What is a chemical reaction? This question among many others is the type of question we are asking in our chemistry unit this term. Almost all of term 2 has been dedicated to our class learning and understanding reactions between different chemicals and what happens in and around a reaction. At the end of the unit we made an oral presentation that we showed to the grade 11 chemistry class.
At the beginning of the unit we started with getting a basic knowledge of what chemistry is because we’d never really gone in depth with it before. After a week or two of getting understanding of the topic our class was put into groups of three. I got put with Luca J and Tamara. In these groups we were given a chemical reaction to focus on and go in depth with. After learning more about our reaction, Acid base neutralizations, we came up with a driving question for our project. We chose “where do acid base neutralizations occur in the body”. This question was perfect because it wasn’t too wide so that we got confused, but there was still a lot of room for variation within it.
In our presentation we also decided to do a live reaction. We would mix vinegar (low concentration acetic acid) with sodium hydroxide to create an equalization. We would visualize this to the audience by adding an indicator chemical too. Our indicator was a chemical called phenolphthalin. What it does is turn bright pink when the solution it is in goes from acidic to basic. We mixed phenolphthalin with our acid (vinegar) which is a colourless “water” Looking solution. Then when we added more colourless liquid (sodium hydroxide) and suddenly everything turned bright pink.
On the day of our presentation we got up there and everything went so smooth. To my relief the grade 11 liked it and we got a big round of applause. Throughout this unit I think I learned a lot and it was actually one of my favorite science projects this school year. Some of the specific competencies I improved will help me for a long time. Firstly I learned to Formulate multiple hypotheses and predict multiple outcomes. I think the proof of this is the experiment that I helped engineer with my group members and Mr. gross. I had to predict what would or could happen. Along with being smart and responsible by forming intelligent hypothesis with information I already had. The another competency I think I utilized the most during this project was Analyzing cause-and-effect relationships. This is because in the process of making my groups experiment, we went through several chemicals for our acids and bases just to find the right one. I think if I didn’t learn to analyze cause and effect then this wouldn’t have been possible. Another competency that I think I really improved on over the span of this project is Transfering and applying learning to new situations. I think the proof of this is very evident. From the information I learned on my iPad or in my text book I had to put into to actual use. I had to use this info to ask questions, figure out how it would apply in real situations and how it would apply for example in a live experiment or in an oral presentation. Lastly I think I also used Formulate physical or mental theoretical models to describe a phenomenon. This is because at many points in class I had to come up with a formula or theory for something I couldn’t explain.
