Andrew gave us all of class today to work on our Unit 2 Assignments.

Homework:
  • Work on Unit 2 assignments. If you would like the list of assignments, worksheets, and the criteria for labs, go to the Class Blog on Andrew's DP. You should be able to find Lab 2 on the January 29 post and Lab 1 on the January 28 post (there are two January 28 posts so look through both of them. One post has all the information regarding the lab experiment and the other post has the rest of the assignments).
 
Today was a very laid back day in class. Andrew began class by passing around our current grades in his class, and papers that described the Independent Experimentation Procedure and Write-Up. He gave us the rest of class to work on our assignments.

Homework:
  • Work on Unit 2 assignments. If you would like the list of assignments, worksheets, and the criteria for labs, go to the Class Blog on Andrew's DP. You should be able to find Lab 2 on the January 29 post and Lab 1 on the January 28 post (there are two January 28 posts so look through both of them. One post has all the information regarding the lab experiment and the other post has the rest of the assignments).
 
Today, we did our second lab of the week. We played with dried ice, and the purpose of the experiment was to  observe the process of sublimation, which is when a solid turns directly into a gas. Andrew spent the beginning of class showing us how to manage and safely play with the ice, then gave us a few minutes to look over the lab hand out, and the rest of the class time was spent playing with the ice.

Homework:
  • Work on Unit 2 assignments. If you would like the list of assignments, worksheets, and the criteria for labs, go to the Class Blog on Andrew's DP. You should be able to find Lab 2 on the January 29 post and Lab 1 on the January 28 post (there are two January 28 posts so look through both of them. One post has all the information regarding the lab experiment and the other post has the rest of the assignments).
 
Today we conducted our first lab experiment as a class. Andrew spent the first part of class going around the classroom and pointing out all the resources we may ever need if we plan to conduct experiments in the future. For our experiment today, we mixed corn starch with water, which created "oobleck." We spent time playing around with the oobleck and taking notes on what we observed about it.

Homework:
  • Work on Unit 2 assignments. If you would like the list of assignments, worksheets, and the criteria for lab 1, go to the Class Blog on Andrew's DP and you should be able to find them on the January 28 posts (there are two posts so look through both of them. One post has all the information regarding the lab experiment and the other post has the rest of the assignments).
 
Here's a quick synopsis on what we did in class on Friday (Week 2, Day 4) :
Andrew presented our lab posters to the whole class, and the creator of the poster got to choose where in the classroom they wanted to stick it. After this, we played a Jeopardy game that tested our knowledge on lab safety. We spent the remainder of class wrapping up the topic of "What is science?"

Today, we began our second unit of the semester: Matter

Here are pictures I took of the board:

Here are pictures of the notes I took. They are pretty much copies of what is already written on the board:
We spent the rest of the day going over the assignments for the unit. Those will all be available on Andrew's DP very soon. We received a weekly planner where we can plan how we want to spend our class time each day, and which assignments we want to work on. Mondays of every week will usually be a discussion and introduction to the new topic/unit, but Tuesdays-Fridays will typically be class time to work.

Tomorrow, we will be conducting a lab experiment as a class, so come prepared!

Homework:
  • Work on assignments for Unit 2.
 
Today in class, we watched a video in which Stephen Colbert interviewed astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. The topics discussed in the video were very closely related with those we are going over in class (such as defining/understanding science), and the interview had a nice share of humor as well. Here is the link to the interview if you would like to watch it: 
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Andrew asked us to keep these questions in mind as we watched the interview.

After the movie finished, we reflected on the concepts discussed in the interview, and we also shared quotes that struck us.

Homework:
  • (Due tomorrow) Post a comment on the 01/22/2014 post in the Class Blog, which is under "Resources" on Andrew's DP. Details regarding what must be in the comment are on the post.
  • (Due tomorrow) Post a comment on the 01/23/2014 post in the Class Blog, which is under "Resources" on Andrew's DP. Post a quote that struck you from the interview.
  • If you have not already done so, turn in your lab safety poster and signed syllabus.
 
The first half of class today was spent mostly in discussion with Andrew. He restated what the rest of the week would like and the topics we would be covering, which were:
  1. Wrapping up the section/topic about lab safety. Posters were due today, and we will have a gallery critique in class tomorrow. We will evaluate, critique, and grade each others posters, and depending on how low the grade you receive is, you may need to redo your poster. Make sure to take notes and pay attention to the posters you're going over, because after the gallery critique we will play a Jeopardy game that will test us on our knowledge of lab safety!
  2. Continuing our discussion on defining science. Before we move on to learning the different topics/units of chemistry, Andrew wants to make sure that we have an understanding on what science is, as this is not only a chemistry class, but a science class as well. You can read more about this on the blog on his DP, or previous posts on this one. He explained to us the importance of further investigating what people say, and to not believe everything immediately. For example, he showed us a video of a swing set in which the middle swing was the only one moving out of the three swings on the set. Some people believed this swing to be haunted, but we learned that the real reason this swing was moving was related to something called aeroelastic flutter. 

Andrew gave us the remainder of class to work. 

Homework:
  • (Due Friday) Post a comment on Andrew's DP and reply to one that is already up. Details regarding what must be in the comment are located in the 01/22/2014 post in the Class Blog, which is under "Resources" on Andrew's DP. 
  • If you have not already finished your poster, finish it by tomorrow so you can have it at the gallery critique.
  • If you have not turned your syllabus into Andrew, turn it in asap.
 
Today in class, Andrew introduced to us what the main topic of learning for the rest of the week will be. 

We will be going over: Science's relationship to society.
Such examples are:
  • Science gives people the ability to participate in the frontiers of discoveries/advancements.
  • It allows people to experiment, explore, and investigate.
  • Science drives technology.
  • Science discoveries can protect you.

We spent a portion of class playing a game that helped equip us to identify what is true and what is not.

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Our class was broken up into five groups (each table was a group). Then, Andrew would have a random student pull a card out of a deck that had a scientific statement on it that was either true or false. One such example was "You can tell what the temperature is by listening to a cricket's chirp." As a table, you had to determine whether the statement was true or false, and then one person from your table would either hold up a card with a "T" on it (stating your table believed the statement to be true), or an "F" (stating you believed the statement was false).

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Some cards in the deck did not have a statement written on them. Instead they had a topic written on them, such as "Bigfoot" or "Evolution." As a table, you had to come to a consensus on how much you believed the statement (and how much scientific evidence there is available to back it up). Then, you would let Andrew know what number you picked.


The winners of the game were determined by how much T or F statements they guessed correctly, and also by how close their Truth Scale predictions were to the truth. The winners, as Andrew stated, were "scientifically minded."





Homework:
  • (Due tomorrow) Lab safety posters! We will have class time to work on these but make sure you finish as much of it as possible tonight.



 
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Today in class, we went over lab safety. The notes on the left indicate the meaning of different signs. 

Homework:
  • (Due Wednesday) Lab safety poster. Details on that are located on Andrew's DP: alerario.weebly.com

 
Because of POLs, we did not have chemistry class today. However, tomorrow Andrew will begin to go over categorical laboratory safety rules (such as clothing consideration, fire hazards, etc).

 Homework:
  • (Due tomorrow) Bring in your syllabus signed. If you lost the syllabus Andrew passed out, you can print another one out on Andrew's DP: alerario.weebly.com
  • If your POL is tomorrow or Friday, make sure you are prepared with the necessary documents!