Week 23 In Review

Periodic Updates

Week 23 In Review

Important Dates & Assignments:

• STEM Fair:
• Now is time to work.
• Students should be doing research, planning, and designing their project.
• There may be time to work on these throughout the week, but students will also need to work at home.
• Please help by reminding them to work now and not procrastinate.
• Rocket Candy:
• Students will be assigned chapter 6 of "Rocket Boys" to be read by Friday.
• Weather permitting, I would like to demo fire some rockets this Friday.
• I am hoping this builds excitement for the project that will start to get interesting next week!
• If anyone has any contacts with a model rocket club in this area, I would love to partner with them for this project.
• Gas Laws:
• Students should have been practicing Ideal Gas Law, Combined Gas Law, and Dalton's Gas Law over the weekend.
• The pre-lab questions should be completed in their lab notebooks for the lab Tuesday.
• We will be doing a gas lab on Tuesday.
• Check for Understanding:
• There will be a "Check for Understanding" on Friday to assess student progress before we begin making rocket candy next week!

What happened last week?

• Review:
• We have continued reviewing stoichiometry and gas laws this week.
• Gas Laws:
• Students used PV= nRT in a demo lab on Monday.
• We are all practicing precision in the lab as we learn the importance of every calculation.
• Students were assigned additional practice and the gas law lab for Tuesday.

From the desk of Mr. Terry:

Every measurement matters! That is a lesson that became all too real on Monday. Students attempted a demonstration activity/lab on Monday that involved Alka-Seltzer tablets. The measurements to get the right mass of carbon dioxide became very important. We had some groups come so very close to exactly right, while others missed by over half.  It is a lesson of showing the lifeskill of patients and the lifelong guideline of personal best. I loved it. Our students did work very hard and even showed sense of humor when they realized how far off they really were from the right answer. This lab was a lesson that will help them succeed on Tuesday. We will be working with a very strong acid, 6 Molar HCl. The students are ready to go and I can't wait to see how much better they do. 

I have been tutoring many students during lunch. This is a great time for us to quickly work out some misunderstandings. Tell them to bring their lunch and we will eat together while we discuss Chemistry!  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