Three Day Weekend!!! :] plus heat transfer

So tomorrow we don't have have school because of staff recess, so that means no school Friday!!! The only thing is that I don't think im doing anything tomorrow, just homework...how boring. Oh well, anyways, so in chem we've been doing heat transfer and I get about half of the unit, and the test is Monday :[ The first half is using the equation Q=mc(delta T), which is how you can calculate the amount of energy an object has given off, this is calorimetry. We learned how to calculate the engery given off from the different stages of matter, liquid, solid, and gas. It's kind of interesting, and I like it because it's similar to stochiometry, in that you just plug in the numbers, so it's simple to understand. The second part of this unit is heat transfer the trying to figure out equilibrium. We are suppose to use Le Chatelier's Prinicple, which is: "if a system at equilibrium is disturbec, the system shifts to counter the effect of the disturbance." I kind of understand it, but it still confuses me when you have to determine the euqilibria if the pressure or temperature is increased or decreased. I guess I just have to play the chemistry games to study. I hope I can understand it in time for the test....

Swimming and elephant toothpaste

Swimming season hast started. I love it because it doesn't stress me out like basketball does (which, btw, we went undefeated, 10-0 :D) My favorite strokes are butterfly, then freestyle, then breaststroke, then backstroke. Swimming relaxes me, and I love the meets because its a lot of fun and there's always food there and its a lot of fun hanging out with you fellow team mates.

In Chemistry, we did a lab where we made elephant toothpaste. We mixed hydrogen peroxide with some liquid soap, then added a catalyst and poof, the yellow foam you see at the left erupted. Everyone was amazed and I thought it was really cool. The foam was hot and steamy and people began to play around with it. I wonder if they really brush an elephant's teeth with this....

Sf Chinese New year Parade

Yesterday was the San Francisco Chinese New Year Parade! I went as part of dragon team and it was so much fun. I have a lot of friends on the team so I got to hang out with them a little as well as create a lot of memories. It was really nice to hear the kids laughing on the streets and everyone seemed to enjoy the parade. It was really hot and we had to do a lot of running but it was worth hearing the joy around me and knowing what I was doing was bringing a lot of happiness to other people. After the parade the whole team went to Four Seas Restaurant to eat dinner. It just so happens my former classmate’s parents own the restaurant and she was there eating dinner with her family too since she was in the parade so it was cool to see my old friend again. The dinner was a lot of fun and I got to meet new people who sat at my table. It was nice too because they gave presents to all the people who headed the team like Mr. Philips, Mrs. Wu, and a lot of other important people who were involved, so it was very sentimental too. I really can’t wait for next year because next year I think I want to do music instead of the body. I’m glad I decided to join this year because now I have something to look forward to every year and since I know a lot of people in the group, this will create even more memories for me to look back upon.

homegoing rally!!!

Today was a really fun day. We had a double fourth schedule and homegoing rally. There were so many dancing groups. i think this was the best rally this year. From Team Rocket to Encore to Mills High's own dance class and cheer team, all the dances were really really cool. The teachers even did a dance to Michael Jackson's song, Beat It. There was a lot school spirit and the atmosphere in general was just awesome. The band played and the mascots were great, and the national anthem was sung by the lead actors of Mills High School's spring musical: Smile. I think my favorite part was watching the second generation of Supreme Soul on America's Best Crew: the Academy of villains. They pulled off some super cool dance moves and everyone was going crazy! Overall, i think today was pretty awesome. :)

Undefeated?

GUESS WHAT?! we might become the undefeated champions in our basketball league if we win our game against Burlingame High School (knock on wood). We have worked so hard for this! I can't believe this is our last game!! It's actually my last game on the Mills High School Girls JV team, so hopefully this will be a good one. I actually haven't been playing all that great, so hopefully i can step it up. My next sport is swimming, and im SUPER excited for that! I'm kind of scared because there's a new coach and they've been practicing for almost two weeks now, so hopefully i can make up the difference in my effort and hard work. Wish me luck tomorrow! :)

Stoichiometry

STOICHIOMETRY! I think this has definitely got to be the easiest unit we've done so far! It's basically balancing equations! the only thing you have to know is g X to mol X to mol Y to g Y. It's plugging in numbers and doing the calculations. I actually really enjoy this unit and hopefully, we'll get to do more of this. I already talked about the lab that accompanied this in my previous blog. Anyways, i was so excited about it, I finished 3 whole pages of stoichiometry problems in one day, and the packet is even due unitl next week! :D

Magnesium Oxide

wow i haven't blogged in few weeks! sorry! anyways, today we did this lab with magnesium oxide and it was pretty cool because we got to see real sparks fly and gas being burned and all that cool stuff. We had carefully measured out a specific amount of magnesium and put it into the bottom of a crucible. then we lit a flame and turned on the gas and cooked it until the magnesium oxidized. The way to check was to lift the lid of the crucible and if there was smoke coming out or the magnesium was brightly lit then that meant it wasn't done cooking. It was cool to see how bright the magnesium got just being exposed to the air for a few seconds. I think that was just the best part: seeing the reaction of the magnesium and the oxygen was cool enough :)