CHEMISTRY – Great job lighting Bunsen burners today! By the way, did you happen to see a green flame when you put the copper wire in the flame? The electrons in the copper atoms were being excited and they gave off a green flame. Cool!!
Here’s something you will find useful in the future…everything you wanted to know about a Bunsen burner and how to light it. View the slide show BEFORE you take turn in your lab sheets and take the test.
Tomorrow we’ll continue with Parts 4 & 5. Be sure and read ahead before you come to class! Also, make double dog sure you are keeping up with the observations and answering ALL of the questions at the end of the lab on pg. 13 – 18. There are a TON of them!!!
I learned that you need to wave the gas away after a few tries when lighting a bunsen burner or you will be without eyebrows.
In the bunsen burner lab I struggled to stay on time. I had read the lab before class but the time had just got away. Now I am trying to know the exact materials that I need before class and where they are.
Triumph: I got better at lighting a Bunsen burner because i had trouble when we did it in 8th grade and i now know that you should wave away the gas after a few tries so that you are not without eyebrows.
This week I learned the difference between a dirty yellow flame and a blue luminous flame, and which is more effective for certain experiments. The yellow flame is not as hot as the blue flame, and the blue flame is more controlled than the yellow flame.
*non-luminous blue flame
This week I would give myself 4 out of 5 stars for lighting the Bunsen burner. Mainly it’s because I didn’t catch me, anyone, or anything on fire. Also my lab partner and I at first could not get it to work, but each time we followed instructions to turn off the gas and wave the air above the burner with paper. Finally we realized we had not completely turned the gas on and that was the reason we couldn’t make fire. Soon we properly had the gas on and were able to light the Bunsen burner.
Struggle: I feel like I need to make sure that I follow the directions more carefully and diligently. This will not only increase my efficiency, but also my partners in the lab and it would just make everything a whole lot easier. Also I just need to stay calm, because sometimes I’ll feel like I’m running out of time and try to rush only to mess up and get set back even further.
Triumph: So far, I think I have been doing very well with labs. My partner and I work great together. We move quickly and efficiently and work as a team. Also, we have done a good job of reading the directions carefully which has helped tremendously. I hope we keep up diligent habits.
Triumph: My partner and I have finished every lab on time this week. We work great as a team. I don’t think that we made too many mistakes. I think we work well beacuse we trust each other. For example, while he was doing one thing, I was doing another and we trusted that the other one was doing his job.
This week I struggled with adjusting the flame of the Bunsen burner. I got the barrel and needle valve confused. I also did not know which way would close and which way would open on either parts. I’ve fixed the problem by asking Ms. Skinner and reviewing the Bunsen burner slide show.
Triumph: This week my lab partner and I got into class and started on the lab without wasting much time.
Struggle: We struggled on Part 7 of the lab with the height of the flame.
I leave myself 3 out of 5 stars because i left my bunsen burner unattended. I learned how to filter salt from water. I had a lot of fun doing the labs and looking forward to more.
Triumph: This week i got better at lighting a bunsen burner,because last year when we did it i struggled a bit and also me and my lab partner got started right away when we got to class and we learned new skills like evaporating our filtrate.