Evidence of Work

For our last project in our STEM Chemistry class, we had to use certain aspects from all the topics we studied throughout the semester to complete a video that demonstrates our accumulative understanding of chemistry. We were tasked with creating a movie with various chemical reactions, and an explanation of each chemical reaction used. The plot of our movie was centered around the prison break of a mad chemist. The reactions we used were: a bath bomb in water reaction, a vinegar and baking soda reaction, a polyethylene oxide and ethanol reaction, and an aluminum and concentrated copper chloride reaction. For this project not only did we have to create the video and perform the reactions, we also had to actually balance the chemical equations.

Below are the brainstorming document and the chemical reaction sheet that we used to lay out our movie.

Content

Chemical reaction: a process in which one or more substances, the reactants, are converted to one or more different substances, the products

Chemical equations: The representation of a chemical reaction in the form of symbols and formulae.

Balancing chemical equations: To balance a reaction means to make the number of atoms the same on both the reactants and products side.

Chemical compounds: A chemical substance composed of many identical molecules composed of atoms from more than one element held together by chemical bonds.

Synthesis reaction: A synthesis reaction occurs when two or more reactants combine to form a single product. A + B --> AB

Decomposition reaction: A chemical reaction in which one reactant breaks down into two or more products. AB --> A + B

Single replacement reaction: A chemical reaction in which one element is replaced by another in a compound. AB + C --> A + CB

Double replacement reaction: A reaction in which the positive and negative ions of two ionic compounds exchange places to form two new compounds. AB + CD --> AD + CB

Neutralization reaction: A chemical reaction in which an acid and a base interact with the formation of a salt.

Combustion reaction: Most combustion reactions occur with a hydrocarbon, a compound made up solely of carbon and hydrogen with the products being water and CO2

States of matter: These are the types of matter that the ions/compounds can be in such as liquid, solid, gas, and aqueous.

reflection

Overall, this group project was a lot of fun to work, primarily because of the group I worked with. Our incredible final product for the project was the result of lots of hard work and collaboration. My group was made up of Jack, Gabe, and Gaby, and we all worked very well together. Every person in our group contributed to the end result of the project and maintained a positive attitude while working. Throughout this project we also employed a lot of critical thinking as we had to work the through the balancing of our chemical reactions. This required us to analyze multiple ways of solving the reactions, and determine the accurate depiction of the reaction.

While we produced a great movie and worked well together, we still could have improved. For our next project, we should work on our conscientious learning skills. During this project we did not manage our time as effectively as we could have, therefore we should attempt to work together to stay on top of our work in the future. It is important to note that we had AP exams and finals at the same time as we working on this movie, however we still could improve our skills as conscientious learners for next time. We also could focus on being more culturally competent students in the future. With this project there was not really much room for us to work on cultural competence, however it is something very important to keep in mind for future projects.