Week 7 Reflection

        Throughout this week, our SG Chem 2 class continued our exploration of Unit 6 through a variety of activities. We began on Monday by conducting a Sticky Tape Lab. In this lab, we took two pieces of tape and stuck them together on our table, one on top of the other so we had a top tape and a bottom tape. Then, we pulled them of the table and quickly pulled the two pieces apart from each other. We did this again with two other pieces of tape so we had two sets of top tapes and two sets of bottom tapes. At first, I was confused about why exactly we were doing this. I wasn't sure what pulling the tapes apart from each other would do, but when we put a top tape and a bottom tape next to each other, they were attracted and came together. Then, we put the top tape near another top tape, and we saw they moved away from each other; they seemed to repel. I tested this idea by putting my finger in between the two top tapes, and I could feel the repulsion taking place. The same thing happened with the bottom tape to the other bottom tape. After doing this, I concluded that pulling the tapes apart must have been giving them different charges. This made sense to me, because I know that opposite charges, like the top tape and the bottom tape, attract while the same charges, like the two top tapes or the two bottom tapes, repel. This was the conclusion the class was able to draw from the lab, and it helped to further our understanding of atoms and their charges.
        During the rest of the week, the focus of our class was on conductivity. On Thursday, we completed a Conductivity Lab to introduce us to the idea of what is conductive and what is not. Before doing this lab, I thought about what conductivity meant to me. It seemed that metals were usually conductive; I wasn't sure if all metals were or if only the majority were. I knew that all non metals were not conductive, but maybe if they were compounded in any state with a metal that was, they would be conductive as well. I kept these hypotheses of mine in my head throughout the experiment. For the lab, we went through fifteen stations, each with one or more substances. We used a cool tool to test each solution; if we put the tool on a substance and the light turned on, that meant that the substance was conductive, and if the light didn't turn on, that meant that the substance was not conductive. We tested a variety of different substances, as well as a variety of different substances in different states. We tested substances in the solid state, liquid state, molten state, and aqueous state, which meant the substance was dissolved in water. Below is a list of all the substances we tested:

My group made many observations throughout this lab, and we were surprised about some of the results. For example, I was surprised to find that NaCl in a liquid state was conductive, and I was also surprised that carbon was conductive in one allotrope, graphite, but not the other, diamond. On Friday, we went over this lab as a class, and each group white-boarded their results and thoughts. Attached is a picture of my group's board:

When we came together as a class after sharing our whiteboards, we were able to come to some conclusions. From our data, we were able to conclude that all metals are conductive, and that liquid, molten, or aqueous compounds that contain a metal are conductive as well. This means that all non metals are non conductive, as well as solid compounds with or without metal. These conclusions fit the data my group collected, and made a lot of sense to me. My hypotheses in the beginning were a little off, so this lab helped to improve my understanding of conductivity. All in all, our class spent the majority of this week exploring new concepts of chemistry that will help us improve our understanding of the subject overall.