Chemical Reactions - The Unit

Our unit of chemical reactions is a very important and core part of chemistry as a whole. Chemical reactions have formed all of the compounds that we know exist in our world today. These include those like water, carbon dioxide, salt, glucose, and much more. These chemical reactions also happen in specific ways where charges and number of atoms need to be equal and conserved both before and after the reaction. Throughout this whole unit, we learned how to balance them and make them equal while also learning about the different types of reactions and also conducting experiments to watch these happen in action.

There are 5 different types of chemical reactions. These are synthesis, single replacement, double replacement, decomposition, and combustion reactions.

1. Synthesis Reaction: a synthesis reaction is the most simple reaction out of the five. This reaction is caused by atoms of two different elements combining with each other to form a single product. The form for this is A + B --> AB Ex: H2 + O = H2O

2. A Single Replacement Reaction takes place when one compound combines with another single element and the element on its own switches with one of the elements in the compound. The single element is usually a metal and to determine if a reaction will occur, the reactivity series is used. If the single metal is more reactive than the metal in the compound, then a reaction will occur. Single replacement reactions take the form of A + BC --> B + AC Ex: Al + Pb(NO3)2 --> Pb + Al(NO3)2

3. A Double Replacement Reaction is when two compounds react with each other and they trade places to form completely new compounds. The metal in both the first and second compounds will switch with each other, making the products new compounds that were not part of the input. Double replacement reactions take the form AB + CD --> CB + AD Ex: HCl + NaOH --> NaCl + H2O

4. Decomposition Reactions work in a way that is opposite to synthesis reactions. In decomposition reactions, a chemical compound decomposes into its individual elements no longer as a connected compound. This takes the form of AB --> A + B Ex: NaCl --> Na + Cl

5. Lastly, Combustion Reactions work when oxygen combines with a compound to form carbon dioxide, water, and heat/energy. Combustion reactions are usually easier to identify than others because they cause a production of gas and a lot of the time, it is a very visible reaction. They take the form of A + O2 --> CO2 + H2O + heat/energy Ex: CH4 + 2O2 --> CO2 + 2H2O

Our Board Game Project

For this unit, each group made their own board game project. Ours was called Jack-Mangi (named after one of our group members) and it was jungle themed. The objective of the game was to successfully make it to the finishing point. Our game had kill spots and when you landed on them, you performed a chemical reaction and would go back to the most recent checkpoint. We placed checkpoints throughout the way so that players wouldn't go too far back. A video of my group playing the game is below including all of the chemical reactions along with a picture of the game as a whole and instructions.

Reflection

As a whole, I think this project turned out really well, and the final product was better than I originally envisioned us getting to. As a group, the four of us worked really well together. We excelled in our teamwork with collaboration and communication, and worked well to get everything turned in on time and meeting all of the requirements. It took us awhile at the start to come up with the best idea for the project, but once we figured that out, we were able to catch up and finish before the presentation time.

Some things that I think went really well for me and my group were collaboration, communication, and organization. For collaboration, we all contributed equally to the project and we were never in huge disputes over how we each thought the project should work out, we just each made it a little of our own while working towards the overall theme and idea. For communication, it was always clear to everyone what we needed to do next in order to finish on time and with the requirements met. We each knew what everyone else was doing at that time also so we could be as efficient as possible. For organization, we did really well with this because we gathered almost all of our materials ahead of time so that we could keep them and make a list of them and where to add them onto our project. Along with that, we would make sure to name off our agenda to make sure we knew what to get done.

Lastly, some things I feel like we could have done better with are time management and making sure before last minute that we had everything required as part of our project. For time management, we could have done better with this, but we were still partly successful because we got everything done and turned in on time. However, a large portion of our project was done right before it was due, especially for one part of it, the LED light. We needed an LED light, but since we couldn't get it to work right away, we put it off for later, but then realized that we needed an LED immediately. This created a slight bit of panic before the presentation time along with barely fitting finishing everything before hand, but it did all work out in the end. Going along with that, making sure things were done ahead of time would have created less stress on the day before and the day of the due date. If we had managed our time better in the first place, it would have created less of a scramble later on.

All in all, I think our group was very successful with our project, and I am very proud of what we made and were able to accomplish during the time we were given.