Friday, September 29, 2006
Friday Recap
Today was Day 1 which means extra help is available before school from about 7:30 till the first period bell (same deal on Day 4). Total customers: 2 (kudos to them!).
Very few Regents students have come to extra help before or after school to review their first test. That is a bad sign and I hope that there will be a change before the next test. When the test results are very good, I don't expect many students at extra help but, when the results are poor, there should be standing room only, SRO, in 229...
AP: we finished the gas laws although, on Monday, I will elaborate a bit more on our buddy Avogadro. We then twisted the ideal gas law into molar mass form and density form; then, we finished with some gas stoichiometry. Very nice and, yes, I now will grade your last exam. Monday, we will do a small segment during class called, "AP Question 4". I will give you eight sets of reactants and you will predict the products and write the net ionic equation for the reaction. Big fun. By May, you will be absolute WIZARDS at predicting chem reactions a.k.a. descriptive chemistry. You will amaze you (haha).
D and G Honors: We finished up Dalton's Four Postulates by drawing them out and discussing them. We then discussed Dalton's Laws of Constant Composition and his Law of Multiple Proportions which he discovered via his work with gaseous compounds (which was inspired by his fascination with weather; go figure).
On Monday, we will discuss the basis of the atomic mass scale and the "mole", which is just a name for a particular number just as "dozen" means 12. Then we will go to the fascinating Thomson Model of the Atom and then the later Rutherford Model of the atom...there WILL be video. I will discuss the last test with both classes on Monday, also...make sure that you heed my advice for the next exam. These aren't suggestions.
E: Regents- we did yet another percent abundance problem but this time we did the example with decimal notation which you might prefer (or not). The answers to some of the worksheet problems are in decimal form for percent abundance.
We then discussed and drew Dalton's Postulates of Matter. For lab, we went through the scientific standard for recording data: you MUST record data to one MORE decimal place than is marked on the instrument. For example, our pan-balance scales have physical marks to the hundredth of a gram so ANY measurement of mass with those scales must be recorded to the THOUSANDTH of a gram...EVEN IF the cursor is DIRECTLY (according to your reading at eye level) on a line/mark on the scale. So, if you see the cursor at "EXACTLY" ten grams on our scales, you must record that
as 10.000 grams.
We also discussed the ALL-IMPORTANT "accuracy"=truth versus
"precision"=detail/number of decimal places in a measurement. Accuracy and precision do not necessarily have ANYTHING to do with each other. Of course, at best, we like accurate AND precise measurements but, in science, accuracy usually is more valuable.
Lastly, we went over lab safety devices and locations; bring the lab safety agreement in your lab folder on the next DAY 1.
Very few Regents students have come to extra help before or after school to review their first test. That is a bad sign and I hope that there will be a change before the next test. When the test results are very good, I don't expect many students at extra help but, when the results are poor, there should be standing room only, SRO, in 229...
AP: we finished the gas laws although, on Monday, I will elaborate a bit more on our buddy Avogadro. We then twisted the ideal gas law into molar mass form and density form; then, we finished with some gas stoichiometry. Very nice and, yes, I now will grade your last exam. Monday, we will do a small segment during class called, "AP Question 4". I will give you eight sets of reactants and you will predict the products and write the net ionic equation for the reaction. Big fun. By May, you will be absolute WIZARDS at predicting chem reactions a.k.a. descriptive chemistry. You will amaze you (haha).
D and G Honors: We finished up Dalton's Four Postulates by drawing them out and discussing them. We then discussed Dalton's Laws of Constant Composition and his Law of Multiple Proportions which he discovered via his work with gaseous compounds (which was inspired by his fascination with weather; go figure).
On Monday, we will discuss the basis of the atomic mass scale and the "mole", which is just a name for a particular number just as "dozen" means 12. Then we will go to the fascinating Thomson Model of the Atom and then the later Rutherford Model of the atom...there WILL be video. I will discuss the last test with both classes on Monday, also...make sure that you heed my advice for the next exam. These aren't suggestions.
E: Regents- we did yet another percent abundance problem but this time we did the example with decimal notation which you might prefer (or not). The answers to some of the worksheet problems are in decimal form for percent abundance.
We then discussed and drew Dalton's Postulates of Matter. For lab, we went through the scientific standard for recording data: you MUST record data to one MORE decimal place than is marked on the instrument. For example, our pan-balance scales have physical marks to the hundredth of a gram so ANY measurement of mass with those scales must be recorded to the THOUSANDTH of a gram...EVEN IF the cursor is DIRECTLY (according to your reading at eye level) on a line/mark on the scale. So, if you see the cursor at "EXACTLY" ten grams on our scales, you must record that
as 10.000 grams.
We also discussed the ALL-IMPORTANT "accuracy"=truth versus
"precision"=detail/number of decimal places in a measurement. Accuracy and precision do not necessarily have ANYTHING to do with each other. Of course, at best, we like accurate AND precise measurements but, in science, accuracy usually is more valuable.
Lastly, we went over lab safety devices and locations; bring the lab safety agreement in your lab folder on the next DAY 1.
# posted by C @ 5:39 PM 
