Test, Review, and Snow Days in November

         Well as the title mentions, we were able to get the test in amongst our early November snow days.  However, with the snow days there weren't many days to prepare for the exam in class.  With this in mind, I decided to send out to everyone directions for a practice exam that they could do outside of class on-line.  We reviewed the answers in class with the time we had and were able to get through all the review. I also heard this week that some other classes have moved towards online assignment work.  As I prepare for next trimester and transition into Chemistry B I will be continuing with integrating technology into the classroom.  Glad to see this trend is catching on.

Week 11 - Demos

This week we continued balancing equations, writing formulas, and identifying different types of reactions.  Then capped it off with demos!!!!
The preparation:

elephant toothpaste, pumpkin style
the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide

copper metal reactants with nitric acid

Next week includes last test and exam review!

Week 10 - Naming , Formula Writing, More Naming, and Balancing!

So what is the difference between sodium and the sodium ion?  Would you believe one electron?  However, one is highly reactive in water and must be stored under oil and the other is simply combined with a majority of nonmetals and then dissolves readily in water.  So the idea of naming things correctly is pretty important.  Whether its sulfur trioxide (SO3) vs sulfite (SO3 2-) again it is important to understand the naming of substances.  With naming also comes writing formulas correctly.  This includes writing formulas of acids, formulas of molecules, and formulas of salts.  Once we progressed from naming and writing formulas we moved to balancing equations.  So this week and next will be lots and lots of practice.  Exams are coming soon!  Study guides will be arriving soon.

Finally, we ended the week with identifying the five types of reactions.

results are in #molympics press release

Molympics 2014 Press Release

On October 23, 2014 chemistry students at high schools in Tucson AZ, Indianola IA, Highland IL, Burlington MA, Hudsonville MI, St. Louis MO, Las Cruces NM, Chesterland OH, Medina OH, Newberg OR, Exton PA, Harrison City PA, Montrose PA, and  the Beaconhouse Margalla Boys school in Islamabad Pakistan competed in the “Mole Olympics” (Molympics). Why? To learn about Avogadro’s number, 6.02 x 1023 or one mole, and its importance in chemistry. The mole is a counting unit in chemistry, and represents the number of atoms in 12.0115 grams of carbon. Mole Day is celebrated from 6:02 am to 6:02 pm on 10/23 each year.  

Students honed their skills at estimation, measurement, dimensional analysis and problem solving by competing in the Tally Mark Challenge, the Sponge Squeeze, the Mole of Metals, the Stopper Tower and the Avogadro Fitness Challenge events. At stake were bragging rights and a trophy that will travel to the winning school each year.

This year’s top school is Burlington High School in Burlington, MA led by chemistry teacher Ms. Wendy Czerwinski. Two schools tied for second place. Highland High School in Medina, OH led by chemistry teacher Mr. Chris Luker and Tanque Verde High School in Tucson, AZ led by chemistry teacher Ms. Grazyna Zreda. In third place was Mayfield High School in Las Cruces, NM led by chemistry teacher Ms. Ann Gardner. Fourth place went to West Geauga High School in Chesterland, OH led by chemistry teacher Ms. Kristin Gregory. Hudsonville High School in Hudsonville, MI led by chemistry teacher Mr. Doug Ragan tied for fifth place with CS Lewis Academy of Newberg, OR led by chemistry teacher Ms. Pam Chambers.

The Molympics competition, now in its second year, is the result of a cross-country collaboration between five high school chemistry teachers who met and planned the event via Twitter. Teachers Wendy Czerwinski of Burlington MA, Ann Gardner of Las Cruces NM, Kristin Gregory of Chesterland OH, LuAnn Lee of Newberg OR, and Doug Ragan of Hudsonville MI also used Google apps for education to organize and run the event and to spread the word to participants worldwide. Based on the success of year two, next year’s Molympics should be bigger and better than ever.

Molympics Planning Team at the Biennial Conference on Chemical Education 2014

Kristin Gregory, Doug Ragan, Wendy Czerwinski Not pictured: Ann Gardner, LuAnn Lee

Thanks to Kristin Gregory for this!

It was a great learning experience, I got a great heads up on what we need to focus on regarding dimensional analysis and the time it will require. I was quite pleased with the results and excited to see #molympics grow. Week 9 is done and with week 10 we will be continuing to name compounds, write formulas, and then balance equations. Exams are coming soon!!!

-Mr. Ragan

#Molympics, enough said!

       Well, it was a great week.  I had a total of 40 parent teacher conferences Monday night and another 26 Wednesday night for a grand total of 66 conferences.  I would like to say thank you to all of the parents that came out and I am so glad I got to meet you.
       Next we had the late start on Wednesday followed by the test on Electron Configuration and the Periodic Table.  I was overall pleased with the results of the test and reminder any make up works needs to be completed within the next two weeks before exams and exam review begin.  Reminder the element project is due this Tuesday and I look forward to creating the Periodic Table on the ceiling.
      Once the test was complete, we finished out Thursday celebrating Mol Day  http://www.moleday.org/ and then participated Thursday and Friday in Molympics.  We competed against somewhere close to 19 other schools across the U.S. including a school in Pakistan doing several activities that related to the mol.  We should find out later this week what school won the awesome trophy.

    

     

Periodic Table and the Element Ball Project

      This week we finished up with the chapter on electron configuration and began our next chapter on the Periodic Table.  We jumped into lab to begin organizing elements then began learning about about the trends in reactivity.  

We have lots of pieces to start putting together as we begin sequencing valence electrons to charges to formulas to naming to chemical reactions.  Things will be busy.  

Plans next week include a test on Wednesday and to continue gathering facts on our element ball project.  

Element Ball Project

    Every student was assigned an element in which they need to gather 20 facts.  As the element balls come in (Oct 28) then we will construct a 3D periodic table on the ceiling and discuss some of the interesting facts about the elements.  Next week includes Parent teacher conferences on Monday and Wednesday night, test on Wednesday (late start), then #molympics on Thursday and Friday.  Its going to be a great week.  Also be sure to check out my website at http://dragan38.wix.com/mrragan for more course information.

Week 6: Atomic Models and Diagonal Rules

     This week we continued with our look at atomic models and began to focus more on the address system for electrons.  And although we can't pinpoint exactly where the electron might be, I think I got it across to my students that it was similar to looking in the stands at the football game and having a pretty good idea that your parents or friends are up there somewhere on the home side, in that section, in that row and maybe even in those seats!  But their changing seats like musical chairs and the music never stops playing!

Next it sank in that we were half through the trimester and I was excited to hear students recommending to other students to watch the videos because the video really explained things well.  We started into the address system and I began spouting out 1s^2 2s^2 2p^6 alright, alright, wait what?  As we continued I began seeing more and more light bulbs going off of understanding and I'll know more next week with assessments.  In the meantime we took Friday to get a grip on the so called diagonal building of lowest energy to highest energy and took time out to understand the so called diagonal rule with the diagonal rule challenge.  The object, feed an extension cord through the order of the diagonal rule from 1s^2 to 7p^6 as quickly as possible!