Stoich Links

Khan Academy: One of my favorite sites for studying chemistry. Has an excellent method of preparing one for an exam and teaching the lesson. The stoichiometry lesson is very detailed and helpful.

ChemTeam: A great master-post of everything stoich related.

Magic Number Method: A shorter way of doing stoich problems may be helpful if you find yourself taking too much time on them. I, however, will continue doing the method we learned in class because I don't really want to learn a new method this close to the test date.

Chem 4 Kids: This site explains stoich in very simple terms.

Science is Cool: Some more stoich practice!

Lab Day 2

On day 2 of the Copper Chloride & Iron Lab, we were able to see that the copper had grown immensely over night. It was very interesting to see what was once a thin layer of copper on the nail, had about tripled in size in one day. The smell definitely indicated that it was copper. After removing the nail, we siphoned out the liquid, then cleansed the copper with acid, then water. It was actually quite difficult to siphon out the liquid without catching bits of copper, which would throw off the ending mass of the copper if we had accidentally siphoned off some of the copper.

Copper Chloride and Iron Lab

We had another lab today that stretches out over 3 days. Today's part consisted of mixing water and copper chloride (which was a stunning aquamarine color, I do say) and then putting an iron nail in the liquid, letting it sit. It took about 5 minutes, and as nothing major happened today, I am looking forward as to see what the results will look like tomorrow.

Such a pretty color!

The copper chloride when reacted with water, was a tealish color, as shown in the picture below. After being stirred a bit, it turned more blue in color.

Stirring the copper chloride and water

Next came the nail! As you can see, the liquid is much more blue after being stirred for a bit.

Almost instantly after dropping the nail into the liquid, a rust-colored solid started forming around the bit of nail that was in the liquid. It was very fascinating to see the copper form so quickly. I am very curious as to how big it will get tomorrow!

The part immersed in the liquid is surrounded by copper already!

Stoich Quiz Reflection

Today's quiz was pretty easy, at least for me. I finished about 20 minutes into class which is definitely a first. I usually take up to the bell, sometimes even more, to finish quizzes/tests. I even used some time to double check my answers. Although, it does freak me out a bit that I finished so early as I'm worried I did something wrong. However, I don't really know what I could've messed up on. We'll see though.

http://memegenerator.net/instance/56514255

Everything was pretty straightforward, and the questions were easy to follow.  For a couple of them, however, you had to really read the equation/problem fully to know what steps you need to take to solve it. I went back and caught some of my mistakes thankfully.

This site has a large variety of stoichiometry review games which seems like an interesting way to study.

First Couple Stoich' Lessons

We had our first lectures on stoichiometry today and Friday. Everything has been pretty easy as it just follows a few basic steps, and as long as you memorize which steps to take and when, it can be easily done. Other than that, all you need is knowing conversion skills which we learned in the measurement unit. The conversion factors we have been using are moles and grams, converting a certain number of moles of one substance into grams of another.

This Bozeman Science video covers what we learned incase you need a refresher, or you're having some trouble.

http://www.sciencewoodlands.com/honors-chemistry/stoichiometry

Overall, it seems to me that this unit is one of the no-brainer ones. Thankfully, the majority of the units for this semester have been fairly easy, so it doesn't seem like the final will be too bad.

Metals Lab

I had a great time in lab today. It was definitely one of my favorite labs as I loved seeing all these unexpected reactions. These observations ranged from a milky bubbling (Ca+H2O created a white bubbly substance, like when you put a straw into a glass of milk and blow into it) to a dark brown, murky substance (one word, nasty). The reactions that included calcium as a reactant tended to be very violent, and the majority of them produced smoke. Another reaction gave off a very pungent metallic odor. We couldn't tell which one as we filled the wellplate up, making it impossible to identify the exact reaction that was giving off that odor.

Some links that will be helpful for the test tomorrow are: 
https://www.stolaf.edu/depts/chemistry/courses/toolkits/121/js/naming/elec.htm
https://www.khanacademy.org/science/chemistry/oxidation-reduction/redox-oxidation-reduction/v/oxidizing-and-reducing-agents-1
http://www.softschools.com/quizzes/chemistry/oxidation_numbers/quiz5772.html