Ready to win a million? Is it a mixture, element or compound?

Can you classify matter?

Test your general chemistry knowledge.

Do you know your elements? Try this game — matching 40 different elements to their symbols.

Let’s try one a little harder — common chemical names.

One last game — this one on atomic structure.

Use this link to play a game and test your understanding.

Be sure you are studying for your test on Friday and complete your poster project due 4/11.

Now we have begun our study of chemistry. A little introduction last week with a video and a fun Hershey Kiss lab today. Remember the lab write-up is due Thursday. Tomorrow we’ll take a closer look at atoms and the periodic table.

Grade reports will be sent home with you tomorrow.

• Have you figured out how heat was used? Remember that heat is the movement of thermal energy.
• Besides the changes in temperature what other observations did you make? Do you recall taking any notes that might relate to your observations?
• What was the purpose of the salt?
• Can you draw a picture showing the flow of thermal energy in your experiment?
• Were there any anomalies (unexpected results)? What might have caused them?

In this lab you were to examine mechanical advantage using a simple machine called an incline plane. That means you were going to investigate, experiment and play with an inclined plane to see if changing it in someway had an affect on this thing called mechanical advantage.

Our approach was to start with things we already knew. Some of this came from notes on work, and ideal and actual mechanical advantage. Other things came from prior labs where we used an incline plane and/or where we measured different forces. This gave us some ideas on how we might conduct an experiment.

Next was to do some background research. This is where you go exploring. Look information up in your textbooks, other classroom resources and the internet. The more you know about incline planes, ideal and actual mechanical advantage, work and efficiency the better. Part of your research should also have included “playing” with the equipment — doing some testing to see what happens and how to best set it up.

Out of this comes your experimental design, how you will conduct the experiment, what you will measure, and your hypothesis. Skimping on the research and design results in poor quality and wasted work. Planning is very important.

Now you are collecting the data and calculating various things like work, mechanical advantage and efficiency. You’re also making graphs, drawing conclusions, looking for patterns and making comparisons.

Some of you are doing an excellent job — keeping up with your classwork and doing some extra at home. It pays off by giving you some time to discuss your findings with me and confirm that you have done the write-up properly.

Keep up the good work. There is more pleasure in succeeding at something that is difficult than there is when you take the easy route.

Remember this lab is worth 100 points so it is important to do your very best. All work should be neat and follow the Lab Guideline and Grading Rubric. For periods 1, 3, 4, and 6 the lab will be due at the end of the period this Wednesday. For period 5 it will be due on Thursday.

This is a very busy week for you. Besides the lab you will be receiving worksheets to complete for homework and your Science News Review is due on Wednesday. Don’t get behind, do you work each day.

• Density
• Buoyancy
• Pressure
• Bernoulli’s Principle

Here are some links for extra study:

• Your Textbook Link Click on Chapter 3 Forces In Fluids and follow some of the links in the left side bar under “Student”. Be sure to try the self-test.
• Mini Online Textbook Make sure you’ve reviewed your worksheets before reading this section since it goes into more depth than we did in class.

I haven’t tried this myself yet, but I heard it can be done. I’ll be experimenting during the week to see if I can do it.

Test your ideas and the first person to successfully demonstrate this in class will earn 10 points on their next test.

Good Luck.

Here’s a link that explains how Galileo’s thermometer works. Check it out.