Mineral Project Blog

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This week I learned a lot about my mineral amazonite. It's colors are blue, green, purple, gray, and multicolored. The luster is vitreous. It's density is 2,56-2,58 g·cm-3.

The chemical composition is KALSiO8 Potassium aluminum silicate. The hardness is 6 - 6.5. No condiuctivity was detected. Streak: white. The cleavage/fracture is conchoidal. The mineral structure is Triclinic.

How much did you know about the subject before we started?

Well, I didn't know very much, but I knew some things. In the summer, my mom would give me a topic to research and I would present that research in a presentation to her at the end of the day. Sometimes the topic was minerals. 

What was especially satisfying to you about either the process or the finished product?
The most satisfying part of the process was that most of the information was easy to get. I worked hard on my project, and even found my mineral! I found it in Idaho. 

What the one thing you particularly want people to notice when they look at your work?
One thing I want people to notice when they look at my work is that I worked hard on it. i made sure that I wrote everything correctly and outlined it with a border. 

What would you change if you had a chance to do this piece over again?
I would change the way I bordered each of the information sections. 

Mastermines

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this week I learned a lot about the tests that scientists use to identify minerals. We were playing a game called Mastermines and I learned all about the tests. We went to different mines and found minerals. Then we brought the minerals back to the lab and identified them. We used luster test, cleavage test, structure test, color test, density, hardness, conductivity, and streak. For the streak, we rubbed the mineral on a porcelain plate and a powdery color came off of it. Diamond was white. On cleavage, we hit the mineral and determined clean break or no clean break. Feldspar had clean break. On density, we measured the weight and volume of the mineral. On the color test, we found out what color they were. Garnet was red-brown. On structure, we found out what the crystal structure of the mineral was. There were triclinic, monoclinic, cubic, hexagonal, and a rectangular one. On hardness, we scratched the mineral with different rocks to determine where it fell on the Moh's hard scale. Borax was a 2. On the luster, we shone a light on the mineral to see if it was vitreous, adamantine, dull, metallic, or pearly. Copper was metallic. For the conductivity, we had to find out how well each mineral could conduct electricity. Borax was an insulator. I also learned how to use the machines at each test.

S&EP: SP2
I used a worksheet to keep track of my data on the mastermines game. We had to keep track of a lot of data. I did some of my project at home.

Element baby book

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This week we finished up our element baby books. Mine ended up pretty good and I learned that platinum is very rare and its population is 0.003 ppm in the earth's crust. Platinum is also very hard to find and we need it for about one fifth of the things we use. I have a good presentation and worked hard on it. I also learned that Platinum has 78 protons, 117 neutrons, and 78 electrons. It's family name is called the Transition Metals and has four other members.

How much did you know about the subject before we started?

Well, not really anything. I always wanted to know about elements and the periodic table from what my parents said about it but I never really understood anything that they said. It was always about chemistry. But I always was curious about the fact and pictures that my parents showed and tried to teach me. My parents love chemistry! And now, so do I. I really loved the project and I want to do it again. It was so fun!

How do you feel about this piece of work? What parts of it do you particularly like? Dislike? Why? What did/do you enjoy about this piece or work?

I liked how much I learned about the elements and disliked how little time we had to complete it. I absolutley loved the facts that I found but I feel like I could do it a lot better if I had more time. But the project in general was really really fun. 

What grade would you give it? Why?

I would give it an A- because I feel that if I had focused more I could have put in a lot more facts, and good ones too. I just feel that I allowed myself to be distracted in other people's projects and wasn't focused a lot on mine. 

What would you change if you had a chance to do this piece over again?

I would change how focused I am. I could do a lot better if I was very focused.

Periodic Elements.

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This week we started a project that was our element baby book. It is a book based on our element's life. I am doing platinum and I learned a lot just by doing research. Platinum was discovered in 1735 by Julius Scalier. Platinum is a metal and it's atomic mass is 195.084 u. It's atomic number is 78. The number of protons is 78, the number of neutrons is 117, and the number of electrons is 78. Platinum's melting point is 3,215°F and it's boiling point is 6,917°F. The name of its family is Transition metals and the other elements in its family are Ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, osmium and iridium. Platinum is used in jewelry, containers and catalyst.


S&EP: SP4
This week I made a table to keep my data on the periodic table in order and safe. I wrote down all of my data and I know where I keep it so I can reverence the text whenever I need to.

Matter matters

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Summary: This week I learned that matter is anything that takes up space. Three states of matter are solids, liquids, and gases. Matter can change states. The most common way matter changes is temperature changes. If I had a beaker with an ice cube in it and heated it, it would melt and turn from a solid to a liquid. If I cooled the liquid, it would turn back to a solid. If I heated the liquid, it would turn into a gas. If I cooled the gas, it would turn back into a liquid. If I heated the gas, It would explode the lid of the beaker. So matter likes to change. The three main states of matter are solids, liquids, and gases. There are two more states. Plasma another one.


S&EP
This week we were looking at different websites to find out more about matter.
I found out that matter changes all of the time. We were doing two different games.
One was a matter sorter. It would give me a tile and then I had to sort the tile into either
solid, liquid, gas or plasma. A pencil is a solid, soda is a liquid, air is a gas, and lightning is a plasma.

Mystery crystals

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This week we were continuing our mystery crystals experiments. We were still trying to discover what the mystery crystal was. One of our experiments was to dissolve the crystals in water, pour out the water, and saw the remains of the crystals. The uno nown was really kosher salt. Then we started matter. An example of a chemical change is when you mix baking soda and vinegar. An example of a physical change is when you peel a banana. When you mix baking soda and vinegar, the atoms rearrange themselves to make something new. When you peel a banana, the atoms do not rearrange themselves and do not make anything new. 



S&EP: SP3: Planning and carrying out investigations
We asked ourselves, well, if baking soda makes a chemical reaction, then baking powder must do the same thing! We did the experiment and it worked! But not in the same way. The powder fizzed, but not in the same way that the soda did.

Crystal experiments 1/31/16

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This week I started to discover crystals. The Experiments we were doing were all about trying to discover the unknown crystal. On the piece of paper we had salt, sugar, MSG, and Epsom salt. I was looking at all of the different crystals and trying to find differences and similarities. Salt and sugar both looked like little cubes. Then, I was given an unknown crystal and was trying to figure out what it was. It looked a lot like Epsom salt, But it only had clear crystals. Epsom had clear and white crystals. It couldn't be MSG because MSG was like tiny little shreds. Salt and sugar were much to small to be the unknown crystal. Then, instead of observing them, we crushed them to see if that was another way to find out. The Epsom and the unknown both were crushed into a fine powder, but were still different colors. Will we ever find the identity of the unknown?

S&EP: SP4:Analyzing and interpreting data
I used a worksheet to keep track of my data. We had several different worksheets to draw my data upon. I had a lot of data.

Weather

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Summary: This week I learned about cold and warm fronts, why the warm air rises, and about high and low pressure systems. If there is a high pressure system and a warm front, you can expect a clear, sunny day. If there is a low pressure system and a cold front you can expect a cold cloudy ( possibly rainy) day.

SP4: Analyzing and interpreting data

This week we were doing an activity where we would gather data from a website. Like if the sheet said to turn on the drifting balloon setting and then watch the balloon move throughout the day, you would do it. If it said gather the wind direction and temperatures on the four corners of the screen, you would do it.

Charity Fair Project Blog

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Summary: To prepare for the charity fair, we had to do many things. First, we decided which charity we were going to support and the partners we were going to have. Then we gathered research on our charity like, what it does with the money, and what its mission is and what it does to the patients, etc. Then we made an ignite presentation. We presented our charity to the class. After that, we made our trifold posters and items. Then we set up and sold our things. I learned many ways to get more people at least interested in our items. Maybe go, buy 1 get 1 free. Or maybe lower the price. 

Back Ward Looking:
How much did you know about the subject before we started?
l didn't know anything about the charity fair. Nothing about selling, or the carbon footprint, not even about researching charities.

Inward-Looking:
What was especially satisfying to you about either the process or the finished product?
I liked how much we worked together on it even though we were behind. We drew pictures instead of taking them, we worked together on the poster, we even were together for almost the whole night.

Out-Ward Looking:
What grade would you give it? Why?

I would give it a A- or a B+ because we forgot to do real pictures and instead drew them.

Forward Looking

What would you improve upon? I would like to maybe make sure that every part of my work was done.

Weather- Water Cycle

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Summary: This week we were learning about the water cycle. Evaporation is when water turns into water vapor and goes up to the clouds. Condensation is when a cloud forms. Precipitation is rain, snow, hail, etc. Transpiration is water evaporating from plants. Sublimation is a glacier melting and evaporating. This all makes one large cycle - the water cycle! Evaporation, Condensation, Precipitation, Transpiration/ Sublimation. The diagram shows this.


S&EP:SP2: Developing and using models: We drew a comic on our journey through the water cycle.

Weather 12/3/15

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Summary: I am learning about the weather. First we did the layers of the atmosphere. The first layer, witch we live in, is called the troposphere. Weather only occurs in the troposphere because it contains all of the water vapor. I mean, you can't make weather without water right? The next layer is the stratosphere. Jets and weather balloons like to fly here because there is no weather. Have you ever been in an airplane and seen all of the clouds under you? That is because you are above the troposphere. The next, the mesosphere, is way to cold for humans to discover. Like, there could be leprechauns and unicorns up there for all we'd know. Too cold to discover! To high for weather balloons and too low for space shuttles. Meteors and the northern lights are up there too. The last is the thermosphere. Space shuttles are around this area. Then, it heads up to space.



S&EP: SP4

I used a graph to analyze the data of the layers of atmosphere. We were using for measuring temperature and adding where it began and ended. We also drew what "lives" there. Like jets in the stratosphere and weather in the troposphere.