Week 19 in Review

Periodic Updates

Week 19 In Review

Important Dates & Assignments:

• STEM Fair:
• All students were introduced to the idea of our first upper school STEM Fair this week.
• The date of the STEM Fair is May 5th.
• Students will be working throughout the 3rd 9 weeks to complete their project with the assistance of a Faculty Sponsor. 
• All experiments should be completed before spring break!
• We gave the students a guide to picking good STEM fair projects last week and you can see that guide by clicking here.
• More to come on this as the 9 weeks progresses.
• Rocket Candy:
• Hopefully you read that correctly, I did say "Rocket Candy!"
• Our big chemistry project for this 9 weeks will involve the students making rocket fuel.
• We will also be reading "Rocket Boys" as a class. This is the book that gave the idea for the movie, "October Sky."
• Students were assigned chapter 1 of "Rocket Boys" for the weekend.
• Students will be working on this project in the Chemistry lab under the my supervision of the supervision of Kendal McCarter. No student should be making this fuel at home! This fuel can be very safe but it is used as fuel for a reason. It is combustible and burns hot.
• If anyone has any contacts with a model rocket club in this area, I would love to partner with them for this project.
• Stomach Stoichiometry:
• The lab should be finished and turned in this week for review.
• We have started a new rubric to review labs that can be seen by clicking here.

What happened last week?

• Review:
• We took time to review some important skills from last semester.
• We have to be good at balancing chemical equations, conversions, and chemical formulas.
• We will be using these skills all through this semester.
• If you student needs more help with these, please have them let me know using our bulletin board procedure that was introduced last week as well.
• Stomach Stoichiometry:
• We did a lab investigation on the reaction yeast uses to break down sugar and produce carbon dioxide and the reaction of burning a candle to produce carbon dioxide.
• They learned some really cool facts about gas production in humans along the way.
• We are now using methods of stoichiometry to figure out how much carbon dioxide was produced in the lab.
• The conclusions should be finished this week and notebooks turned in for review.

From the desk of Mr. Terry:

This week our chemistry lab had the distinct smell of yeast converting sugar into energy. Some of you might associate this with bread making, others might have a different memory with this smell. I love see the students perform in the lab. They are so good at following safety protocols and staying on task. I want this to continue this semester as we get closer to making rocket candy! Some fun questions to ask your student about what they learned this week from the lab:

1. How many times does a healthy person gas each day?
2. What is the main chemical in flatulence?
3. What is the main cause of flatulence?

You may or may not want to go there with your 16 year old. Anyway, have a great week!

I am available to help during lunch and Flex on the "A" day schedule 4th block. Students can make arrangements to miss their 4th block class to meet with me.

terryk@claytonbradleyacademy.org