Last Meal Project

Our project for this unit is called the Last Meal Project. Essentially, we are supposed to chose the appetizer, main course, and dessert that we would like to have for our last meal. I chose buffalo chicken dip, chicken and potatoes casserole, and cheesecake brownies. On my page for this project, you can see all of my conversions to metric units!

Here is the link that I found most helpful for converting: http://www.jsward.com/cooking/conversion.shtml

Also, here is an example of what my conversions looked like: 

Dimensional Analysis

Yesterday, we learned about dimensional analysis, and this was basically a review of what I have learned in math classes. Dimensional analysis is basically a way to convert one quantity to another quantity with a different unit of measurement. Some fun facts are that significant figures are infinite when the number is an exact quantity (1 in = 2.54 cm). The way to end up with the correct desired unit and have the starting unit cancelled out is to put the starting unit measurement in the denominator so it cancels and put desired unit in numerator so the ending calculation contains this. It may take a series of multiplication steps, but the same rule will be followed.

Here is a couple links to help with dimensional analysis:
http://www.chem.tamu.edu/class/fyp/mathrev/mr-da.html
http://www.alysion.org/dimensional/fun.htm

Significant Figures & Conversions

Today we learned about lots of things, including all about significant figures and the units of measurement in the metric system. I think it's pretty straight forward, but a lot of it is contradicting to things like rounding rules that we've been used to.

Below is a video that I found very helpful when I was kind of confused:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oj4y0d44nQ

Also, here are a couple pictures of the notes from today!

Pre-Test Thoughts

Today, we took our pre test over the measurement unit. I have mixed feelings about it because although I thought it made no sense today, I think that once we learn this material, it might come pretty easily. It isn't a hard concept because it is pretty straight forward, but it will definitely take some learning to become comfortable with things such as converting.
Below is a picture and a link that may be helpful in the future for this unit!



http://www.metric-conversions.org/metric-conversion-table.htm

Aspirin Lab

Today, we finished our second day of the lab and are now going to leave the crystals to dry over fall break. It was really cool to come in this morning and see the transition from just liquid to actual crystals.

We utilized measurement by using a scale to weigh parts of our experiment such as the starting material, the watch glass, and the filter paper. We will be recording the dried material once we come back.

Here is a reference to the experiment itself! http://www.chem.latech.edu/~deddy/chem104/104Aspirin.htm

And, below are pictures of our measurements and the aspirin so far:

 

Post Star Project

Today is the due date for our star project, and I'm really proud of mine. I finished several days early, and I think it has good content as well as organization and appearance. At first, I struggled with finding some of the chemicals in the stars, and since I started early, no one had shared helpful links yet so I was kinda left on my own. I eventually figured it out though, but it would have definitely been helpful to have those links ahead of time. All in all, I found it super interesting to actually look at our stars in depth. Not only did I not know much if anything about stars, I had no idea a majority of them even existed. So it was really cool to be able to see what is actually out there!

Here are a couple of links I used for my project:
http://www.universetoday.com/45775/famous-stars/
http://stars.chromeexperiments.com/