and thankfully Friday was a teacher workday and I was able to sleep in. Thank goodness for a long weekend! I learned that when white water rafting, if you fall out of the boat to keep your nose and toes out of the water. I can definitely improve on being in better physical shape next year so I don't pass out from hiking!


 Advice I wish I had on the bus http://www.wikihow.com/Enjoy-Yourself-on-a-Long-Bus-Ride

mountain ecology

white water rafting

Cram Week

This week has been super fun even though we had a test, which really wasn't that bad, it was just really long. Aside from our regular schedule, all the teachers had to cram every possible test and quiz in this week because  we are going to Kanuga next week and have a teacher workday on Friday!


On Monday to review scientific notation, Mrs.G put review cards all over the room for us to convert. She hid them really well to the point where I couldn't find them. This activity helped me better understand scientific notation which helped me a lot on the quiz. On Tuesday we played grudge ball to help review. After the game everyone held a grudge against each other (hence the name). Grudge ball helped me review the vocab. It helped me learn how to use the conversion formulas.


Oh the dreaded test on Wednesday!! Actually the test wasn't that bad, it was just really long and had many time consuming conversions with dimensional analysis. We had to convert a billion seconds into years for crying out loud! On Thursday, as with every test or quiz we reviewed it. After that we started on a new lab on Friday. This lab is going to help us understand physical change and chemical change through a series of small experiments with vinegar and baking soda, and potato and iodine.


I need to improve on checking the what you need to bring to class wall before I get to class because most of the time I'm just guessing what I need for class. I had a great week this week and can't wait until Kanuga. I was so excited that I thought you should at least get a taste of Kanuga at ......


http://www.kanuga.org/camps-and-outdoor-education/camp-kanuga/

Vinegar and baking soda experiment  

Potato and iodine experiment

Dimensional analysis practice