After we had the actual movie aspect of our project, the second part was to create a "Director's Cut." In this we had to explain each of the chemical reactions, including their formula, reaction name, description, other components of the chemical reactions and how this special effect was created. We also wrote a script for this behind-the-scenes Director’s cut. After completing our movie we then got to present it at our STEM Program's annual film festival. It was a super fun experience, even though it was online, as we got to watch other groups perform and have judges asses our work. Multiple aspects of our project can be seen below as well as well as group members responsibilities in this project!

Content:

Below is listed important vocabulary essential for better understanding of this project. This makes it easier to understand the project as well as strengthens an individuals knowledge on the subject.

Chemical Reactions:

Precipitate: a solid that is produces as a result of a chemical reaction and separates from the solution.

Law of Conservation of Mass: atoms are neither created or destroyed in chemical reactions but can be rearranged.

Electrolysis: decomposition of a substance by an electric current.

Synthesis Reaction: two or more substances combine to form one new compound.

Decomposition Reaction: single compound produces two or more simpler substances.

Single Displacement Reaction: one element replaces another similar element in a compound.

Double Displacement Reaction: Ions of two compounds exchange places in a solution to form two new compounds.

Coefficients: The large whole number in front of an element in a chemical equation

Reactants: The elements being combined to make the product in a chemical reaction

Product: The result of the reactants being combined in a chemical reaction

Subscripts: The little number below the element symbol indicating how many atoms are present.

Ionic Compounds: an ion with a metal and nonmetal

Molecular compound: A compound with both a nonmetal and nonmetal.

Poly atomic Ions: An ion made up of two or more atoms

Balancing Chemical Equations: Stabilizing chemical reactions so their atoms when combined allow for a stable transition instead of an explosion.

Reflection:

Overall this was defiantly a very challenging project that really tested my group and myself's knowledge of chemical reactions throughout this project. Like any project, there is ALWAYS room for improvement. For this project something I believe that could have been done better throughout the whole group was communication. Online school is defiantly a struggle for all students and teachers as learning has become much more of a challenge. Similarity communicating to your classmates over zoom is very difficult. It seems simple enough but with slow computers and lack of in person connection, conducting a whole project online is quite the challenge. Towards the end of our project my group shifted more to communication through texting, since it was much easier and efficient. This allowed our project to be made as well and efficient in the last few days of work time. However, we lacked this communication skill almost the whole project work time, making it extremely difficult to conduct a good project. That goes for everyone as there would be awkward silences and group members who chose to mute themselves rather than contribute to ideas. As a whole group, communication is something we can work on to make project work time more efficient and easier. Individually, I believe I could have worked on self-management. I took on a lot of rules throughout this project, which was sometimes a lot to handle. If I am going to volunteer to take on these important roles when no one else will, I need to organize my time better to be able to handle all of them, without being stressed. I can do this by creating goals for what to be completed each day, like a checklist. I also should watch my wellness while working. There was a lot of stressful times during this project and I think it is important to take care of your mental health before school, simply because it can and has caused many problems for students all over the world. So with self-management the project will be easier to complete, more efficient, and myself will be better off mentally.

Besides the few issues that could have used improvement, overall this project was very well done. Something I believe our group did very was through collaboration. Once directed what to do, my teammates were efficient at getting their work done and all working together to complete what was required. It was easy to work with my teammates as they were all helpful and filled with ideas. Even better working with them never felt pressured, unlike previous projects. We all could just go along at our own pase and if we needed help any group member was eager to help you out. Simply because we all cared about our grade, but was looking for an enjoyably time as well. This made collaboration super easy and efficient leading to a really well done project. As an individual group member I did a great job with critical thinking. I chose to assemble the whole video and edit it. Normally in class that would not sound that bad. Though online it was my responsibility to send people already composed videos, direct them on what to say or where they could find on ideas of what to say in the script, how to do that and have them send it back, all in a tight time period. Trying to talk to three people at once having to explain different things to each one was very difficult and took a couple late hours. Throughout this project many issues occurred that I had to work around for the sake of my group. Such as a group member not knowing how to work and app, or not being able to do the voice over. This took a lot of time until I found solutions, that way we could work around the issue and finish the project. It was defiantly a difficult responsibility, but I was able to conquer these issues and was very proud with myself and my group with our movie results.