Lewis Dot Strucures!

This week we began to learn about Lewis Dot Structures. It was really a neat way to draw out and visualize how the various atoms connected and shared their valence electrons. In the beginning I guess it took a while to catch on but once i fully understood it, it seemed so easy. and simple. I began to see how some of the things we've been learning come together, like how each group had a certain number of valence electrons and the different bonds atoms form, like covalent bonds, versus ionic or metallic bonds. It was fun making the structures too, trying to figure out how to fit the atoms all together with various bonds, double bonds, or even triple bonds. We also learned about HONC1234 which I thought was a really cool way to remember which families have a certain amount of valence electrons. It's been really fun this week , which is a little surprising because I don't especially like chemistry too much but it was a nice change for once.

Two Saturdays?

Wednesday was Veterans Day so we had a break in the middle of the week. It felt like a Saturday on Wednesday because I stayed home all day and slept in and just relaxed. The Tuesday before felt so much like a Friday too because I was able to stay up pretty late even though I felt really tired. Then Thursday felt like a Monday! I was so tired and wishing for the week to end and it felt like it just started. It was like my whole sense of time got messed up. This morning, it felt like we were still in the middle of the week but it's starting to feel like a Friday again as the day is winding downAlso basketball season started and all the returning sophomores made the team and four freshmen were added this year. BUT we have FOUR team managers! this will be an interesting season....

Light, Ions, and Bond types

So we've been using Google docs to do a lot of graphing and I've come to realize that it is a really cool application I've never really noticed or used before. It's pretty helpful in making graphs and analyzing data. This week we've also learned a lot about ionic compounds and different bond types. We learned that ionic bonds are formed between metal and non-metals, covalent bonds are formed between non-metals, metallic compounds are created with metals, and molecular covalent bonds are formed through non-metals. There's plenty to lean about these things and they can be really confusing at first. We have a test tomorrow too and I don't know if I'm ready D: well, hopefully the various games posted on schoolloop will help...

Basketball tryouts :)

Basketball tryouts are this week!!!!! starting Saturday at 3:30, I realize I need to go running or something because I haven't exercised in three weeks! Plus my mile time is getting worse :( There's a lot of good freshmen this year, hopefully I'll do well right? You know that satisfying feeling of the swoosh of the net, I need to start hearing those again which will give me a signal I am getting better. I don't want to make a fool out of myself! haha, there's gonna be two more after saturday so hopefully since I was on the team last year, i'll get my spot :D I'm excited too because there's going to be some new people trying out so it should be fun.

Flame Test Lab

PRETTY COLORS!!!!!! the lab was really cool because we fist dipped a thin steel wand in a chemical and as we put it in the fire, the fire changed color. Depending on the chemical, that determined the color of the temporary flame, ranging from red to green. It was really cool just to watch the flickering flames changing from the normal blue flame to green to yellow to orange. We talked about the different waves in class like light waves, microwaves, and infrared waves and how we can see some waves but most of them we cant.

A Little Detour to Medieval Knights

hey, so taking a little break from chemistry now. let's see...life...haha, life is really good right now. Mostly stressing over the english arthurian project because my topic is really specific: talking about a knight's daily life. I guess I could've chosen something with more information, but I really wanted to know what knights do everyday. It's not as much info as I wanted but I'll try to make my presentaion longer...and my essay was only 2 1/2 pgs in stead of 3! >.< i hope i do well tomorrow....

Einstein's Big idea

We watched the movie of Einstein's Big Idea. It was about the discovery of the famous equation: E=mc2. It broke down each symbol and gave a background of how each (E=energy, m=matter, and c=the speed of light) and the important people in discovering each symbol necessary for the equation. It was really informative as well as entertaining because besides just saying the information, it was almost like a movie with commentary which held us in interested attention all the while learning at the same time. This movie really helps to understand this classic equation which many people know of, but do not fully comprehend. It's a nice break from all the chem labs we do in class but it was very educational and fun and definitely captured even the most uninterested student's attention. :)