Physical Science 20 - Sept 13

Today we went over Assignment C7. This marks the end of nomenclature for us.  To mark this, I assigned Assignment C8.  This is a review of all of the nomenclature stuff.  This is the first assignment that I will be marking.  It is due tomorrow.  We then started looking at chemical reactions and the different parts of one.  We talked about the Law of Conservation of Mass and what that directly relates to.  We then moved into balancing chemical equations.  This was review for most people but we did learn some tricks for balancing equations for efficiently.  Students then worked on Assignment C9 for the remainder of the class.  We will go over this tomorrow.  Tomorrow we will look at how to write a chemical equation from a word equation.

Physics 30 - Sept 13

Today we did a new lab called Lab 1.1 - the acceleration due to gravity.  Students measured the motion of a cart down a ramp and then will analyze that motion to determine the acceleration due to gravity.  Today they simply took measurements.  Tomorrow we will learn how to write a lab report.  If someone was missing today, there is some sample data available under the course notes link in the Unit 1 Folder.  It is called Lab 1.1 Sample Data.  Use that to do the lab.

Physical Science 20 - Sept 12

Today, after we went over Assignment C5 and C6, we then learned how to name organic compounds and draw those structures.  This was an introductory lesson into organic nomenclature, as we only learned how to name aliphatic hydrocarbons.  Slides 61 -75 were covered in the powerpoint but these are all in your notes package that you picked up at the beginning of the semester.  Students then worked on Assignment C7.  We will go over this tomorrow.  As well, tomorrow we will start learning about chemical reactions and balancing chemical equations.

Physics 30 - Sept 12

Today in class we learned how to solve free fall problems.  These are just special kinematics problems that have a constant acceleration of gravity, which is 9.8 m/s/s.  We went through one example and then students had the rest of class to work on Assignment 1.4.  We also talked about the course project.  Students were given a handout about the project and were tasked with discovering a topic they would find interesting to present on.  Topic selection will happen next week.

Physical Science 20 - Sept 9

Today students learned how to name some specific compounds.  They learned what a hydrated compound is and how we go about naming them.  They also learned the rules we use to name acids.  Acids are specific types of ionic compounds that have hydrogen as their cation.  Most other ionic compounds involve metals as the cation.  The notes we took today were on slides 61-67.  Students spent a majority of the class working on Assignments C5 and C6.  We will take these up on Monday.  Monday we are going to learn how to name organic compounds, a whole new set of rules for us to know.  Have a great weekend everyone.

Physics 30 - Sept 9

Today I gave students time to wrap their minds around the example we did yesterday by giving them time to work on Assignment 1.3.  We will take this up on Monday and move on to look at free fall problems.

Physical Science 20 - Sept 8

Today we learned how to work with ternary ionic compounds that use polyatomic ions.  These behave the same way that ionic compounds behave, in that they are looking to balance their ionic charges.  We took some notes on slides 52-60 and students spent the remainder of the class working on Assignment C3.  We will take this up tomorrow and then learn how to name acids and hydrated compounds.