Developing My Project Idea
I had a choice of finding my project on two different websites, pbl.harmonytx.org or sciencebuddies.org. I looked, firstly, at the projects on the harmony pbl website, and when I realized that there weren’t any projects that I liked, I went to the other website. Since I am doing a chemistry project I clicked the tab on the other website that said, chemistry. Then I looked through the projects ideas; till finally I came across, Where does the heat go? I was interested enough by the name that I clicked on it and went through the instructions. After reading through the information on the page I realized that this was the project I wanted to do, and ultimately that is the one I will do.
Doing my Background Research
To do my background research I had to familiarize myself with my project again. Therefore, I looked up my project again and read the information on the page and the instructions for the project. Then I wrote down the words that I either didn't know or wasn't 100% comfortable that I knew. From there I looked up the definition of those words. I also researched how those terms related to my project. After I had all that written down I went through, and reread the information for my project, to make sure I didn't miss anything. I realized that I had all the information that I needed for my background research, and that was it. I had finished my background research!
Creating my About my School Page
One of my PBL tasks was to create an about my school page on my website. There was several instructions, but I firstly went to my PBL website and created the page. Then I proceeded to fill the contents of the page. I put the logo of the school, firstly; then I put a little information about Harmony. Afterwards I put a couple of links such as: Harmony Facebook page, You-tube channel, and website. Then I put a couple videos explaining what Harmony is about. Finally I put a little information about Harmony's goal that I found on the PBL website. After all that was done, I was finally finished with my About my School page.
Materials
Another PBL task of mine was to find out my materials of my experiments. Finding out my materials was not that hard. The website that I had picked out my project from had all the materials listed. After I went to that page I went through all the materials, mentally checking off the materials I knew I did not need to buy. Once I had done that I wrote done the rest of the materials I did not have. Now I must find the rest of the materials I do not have to start on my project. I am planning on going to a well known store maybe, Target or Wal-mart, to find them.
Materials 2
After I had my list written out I went to Wal-mart to get my supplies. There I found almost everything that I needed. I found the cups and the spoons but could not find the wax paper and cold packs. I decided that Wal-mart must not have it. Next I went to Target to try and find the rest of the supplies. There I was able to find the rest of the supplies that I need to buy for the project. I also needed newspaper but Fiesta has those for free so I did not worry too much about that, and got it when i went grocery shopping.
Starting my Project
I am now going to start my project. Since I have all my materials I can start the project. My experiment is going to be done three times to make sure that the results are accurate. After doing the experiment I will have to analyze the results to understand where the heat does in the cold packs. While doing my experiment I will take picture of every step so that I will be able to put it on the website. After taking all the pictures I will put it on this website with all the steps of my experiment. By putting the pictures of all my steps and procedures anyone will be able to look at my website and recreate this experiment. Another thing the picture and procedures will help people understand what it is my project is about and what I am doing exactly.
My experiment
I am going to do my experiment in school, because there are materials like, thermometer and weight scale, that I can get from the school and use. Therefore before starting my project I am going to look over my procedures. I will be using the procedures as reference while I am doing the experiment as well. Looking over my procedures now just helps with any confusion I might have later on. By looking at my procedures now, if I were not to understand something I will be able to look it up now, instead of being confused while I am doing the experiment. After I was done looking over all my procedures and making sure I understood everything, I went to check my materials. Since I was going to be using most of my own materials I wanted to make sure I did not forget anything.
Prepping the Experiment
I had brought all my supplies to school so that I would be able to do my experiment. After school I went to one of the tables in the classroom and took out all the supplies I needed. I did not have too much stuff but it got even smaller once I had taken the exact amounts of each supply I need. For example, instead of taking 12 cups out and leaving it out there I took out 5 cups out from the 12, which is all I needed. After that I had a bit more room and I was more relaxed and ready to start. That is when I realized that I did not have everything that I needed. I still needed to get the supplies from the classroom such as the weight scale. After I got those I was really ready to start.
The Experiment
One of the first steps of my project is getting my wax paper ready to weigh the nitrate in the cold pack. I needed a specific about of nitrate from the cold pack, so I had to weigh that. Once all that was weighed I had to put a certain amount of water in each cup. Of course all the cups had to have the same amount of water in it. Then I took the temperature of the water with nothing in it. After I had that temperature down I put the nitrate in the first cup. I stirred the first cup until I felt that it was enough. Then I took the temperature until it stabilized. I recorded the temperature every 15 seconds.
The Experiment 2
After I had down the first cup doing the rest of the cups were easy. It was simply repeating the same steps over and over. I could not take more then one cups temperature at a time, since I was working alone. As a result of this, taking the temperature took longer than it should have. As the experiment itself is straightforward after doing it for a couple times I was getting the temperatures down faster and faster. For my experiment I did 5 cups of nitrate with varying amounts of nitrates being recorded at the same rate. I did this 5 cups of nitrate with different amounts 3 times to make sure my results were accurate.