Friday, August 27

The focus of Friday's class period was chemical safety. We went over the Student Safety Contract in our Survival Packet and discussed a variety of safety-related issues.

Mr. H talked about the need for safety-consciousness when working around flames. One hazard involves working with volatile and flammable substances when there are flames at the same lab table. A volatile liquid is a liquid which vaporizes quite easily. A flammable substance is one which catches on fire when exposed to a flame. Mr. H did a demonstration to illustrate the need for caution. He had a flask of hexane - a volatile and flammable liquid. He shook the flask to more fully saturate the air in the flask with the vapors of the volatile liquid. He then pulled the stopper off the flask and tipped it slowly over a long metal incline. Being heavier than air, the vapors of hexane fell down  the ramp towards a lit tea-light at the bottom of the ramp. Upon reaching the tea-light, the vapors immediately caught on fire. The flames traveled up the ramp following the vapors towards the flask. Mr. H quickly pulled the flask of liquid hexane away to keep it from igniting. The demonstration underscored the importance of paying attention to what is happening when working around flames.

There are other hazards of working around flames. Most importantly long hair and loose clothing can catch on fire. Mr. H showed us the location of the fire blanket and the safety shower in the classroom. A fire extinguisher is also in the room; it is to be opertated only by Mr. H.

Mr H re-emphasized the importance of goggles with a demonstration.  He showed us a stryofoam mannequin which had been repeatedly squirted with acetone (see picture at left). He then took an acetone bottle and squirted the mannequin on the side of the neck. The acetone carved out a 2-inch wide channel in the mannequin upon contact (see picture at right).

Mr. H also discussed the use of the eye wash. The eye wash is used if you experience a chemical splash or burn in your eye. You should wash your eye for about 15 minutes if you encounter such an accident. Use your fingers to hold your eye open while washing thoroughly with water. If you have contacts in (which isn't a wise idea), first rinse a couple of minutes and then remove them.

Mr. H did a demonstration of how to smell a chemical substance. When smelling a chemical substance, you should NOT close a nostril and snort the vapors into the open nostril. This is a very bad idea and is almost certain to lead to a headache by the end of the period. The proper way of smelling a chemical substance involves wafting it towards your nose. Often times we will use a fume hood when working with abnormally noxious substances. The fume hood is in the back of the room.

We watched a safety video which described and explained a variety of hazards of working with chemicals and in a chemical lab. Precautions were discussed and clearly portrayed.

Finally, we were given some time to put our names on our goggles and place them in the Period 3 drawers. And we were given some time to read the Student Safety Contract.

The period ended with Mr. H giving us a handout and discussing the idea of our class blog. The class blog is a collective endeavor of the students in our class to chronicle our journey through chemistry. The blog will become our book, written by us and for us. If we do a good job, it will become a personalized version of our textbook. We will be able to use it as a study tool and a reference tool. Concepts will be explained, principles will be discussed and the mathematics will be demonstrated. As we prepare for our quizzes and tests, we can reference the blog as a study tool.

Each day, a different student will be assigned the task of being the scribe. The scribe is responsible for putting together the blog post for that day. The scribe must do all the writing and place the blog as a post in Blogger. Any variety of items can be included in the post. Examples include scans of completed packet pages, photos taken with our camera phone or camera, video from a Flip video recorder or camera phone or camera, YouTube videos watched in class, links to useful websites, references to textbook pages, etc. The main idea that each scribe must keep in mind is that it is their responsibility to completely and fully document that day of our journey through chemistry. When we all do our best, we will be able to produce a product that we can be proud of and will want to use.

Wednesday, August 25

Today was the first day of Honors Chemistry class with Mr. Henderson. Class time included seating assignments, introductions, the reading of school policy statements, a short lesson on the nature of science, and a short lab (Lab MM1 - Observations Lab).

Mr. Henderson (whom we are allowed to call Mr. H) began class with seating assignments and attendance taking. He read two school policy statements (Academic Honesty and Alcohol/Drugs/Hazing) and then did an intriguing demo. Mr. H sprayed a sheet of white paper with Windex and the invisible message "Welcome to Chemistry" became visible in pink. After a little time, the message disappeared and became invisible once more. Nobody really knew how it worked and Mr. H didn't discuss it, so it must not be that important. But it was fascinating - something you don't see everyday.

Mr. H then talked introduced himself and the course. We had received two packets - The Honors Chemistry Survival Packet and the Unit 1 Packet - and a Course Notebook (composition book). Mr H did a quick review of the Survival Packet. He assigned it as a reading assignment and he requested that we come prepared to ask questions regarding its contents. He suggested that we tape pages 5-6 of the Survival Packet into the front of our course notebook. He also suggested that we tape pp. 7-8 (list of abbreviations) into the back of our course notebook. Mr. H then acquainted us with the Unit 1 Packet. He explained how its purpose was for our use in class to get us thinking about, learning and practicing chemistry. He pointed out the section of Reading Sheets and the Lab Description pages at the end of the packet.  Mr. H said that we could leave our textbook at home or wherever we plan to do our homework. And he said that we should bring a writing utensil, the Unit 1 Packet, a calculator and the course notebook to class everyday. 

After the logistical part of the class was completed, Mr. H discussed the topic of science. He told a story of how scientists (paleontologists, biomechanists, and computer scientists) figured out the running speed of the T-Rex (18 mi/hr). The point of the story seemed to be three-fold:

1. Science has a unique answer to the question "How do we know what we know?"
2. Science is concerned with the question "To what extent are we sure of what we know?
3. And science is different than our other subjects in the manner in which knowledge is acquired and accepted.

Mr. H said that "Science class is different than your other subjects because the room is bigger." Pause. He explained that the room doesn't end after the last row of students. The room continues to include the laboratory where the answers to questions can be found.  He said he wasn't sure if it was more correct to say that "The science room is bigger than your other subjects because science is different" or to say "Science class is different than your other subjects because the room is bigger." Either way, Mr. H made it clear that the laboratory plays a vital role in our learning in science class.

Mr. H wrote on the whiteboard, explaining that science follows a pattern. The process of science begins with a question. An experiment to answer the question is designed. Data and observations are collected and an answer to the original question is developed. Mr. H said that in the laboratory, the question is the Purpose of the lab and the answer is the Conclusion to the lab. The data and observations address the big questions of "How do we know what we know?" and "To what extent are we sure of what we know?" Mr. H emphasized that science is different than other subjects because the answers to questions are not found in the textbook, but in the back of the room.  Those answers may have found their way into our textbooks, but before they did someone found the answer in the back of the room.

The period ended with a short lab experience. Mr. H showed us how to use our lab notebooks; he emphasized that the right side of each open page is for labs; the left side is for class notes, reading notes, etc. We did Lab MM1 - Observation vs. Inference. Mr. H blew strange looking soap bubbles into the air and asked us to record observations and to make inferences. After several minutes of this, we discussed the difference between an observation and an inference. Several examples were given of each. We finished by writing a Conclusion.

In the last minute of class, Mr. H showed us how to view a short (3-minute) instructional video about logging into WebAssign. The second part of our homework assignment involved logging into WebAssign, changing our password and taking a short survey.