October 12-16, 2015 - Isabel Nowak

This week some of the main goals that we accomplished were studying and preparing for the unit five test that was on Thursday. We prepared by white boarding answers from the review packet and going over worksheets. I feel as if we mostly focused on the new concept of finding molar mass. When we find molar mass we have to use to the periodic table of the elements that are in the compound (such as KNO3). Another main concept was converting grams to moles or moles to grams. The problem would be formatted by asking if you had this many moles in a compound what would the mass of the gas be in the sample?  We also used Avogadro's number, such as getting a problem with how many atoms are in an amount of moles per an compound or element. We did a ton of these equations to prepare for the test. We also had to define words such as mole, molar mass, Avogadro's number, empirical formula, and molecular formula. We had to calculate the empirical formula of a compound with a given amount of grams from each element. The difference from the empirical formula and the molecular formula is that the empirical is the lowest whole number ratio and defined as it being based on data. Whereas the molecular formula is any multiples of the ratio or the empirical formula. We had to also had to find the molecular formula for a compound of a composed compound with the given molar mass. Then we'd find the empirical formula by reducing the molecular formula with the lowest whole number ratio. Lastly, we had to find the percentage of the mass of a element and the mass of a compound.  You can figure this problem out by dividing the mass of the element over the mass of the compound and then multiplying by one hundred to figure out the percentage. Although I was absent for the test on Thursday due to visiting the University of Michigan I cannot discuss how well I think I did on the test, but I can discuss how I'm continuing to prepare for the test that I'm taking after school on Monday. So far I've really been reviewing the problems in the packet because it seems as if the test is very much alike in comparison to the review packet. I feel as if I have the most trouble on problems that are using the Avogadro's number, not necessarily understanding what a mole is because Im very aware of what it is. But more of distinguishing when to use it. Like when you find how many atoms you use it but then you have to know that the formate is different for finding the atoms of a element versus finding the atoms of a compound. But that's mainly what confuses me on and I have to continue to practice. On Friday we did a ball maize activity. Which was basically getting a little black circular container that had a marble inside and different maize patterns. Using your hearing techniques and the movement of your hands helped figure out what the maize looked like when you imagined it. I really don't know the exact reasoning behind why we did that activity but I'm guessing it has to do with gases and how even though we can't see them they still exist and it's challenging to understand. I would say that my participation during class was fine, our group works very well together and we collaborate on answers most of the time. I guess my only question after completing unit five would be how else do we use mole?