Finishing the Separation

Class on Friday started off as it normally would. Everyone took their seats and the substitute teacher who was filling in for Mr. Lieberman (who is in Florida) told us to start Part B of our separation lab. She also told us to remember to always wear our goggles. Preparation for Part B of the lab required us to make a procedure to separate salt, sand, and iron from a mixture of the three. Our lab group compared our procedures and then got to work on the separation aspect. The first thing we did was find out the mass of the entire mixture which was in a small test tube (4.2 grams). We did this so we could calculate the mass percent of each substance. At first we knew that the only way to extract the iron from the mixture was to use the magnet, so we held the magnet, which was enclosed in a plastic bag, over the mixture and all the iron flew up and stuck to the magnet. After all the iron was stuck to the magnet we put it in a little plastic cup and weighed it in order to find out it's mass (2.36 grams).

After setting the iron filings aside we then added the two remaining substances, salt and sand, to water and began a filtration process.Because the salt dissolved in the water and the sand just sunk to the bottom of the beaker, we knew that the salt and water would pass through and become the filtrate and the sand wouldn't pass through and would be left behind. After all the salt-water passed through, the wet sand was scattered across the piece of paper that was over

the funnel. We took the paper off of the funnel and put it on a hot plate to dry. When the sand was dry we brushed it off the paper and into a plastic cup and weighed it (0.86 grams). You may be able to read the mass in the picture, which says 1.46 grams. This is because it is calculating the mass of the sand and the plastic cup, so to fix this we weighed the cup, which has a mass of 0.6 grams. We then had to subtract this number from every number the scale recorded.

After the sand was removed we were left with the salt-water, and we had two ways of figuring out the mass of the salt. We knew that if we boiled the water, it would evaporate and the salt would be left in the beaker. Also, because we knew the mass of all three substances together, and we knew the mass of two individual substances, then by default to find the third we could subtract the mass of two of them from the mass of all of them. We did this calculation and found out that the mass of the salt was 1.08 grams.

After the lab everyone helped clean up the lab stations and then started writing a table for the mass and mass percent of each substance, and then finished up the post-lab questions. Overall I think that the lab taught us that separating substances isn't as hard as it sounds, and can be quite educational as well. The homework for the long weekend is to finish up the Separating Mixtures lab and to answer the pre-lab questions for the What Chemical Reaction Lab.

Finally the next scribe is...... (Ethan S). Thanks for reading my scribe post. Josh out!

Fe! Fi! Fo! Fum! (And NaCl and SiO2!)

So today, the class began a new lab. In this lab, we had to observe three different mixtures; sand, salt, and iron. Some things we observed were if they were soluble in water, if they were magnetic or not, and other various physical properties. While observing, we made sure to all wear our goggles, because even though things like salt and sand may seem harmless, they still could accidentally get in our eyes and damage them! So, with all the correct safety gear in place, we observed closely, as our brains got to work.

Part A had us mix the sand, salt and iron in about 10mL of water. After doing so, we observed that the salt had dissolved into the water, but the sand and iron filings had not. So, we then used a filter in a funnel to separate the salt water from the sand and filings.

After doing so, we placed the wet filter paper on a hot plate with the wet sand and iron, which was supposed to dry out any excess water left on the sand. That was about the farthest anyone got before it was time to clean up and the bell rang, signaling the end of the class.

When we were dismissed from class, our homework for tonight was to come up with a group procedure for Part B of the lab. The procedure is a way to separate salt, sand, and iron filings. When we come into class tomorrow, we will receive a small tube that has an uneven amount (heterogeneous!) of those three things. I won't talk too much about tomorrow though, because I don't want to steal the next scribe's material.

Which leads me to the next topic that I know we've all been waiting for; tomorrow's scribe!!! Yay! The scribe for tomorrow (technically the weekend) will be none other than Joshua D.!

That'll be all the news from today's Chemistry class. Thanks for reading. You stay classy, Period 6. I'm Aaron G.

All Powerful Atoms

Representing Matter

View more presentations from gbsliebs2002.

Today in Mr. Lieberman class we started off the day with a quick congrats to Emilio on his post, and also talked about how to upload photos onto the blog. During the beginning of class a few students mentioned they forgot to do the ChemThink assignment Particulate Nature of Matter assigned the night before. So, Mr. Lieberman said if you could finish it before it was graded it would count as a full grade, so hurry to do it before he checks. Lastly, Mr. Lieberman collected all of the classes "Observation Labs". If you missed today’s class expect to turn it into to him tomorrow. Mr. Lieberman also notified us that our Web assign homework and safety tests were graded, and you can log on to see your grade. Next, we proceeded to take notes on our first unit. These notes included the fundamental unit of Chemistry the Atom. Also, in the notes we went over elements, molecules, and compounds for example Splenda or, Sweet and

Low. First of all an element is the simplest of pure substacnes. Which, brings us to what a pure substance is. A pure substance is a substance made out of all the same elements or compounds or mixtures. For example gold. Also, a pure substance cannot be seperated into smaller substances. We also learned about compunds. Compounds are a molecule that has two different kinds of atoms in it like oxygen and hydrogen. Next, we learned about mixtures which, are compnents that retain their own identity, and can be seperated physcially. Mr. Lieberman taught us an acronim to learn the 7 different diatomic elements (diatomic means two atoms,) HONClBrIF. This stands for Hydrogen, Oxygen, Nitrogen, Chlorine, Bromine, Iodine, and Flourine.

We also learned about pure substances, classification, mixtures, Homogenous mixtures, and Heterogeneous mixtures. During the notes Mr. Lieberman told us a few fun facts for instance we learned that lead's Latin name is plumbum. So, plumbers got their name when they worked in Rome on the aqueducts, which used lead. The class notes are represented above this blog post.

After this we began our Paper Clip Activity. In this activity we had to use colored,

small, and jumbo paperclips to compose atoms. We were given a partner to complete all of the atom molecule combination problems, and then Mr. Lieberman had checked off our your creations. There are five sample questions to complete for homework tonight.

Finally, Mr. Lieberman assigned us a Pre-Lab for tomorrow’s lab "Separating Mixtures". Make sure you get that done for tonight’s homework. The next scribe shall be Aaron G

Finishing up the Lab

The class today was in a fairly good mood when Mr. Lieberman started us off by congratulating Kathryn on her wonderful scribe post and notified me about mine. We continued to talk about the blog and functions such as the photo issue that is now resolved, and immediately after, went to finish the "Observation Lab."

We were told to complete part B of the experiment by creating our own experiments to discover what reagents, when mixed together, caused certain reactions. Of course, we were told to record all observations in our handy "Scientific Lab Notebooks." My lab group, and most other lab groups, executed a total of five experiments and for some, more than that. It was fairly easy work, and the results were astonishing. For example, when the four reagents, sodium bicarbonate, calsium chloride, water, and phenol red, were combined in the plastic bag, we came up with an opaque, yellow, fizzy liquid (shown in the picture). Very interesting stuff. Aside from the two glass beakers shattering on the floor, all went well.

The class, at their own desks, took up netbooks and registered themselves to ChemThink, in order to complete the assignment Mr. Lieberman assigned.

Homework: ChemThink and worksheet "Particulate Nature of Matter," and the eight Post Lab Questions.

Pretty easy day, it was very relaxed and enjoyable. Who knew Mr. Lieberman was into Weezer?

The next Student Scribe is Brandon L.

Photos

The easiest way that I have found to post photos to the blog from flickr is this:
1. go to my flickr photostream and click on the photo that you want to place in the blog.
2. Above the photo is an actions tab: click the actions tab and select view all sizes.
3. Choose the size photo that you want...I usually choose small. Right click on the image and select save as...
4. Save the image to your desktop.
5. In Blogger, click on the insert image and upload the image to the blog.
Let me know if you have any problems with this

Observing Monday

The very beginning of today's class began with at least 5 students informing Mr. Lieberman that the bookstore was once again out of Chemistry notebooks. Then, we spent the first ten minutes reviewing how to use this Blogger website, mostly for my benefit. Mr. Lieberman showed us exactly how to create a post and how to accept his e-mail invitation to become an author on the blog. He also clarified that if you are assigned to scribe on a Friday night, you must have it completed by Sunday evening and showed us the link to his YouTube channel, where demos would be available on video.

Next, we went over our pre-lab questions for the Observation Lab that we had been assigned over the weekend. We were told again that we MUST where our goggles in the lab at all time, because as John put it, substances might contaminate our "ocular cavity". Oh, and bias is not a part of the scientific method. Science is based on straight facts, not on your own personal opinion.

We then moved on to the art of creating a data table. Mr. Lieberman drew an example for us, and then showed us the lab set up in the back of the classroom.

We broke up into our lab groups, donning our fashionable green goggles from the GBS bookstore. Following the lab procedure, we mixed calcium chloride (snow salt), sodium bicarbonate (baking soda), and phenol red in a plastic baggies. The reaction took place and we discovered that the phenol red had actually turned red (instead of the orange color it was originally) and that most of the sodium bicarbonate and calcium chloride had dissolved. We recorded our observations in the data table we had created earlier.

Next, we began to design our own experiments to figure out why this reaction took place, mixing the difference substances (plus water) together in their own separate baggies to see which individual reactions stood out.

Unfortunately, we did not get much time to finish the second part of our lab. The bell rang, and all the kids in six period Honors Chemistry rushed out the door, goggle marks lining their eyes.

In good news, the 2010 JV Girls' Volleyball Team beat York in the first game of the season! Woohoo!!

See you tomorrow in class! The Observation Lab is due Wednesday. Go Titans!

The next student scribe is...Emilio!

P.S. The pictures aren't loading on my computer, so I'm sorry this is not very exciting. I'll try on a computer at school!