Friday January 11th

Oops, sorry I haven't posted in a few days. Here is what we have done this week: Monday's Lab was about the temperature/volume relationship in gasses - and you tested Charles' law. Tuesday's and Thursday's lab was about designing an experiment with vinegar and baking soda to calculate the experimental value of R in the ideal gas law. Friday, today, we will be doing another lab on the ideal gas law. This time we are using a specific technique called the Dumas method to determine the molecular weight of an unknown volatile liquid. All week lab! Cool. Homework, thus far, has been the following things due: Tuesday: your lab calculations and a practice excercise out of the book. Thursday: design of your experiment in your lab book and finish reading chapter. Friday: questions 2-7 on the post-lab, and pre-read the Dumas method lab for today.

Monday January 7th

Welcome back! I hope you were not too disappointed in the lack of things left for you to do the last few days of the week before break. And I also hope that some of you tried the extra credit options! At any rate, we have a lot to get done before the AP exam. It looks like we will need to tackle a chapter per week until April 25th or so, and then review before our exam. The exam date is May 13th (don't worry, its a Tuesday). That leaves us some time to review and take a few practice tests before you go into it. But first, this week. We begin chapter ten, which is a nice transition back to school life because it is pretty easy to understand and a bit of a review for you all. Homework Monday is to read pages 399-412. There is only one exercise for each of you and all you have to do is show how the book's answer makes sense by showing the calculations and the work. Marlia and Va will do the practice exercise on page 412 (the one about the natural gas storage tank), and Adam and Molly will do the practice exercise on page 413 (the one about the oxygen in a cylinder). See you Monday!

Tuesday December 18th

Today we'll do a lecture on the important points of chapter nine. Homework for Thursday is to read up until p. 373. Due Thursday is a problem of your choice from the section on page 391 titled "Orbital Overlap; Hybrid Orbitals". You will present this to the group if there is time after the model building lab. On Friday, NO MORNING MEETING! Yee-haw! Read the rest of the chapter before Friday, and choose a problem from the section titled "Multiple Bonds" starting on page 391. These homework exercises are due Friday - Ms. Crock will email me the who's who of homework list so I can enter the grades in over break. Beware, you will not need to know molecular orbital theory for the AP exam. However, it IS something you should be aware of so read it. Pay particular attention to the "Chemistry in Life", "Chemistry at Work", and "Chemistry: A Closer Look" sections - they are the most interesting and applicable. Quiz on Friday - pay attention to the sample exercises!

Friday December 14th

You all rocked chapter 8! Next up, molecular models - ooh-la-la!! Okay, seriously, it IS fun to build them. So, your homework over the weekend is to read Ch. 9 up to p. 357. Va, you'll present 12. Molly, you'll present 20. Adam, you'll present 24. Marlia, you'll present 30. On Monday, I'll be at a doctor's appointment and you are expected to impress Ms. Crock with your chemistry know-how and give present your answers to your homework. Ms. Crock will bear witness to this and report back to me. If there is time, you'll make a molecular model of glucose and be able to explain to each other and Ms. Crock the most stable/likely bond geometries of that molecule. On Tuesday, I'll give a lecture on Ch. 9 on bond polarity, orbital hybridization, and molecular orbitals. Lab day will be modeling day (with a substitute teacher). Friday, you'll have a quiz. I'll be gone both Thursday and Friday, recovering from knee surgery. So, to some degree, we'll all be suffering a little bit, but come out stronger! I will provide you all with an extra credit opportunity on Tuesday for doing over winter break. Have fun next week!

Tuesday December 11th

Today you presented your homework and I think it is going well for us to do this. Thursday we have our lab on Beer's Law. Your homework for Thursday is to prep your lab notebook, and read the rest of the chapter. Homework for Friday morning is to CHOOSE one problem to present. We'll take a quiz on Chapter 8 on Friday afternoon.

Monday December 10th

Cruisin' through chapter 8 on bonding! Tonight your homework is to read up to 328 and do the assigned questions. Va, you'll do 40 and 54. Molly, you'll do 46 and 62. Adam, you'll do 50 and 60. Marlia, you'll do 64 (its hard, so you only get one). Extra credit for anyone who does 56 !!

Friday December 7th Part II

The homework for the weekend is as follows:
1) Finish the Lab Write Up: The pre-lab should be of the same format as you have been doing for the other labs (important information about background info, chemicals and supply list, safety concerns, etc). The procedure/observation section should be as we have discussed in previous labs - you should be used to this by now. The conclusion statement should answer the questions in the lab handout and give some overall analysis of the lab - explain what you observed using the language provided in the introduction/background of the lab handout, and use balanced equations to help show this.
2) Read Ch. 8 up until p. 317. Do the questions assigned to you, present them on Monday. Va, you'll do questions 12, 18, and 20. Molly, you'll do questions 34 and 36. Marlia, you'll do 38 and 40. Adam, you'll present 46 and 48. Be ready to show these on the document camera - handwriting counts on this assignment! Bring yo' book to class yo!