If You're Not Part of the Solution...

then you're part of the precipitate!

My Honors Chem class worked through a qualitative analysis lab to confirm (or deny) the presence of zinc, iron, and silver ions in a solution.  The students took advantage of the precipitation reactions that occur when these metal ions are mixed with chloride, hydroxide, ammonia, and other anions in solution.  

First the lab teams worked with a known solution that contained each of the three ions, to learn how to make a positive ID of each one.  Then they were given an unknown solution that contained one or more of these ions.  The lab teams worked through the series of precipitation reactions to reveal what was in their unknown solutions.

The groups created a presentation in Google Docs to present their work.  My instructions were pretty simple:  one slide for each ion, one-three slides for your unknown, and an intro and a conclusion slide.  What I got from these creative students was very fun to read and included accurate information about the chemistry involved.  I enjoyed them all, but this one stood "out in the crowd" for both creativity and good chemistry.  Take a look!

Qualitative Analysis Lab Presentation

Meet the Chemistry Myth Busters

Colby Tucker and Sharon Geyer are the courageous leaders of this  pack of Chemistry Myth Busters.

Meet the 2012-2013 Chemistry Myth Busters!  These inquisitive young scientists are setting out to test some common myths.  Here are the Chemistry Myth Buster teams and the myths they are testing.

Afia and Taylor are testing the myth that the boys bathrooms have more germs than the girls bathrooms.

Pelumi and Carlin are testing the affect of low pressure on body parts.  They want to test the myth that body parts explode in space.

Grace and Nick are testing the myth that when you drop a piece of butter toast it will always land buttered-side down.

Thomas and Jane are testing the myth that you can pop popcorn using the heat from the sun.

Austin and India are testing the myth that people will always here hidden messages in recordings of spoken english  that is played backwards.  (I think I hear Stairway to Heaven playing in the background.)

Josh is testing the myth that baseballs that are dried out will travel farther when hit with a baseball bat.  Sounds like a fun experiment!

Khalil and Thomas are testing the myth that Coke can be used as a windshield de-icer.  (Sounds messy to me!)

Alex, Olivia, and Nikki are testing the 5-second rule.  (A classic!)

Elisabeth and Abby are testing if boys have more cooties (germs) than girls.

Cecilia and Isaiah are testing the myth that club soda will remove stains from clothing.

The Envelope Please

In the fall term I challenged my students to write an essay about the fundamental concepts of matter.  We did a series of activities in class to learn about the classification of matter such as a POGIL (inquiry based learning activity), separating a mixture, and the classic iron and sulfur lab.  Through these activities and labs, the students built an understanding of elements, compounds, mixtures, physical and chemical properties, and physical and chemical change.  In the past I would end this unit with a test on these concepts, but this year I decided to try the essay challenge as the final assessment.  Using their experiences, they were charged to write a thoughtful and interesting essay about matter.

As an extra incentive, I promised to post the best essay of the class on my blog.  I thought that one essay would stand out as the clear winner, but I was very wrong.  I had several very good essays that exceeded my expectations.  The choice of one winner put me in a complete deadlock.  I just couldn't choose my favorite ONE essay.  So I sat on it for way too long, just stewing and putting off my students inquiries.  Well, tonight I'm going to announce the winners of the essay contest.  In the spirit of the fall term sport assembly, I have chosen two students to be the winners of the matter essay challenge.

And the winners are...


Bailey Mae Bone and Quinn Taylor

Congratulations on your excellent writing.  Both essays are posted on the blog.  Enjoy.

Quinn Taylor

Bailey Bone

Why Does Chemistry “Matter”? by Quinn Taylor

Why Does Chemistry “Matter”?

            Matter. It is what makes up the entire universe, and makes us what we are today. From magnificent glowing stars millions of light years away, to the tiny, dim night light in a child’s room, it consists of matter. This concept of understanding the make-up of everything we know and will know is not a straight forward thing either. It can take on many different shapes and forms, such as compounds, elements, mixtures and much more. Matter can even go through numerous and exciting changes, making it an intriguing topic to study upon. As scientists have been discovering for thousands of years, science is an incredible thing, and can be very fascinating once you delve into its secrets.

            The most basic building block of matter is of course the element. An element is the smallest thing that a substance can be broken down into without splitting atoms. A great example of a common element is the gas Oxygen (O). Another example of elements would be the breaking apart of the compound Sodium Chloride (NaCl), or table salt, as we casually call it. When salt is broken down into its smallest parts, you will have the elements sodium and chlorine left over. These combinations of two or more elements are called a compound. In a compound, the elements are chemically bonded together through a chemical reaction to form something new. As learned in the POGIL activity, the majority of our items that we use and see on a daily basis are compounds. A few examples of these items are water (H2O), Chalk (CaCo3), carbon dioxide (Co2), acetaminophen (C8H9No2), and much more. You would be surprised to know that these reactions are occurring everywhere all the time, even without us knowing it. Not all of these reactions are big, or drastically change the substances interacted with it, but life would be impossible to sustain without them.

            These common changes can come in many ways, shapes, and forms, including physical and chemical changes. A physical change is a change to the substance that does not affect what substance is or its chemical makeup. These changes, such as tearing, cutting, dissolving, freezing, evaporating, condensing, affect the substance without changing it molecular makeup, therefore classifying it as a physical change. Chemical changes, on the other hand, do change the substance and its molecular makeup. Examples of these types of changes can be rotting, rusting, digesting, eroding, burning and reacting with an acid. If a chemical change occurs, you cannot get back the original substances without using some form of a chemical or having a chemical reaction occur. It is easy to know when a chemical reaction is occurring to your substance though. Common side effects from a reaction may be smoking, heat expulsion, smell dispersion, bubbles (creation of a gas), formation of a precipitate, and a change in color. As we saw in the iron and sulfur lab, many of these things will occur at the same time. When our reaction occurred, we observed heat expulsion, smoking, and a change in color, and of course, the nasty smell that this experiment is famous for. During this reaction though, not all of the material was used or fused, leaving a mixture left over in the test tube.

            A mixture is a combination of two or more substances either dry (such as sand) or in a liquid (such as sugar water). Compared to a pure substance, mixtures are fairly easy to spot. A pure substance is a material that has the same concentration of molecules throughout its entirety, while also only consisting of one type of molecule. Examples of a pure substance might be salt, sugar, and the other items listed previously, as all elements and compounds are pure substances. If you were to look at a mixture at a molecular level compared to a pure substance, it would look drastically different. The mixture would have many different molecules, particles and substances within it, while the pure substance would only have one. Even with the naked eye, these differences are as obvious. A pure substance is usually uniform, while a mixture contains clumps, bubbles, different colors, grain sizes, and textures. Even more surprising is that it is actually easier to separate one of these crazy mixtures than to separate a plain compound, as a chemical reaction is needed for the compound’s separation. As we learned in the Separation of a Mixture Lab, this makes sense as a mixture can be separated fairly easily. Ways to separate a mixture could be boiling, evaporating, sifting, magnetism, filtering, and much more. When you actually dig down to the bottom of these many different forms of matter, it is actually easy and fun to tell them apart and to separate them in the lab!

            Chemistry is one of the biggest and fastest growing branches of science out there right now. From searching for cures for diseases such as cancer, HIV, and even the common cold, to just trying to be the discoverer of a new substance, chemistry has brought, and is still bringing joy and learning to millions of people around the globe. As we have learned through our many experiments over the past weeks, matter is the basic building block of everything. Once you get past the nitty gritty, and nuts and bolts of these basic principles (and even these aren’t too difficult), many will discover that this field is fascinating, and has the potential to benefit and affect us as students, and possibly even our society, in the rest of lives soon to come. 

Classification of matter essay by Bailey Mae Bone

Classification of matter essay

            “Science ... is organized common sense.” Josepsech Alexander Leighton. Just like Leighton said, science is common sense; so too is the classification of matter. The smallest building block of the classification of matter is, simply, matter. Matter is any substance or material comprised of molecules and atoms. The classification of matter places matter into different categories including elements, compounds, substances, and mixtures, based on its physical and chemical properties.

            The simplest classification of matter is an element. An element is a substance that is composed of one single type of atom that cannot be broken down. Elements are organized on the periodic table and are characterized specifically by their unique atomic number. People come across elements everyday, from the Gold and Silver in our jewelry to the Nitrogen and Oxygen we breathe. There are 118 known elements on the periodic table today, starting with Hydrogen and ending with Ununoctium.  A more complex category in the classification of matter is compounds. A compound is a substance that consists of more than one type of atom chemically bonded together. In a compound every molecule is the same and can only be separated chemically. Compounds are made up of elements. For example, table salt is Sodium and Chloride and water is Hydrogen and Oxygen. What distinguishes compounds from elements is that elements cannot be separated but compounds can. Because of the unlimited combinations of elements, compounds cannot be classified on a simple table like elements. When doing the classification of matter POGIL, I learned that both compounds and elements are pure substances because their composite particles are identical. In the ‘separating-a-mixture’ lab, I worked with my group to separate Iron, salt and sand. This experiment allowed us to appreciate that Iron is a single element while salt is a compound and sand is a mixture.

            Just as an element is a simple category in the classification of matter and a compound is more complex, a pure substance is simpler than a mixture.  A pure substance is a form of matter with uniform molecules. Elements and compounds are pure substances but elements are in their simplest state and compounds can be chemically broken down into their separate components. In contrast, a mixture is formed when more than one type of matter is mixed together. Mixtures can be composed of pure substances and can be separated chemically or physically. Mixtures are described as either heterogeneous or homogeneous. A homogeneous mixture looks the same throughout whereas a heterogeneous has visible differences. For instance, chocolate ice cream is a homogeneous mixture whereas chocolate chip ice cream is a heterogeneous mixture. In class we observed the distillation of cherry coke. This demonstration showed us how the heterogenous mixture of cherry coke was separated into water, carbon dioxide, and flavoring. We also learned about the method of chromatography which separates mixtures using water and chromatographic paper.

            Simple and Complex categories of matter are described using physical and chemical properties. Physical properties can be classified either qualitatively or quantitatively while chemical properties describe how substances react with other atoms or molecules to produce new substances with different properties. Qualitative physical properties are those that can be visually observed about a substance. Shape, texture, color, and state are examples of physical properties. Unlike qualitative physical properties, quantitative physical properties deal with numbers and are labeled as intensive or extensive. An intensive property such as density or boiling point is the same regardless of quantity. In contrast, an extensive property such as volume or mass does change with quantity. As opposed to the physical properties of matter, the chemical properties of matter detail reactions with other particles that produce new substances with different properties. Reactivity to acid, pH, and heat of combustion are chemical properties. Physical and chemical changes are used to accurately observe properties of a substance in a lab. A physical change as it relates to matter does not change the structure of atoms or molecules; it only affects physical properties. Melting, freezing, condensing, and dissolving in water are all physical changes. A reaction to a substance that produces a new substance with unique chemical properties is a chemical change. Burning, oxidizing, or reacting with acid are all chemical changes. Chemical changes may or may not be reversible. One way to tell if there has been a chemical change is to look for a the formation of a precipitate, a color change, a change in temperature, or a production of a gas. During the Evidence of Chemical Change Lab and The Iron and Sulfur Lab our class observed drastic chemical changes that alter both the appearance and properties of a substance.

            In conclusion, science categorizes matter many different ways; into substances, elements, compounds, and mixtures while describing it as having chemical or physical properties, but from the copper pennies in your wallet to the gold ring on your finger, ‘matter’ will always ‘matter.’

A Flipper Just Down the Road

Tom Driscoll in his classroom at Putnam High School

I am so fortunate to have a Flipped Classroom veteran just down the road from my school!  I met Tom Driscoll through the Flipped Learning Network Open House.  He has been teaching his World History classes using the Flip for three years.  I was excited to meet Tom in person for the first time at the Flipped Learning Workshop that I attended in November.  Although I didn't visit his class on the day of the Open House Event, Tom agreed to let me visit during a free morning of my exam week.

I spent the morning with Tom observing two of his World History classes.  He teaches both classes using the Flipped Mastery model.  When the students arrived, Tom spent about ten minutes addressing the whole class.  During this time, Tom communicated his goals for the day and touched base with everyone.  He assigned kids to certain areas based on their task:  some kids were watching content videos and taking notes, other kids were working on response questions for their portfolios, and some students were starting a research project on world religions (the culminating event for the unit).  The students only took about five minutes to go from this whole class introduction to individual work time.  I was impressed at how easily they moved from the whole class meeting to individual work spaces.  The kids knew where to find the videos and the google docs for their notes (he also provided hard copies of the note documents for kids who preferred pen and paper).  Tom uses a website to host all of his course content, including videos and google docs, so that the kids can easily find what they need from any computer.  I asked one student to show me how the website works, and he gave me a quick tour through the embedded videos and other resources.

As I walked around the room, it was clear that each student was working at their own pace.  One of the two classes I watched had two resource teachers helping the students.  These teachers were very enthusiastic about the flipped learning model because it is easy for them to individualize instruction.  Tom's good organization of each unit provides the students and the resource teachers a well defined progression of work, quizzes, and projects.

Tom had a free period after the second class.  We took some time to talk about his work at the school and he showed me his classroom and computer lab.  One of my big questions was access to computers for his students.  He said that the majority of the kids have a computer at home, and the rest have access to computers both in class and before or after school in the library computer lab.  The bigger problem is the out-dated technology in the school, not a problem unique to Putnam High.  The lag in technology in schools has forced teachers like Tom, who want to use instructional technology, to use their own equipment.  I heard this same story from many of the teachers I met at the Flipped Learning Workshop in Hartford.

Tom has so many good ideas for implementing the Flipped Mastery model in a history classroom.  I was excited to see another version of this student-based teaching method.  Tom is committed to the Flipped Classroom because of the many improvements he has seen in his students engagement in class and critical thinking skills.

Collaborating Using Shared Google Doc

Testing the pH of an acid.

Two weeks ago I had the opportunity to observe Scott MacClintic and Naomi Appel, two teachers at Loomis Chaffee School, teach their flipped classroom.  I visited their school as part of the Flipped Learning Network Open House Event.  Teachers across the country opened their classrooms to visitors who wanted to see the flipped classroom model in action.  I enjoyed watching Naomi and Chris team teach their microbiology classes.  Not only did I get to watch, but I also peppered them with questions about their flipped classes.

Writing the lab report together.

One of the many ideas I got that day was to use shared Google documents for student collaborative work.  Naomi showed me a few examples of student projects from last year that used shared documents.  A nice feature of the shared document is that I can see who has typed what and when on the project.  While Naomi was showing me how to check the edits, she discovered that one of her students from last year had made changes to a group project this September, and may have used it as a paper for a college course.  We were both left wondering if the student gave her lab partners credit for the work the second time around!

This week I decided to pilot the shared doc concept with a classic chemistry lab.  We conducted an experiment in class to determine the pH of common household products using red cabbage juice, a universal pH indicator, and electronic pH probes.  This fun experiment is a great introduction to acids and bases and a nice technique lab.  My students tested many different products such as bleach, shampoo, saline solution, vinegar, aspirin, toothpaste, oranges, and laundry detergent.  After each group had tested several of the items, we compiled all the class data to look for patterns in the pH of household products.

No one is watching their partner write.

After the class discussion of the lab results, I introduced the Google doc lab report concept.  One member from each lab group created the file and then shared it with his/her partner and with me.  Using the shared file, the lab partners worked together and contributed simultaneously to the report.  The collaboration between the students was more interactive with the shared document because they could both contribute to the work at any time.  I didn't see anyone looking over the shoulder of his/her lab partner watching as the work was completed.  The twenty minutes of class work on this collaborative lab report seemed more productive and interactive than my previous experiments with group lab report writing.

Red cabbage juice is a great pH indicator.

Another aspect to the flipped classroom is the use of class time to do what used to be considered homework.  I decided to have the lab groups write their reports during class rather than as their weekend homework.  What resulted was a series of productive conversations about how to write a purpose statement, what information is most importation in a conclusion, and how to condense a whole lab report into a concise abstract.   Rather than sending them away to complete this lab report in their dorm rooms, and then making comments on their work that many students never read, my students learned in "real time" how to make their technical writing more accurate.

Collaborating on the lab report.

This acids and bases lab reinforced for me that the flipped classroom is so much more than instructional videos.  Talking to Scott and Naomi, who have three years experience with the model, really opened my eyes to the huge range of possibilities for active learning experiences in my classes.  I am looking forward to meeting more teachers next week at the Flipped Classroom Workshop in Hartford, CT.