Category Archives: Chemistry

Chemistry

Matter, Atomic Structure, and Bonding: Lab Equipment and Safety

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Daily Objectives:

  • What: Learn about the tools chemists use
  • How: 1. Locate classroom safety equipment and 2. Identify common chemistry equipment
  • Why: Pirates practice safe science

Continuing on Friday’s theme of lab safety, we began class with the Lesson 1 worksheet and students worked through Part 1 as the entry task.  During that time, I took attendance and used the seating chart feature of Illuminate to create a seating chart for the purpose of quickly learning student names.  Next, students watched a quick video showing how to properly use a fire extinguisher:

We then participated in the first day of PBIS lessons (Pirate Hooks!) before launching in to Part 2 of the worksheet.  The instructions were modified to fit the realities of our classroom.  Because we have storage rooms for equipment and supplies, all of the items in lists A-H were pre-scavenged and arranged in stations around the classroom.  Working in groups of four students, groups rotated through four of the eight stations.  One student was tasked with taking pictures of each piece of equipment, and each of the four students in the group was responsible for reading the description card and summarizing it for one of the four pieces of equipment at a station.  The group will then work together to collate all of the pictures and descriptions into a PowerPoint (or similar) presentation which they must then email me by Friday for credit.  At the end of class, students received their textbook to take home and were instructed to cover it as part of their homework.

Tomorrow we will continue the PBIS lesson (the Pirate Way at assemblies, sporting events, and the library) and we will complete the Lesson 1 classroom activity.

Homework:

  1. Cover textbook (a paper bag cut and taped around the cover works great!)
  2. Read chapter 1 (pages 1-5)
  3. Complete the questions on page 5 (#1-8, due Thursday)
  4. Complete the PowerPoint as a group (email to me by Friday)
    1. Include the initials of the student who wrote the summary for each piece of equipment
    2. When emailing the PowerPoint, include the first and last names of each group member as text in the body of the email.
  5. Turn in a signed copy of the class syllabus and safety contract
  6. Turn in the student questionnaire
Chemistry

Matter, Atomic Structure, and Bonding: Critter Diagram

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Welcome back, Pirates!  It was nice to meet so many new people today.  With 20 minute periods, our accomplishments were limited to taking attendance, handing out the course syllabus, previewing the class website, and creating a critter diagram.  The critter diagram helps students share a bit about themselves with me and also introduces them to a technique for organizing information. Tomorrow we will learn about lab safety in the classroom.

Chemistry, Energy, Matter, Organization

Energy, Matter, and Organization: Chemistry!

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As we continue through our unit on energy, matter, and organization, we will deploy our new molecular modeling kits.  The kits, provided courtesy of our Donors Choose grant, will enable students to gain experience modeling molecules in three dimensions.  In a previous lesson, students modeled cellular respiration using two-dimensional paper molecules of glucose and oxygen (which they converted to carbon dioxide and water using scissors and tape).  We will be using our molecular modeling kits to model the process of photosynthesis, with various learning opportunities available to help explain the baggie garden results.  Time permitting, we will also use the kits to model how glucose models can link together to form more complicated molecules like starch and cellulose.  Students will have opportunities to model amino acids and nucleic acids as in future units.

Want to learn more about the exciting field of chemistry?  Visit Theodore Gray’s Periodic Table website (look familiar?) to learn about all of the known elements.  Then check out “Hunting the Elements” and skip ahead to 31:58 where the host introduces the concept of proton number as the definition of what makes elements unique.  For the next 15 minutes or so, the host meets up with Theodore Gray – for extra credit, write up a summary of what you learn from this segment!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JfOcnG6Yhw