Final Reflections

This will officially be my last blog post of the year. I thought that this year in Honors Chemistry was very educational and enlightening.

The first day I was in class, I knew it would be different than most classes. One aspect of this class that made it very interesting … and liberating was that cell phones and other electronics were allowed in class–for educational usage only, of course. Normally, these would be prohibited because school administration believes that these are a distraction, promoting cyber-bullying, enable students to cheat on tests, etc. But, cell phones can also be used for good. In this class, cell phones were used to take pictures of lab experiments, projects, take notes, etc. I even used my Kindle Fire to take notes and organize projects, such as the Soap project in the middle of the year.

As a whole, I thought my learning experience was very good. I thought that I did a spectacular job learning in this class. I understood practically everything that I was taught. It just came to me easily. Some of the concepts that I understood easily were conservation of energy, relationships between mass and volume and density, the forming of chemical compounds, predicting the reactants used based on the product formed, and predicting the number of moles produced based on the ratios of the compounds in the balanced equation. I understood that, with density, the greater the mass and the lesser the volume, the greater the density and applied this to identify certain chemical compounds and understood that the chemical composition and the arrangement of particles had to remain the same as well as the density. I could understand the conservation of energy because not only did I know that certain energy could leave or enter the system, but that this decreased or increased the temperature, rearranged the particles, helped to change states, and even that energy could enter or leave the system depending on the chemical reactions. I could tell that based on the reactants in a chemical equation, that they formed this compound, and depending on the charges of the elements, I took advantage of this to find the number of elements required to combine to form a neutrally-charged compound. Based on this, I could calculate the ratios and because of this, I could calculate the ratios of the change in moles in a reaction based on this.

But, one standard I think I struggled with was the difference between was precision and accuracy. I knew that both were important when collecting data and ensuring that I collected measurements accurately, but I couldn't identify the difference. I assumed that they were like interchangeable parts because of this. In our common language, these words mean the same thing. But, in science, it's different. Accuracy is limited based on how we measured it and is associated with human error. But, with precision, it was tough to identify what difference it would make if I had to round a number to the nearest whole number. Whole numbers were expected, but I figured it would be more accurate to say the entire number. But, then accuracy is based on how I measured it, and precision is based on the number of digits. So, I wondered how can something be less precise but just as accurate? It was one of those tough concepts to wrap my head around.

I could do whiteboard problems because the math involved was easy for me to understand. I could calculate the number of moles based on the given grams of that substance and the molar mass of that particular substance so easily and vice versa because I understood they had a proportionate relationship with each other. I often did the whiteboarding, and not did I do a quality job with the whiteboarding, but I also realized that I could solve problems in real life using this technique rather than just memorizing the technique and applying them in just ordinary math problems.

My group and I participated in labs. I thought that I tried my best in the lab experiments. I meticulously ensured that the data I was collecting was correct. I reread all the mathematical procedures I made and made sure I excluded the mass of the beaker when I had to consider the mass of the copper chloride, for example. However, when my energy was wasted on overachieving in APUSH, this was my struggle area. But, I learned a lot from doing the labs. Whenever I dealt with this stress, I was glad we had debriefs afterwards and talk about what we were supposed to learn in the labs. This helped me consider what I should be writing my notes on and how I should write my blog posts and evaluate what I learned.

I also enjoyed the projects in class. I remember the most the thermos project, for example. We were competing to see who could make the most effective thermos, and if one would do very well and had the least temperature change, this would mean they had a great understanding of how energy is conserved and how to keep it this way. I put my best effort in those projects. I often looked for ways to improve and even collected data before I participated in the competition. When I realized the thermos needed more insulation from the inside, I added more and tested it to make sure it gave me results. As soon as I achieved the amount of temperature change I wanted, I stopped and made sure the project was kept intact.

Another aspect of this class that was enlightening was the blog reflections. In my other classes, I would never write on those classes, and if I left my notes in my locker one night before the test, I would be struggling. But, by writing the blog reflections before hand, I can study and review from the blog post to understand the standards that were taught in class. When I write on my blog, I incorporate all the notes I took from class, my experiences with the labs, and what I learned during class. This contributed to my learning because I was less likely to forget what I learned in class even thought math-based classes are my forte and less of a struggle to me than classes like history, which require lots of memorization. The blog writing not only helped me remember the criteria, but it helped me focus on the ares that were the most important. Because there was a word limit (650-750 words), I would always keep my writing within this range, and if it were outside this range, I would omit information that was irrelevant or keep some information since there were other key points I wanted to include. This, though, in spite of the word limit, helped me focus on the concepts I learned in class without getting lost in thought or abstraction since I tend to over-think all the time.

As a matter of fact, over-thinking was one of the things that damaged me this year, in a way, especially when I was stressed out over AP U.S. History. This class was really hard for me because there were so many facts to memorize. This class put me under a lot of pressure because I wanted to get straight A's and have a high GPA, but I always got B's and B-'s. By the time the 2nd semester began, I just resigned and thought to myself, "I give up." This was detrimental because all I could think of was APUSH, and this was bad for me when I had to do lab experiments. With the loss of sleep and focus, I screwed up a lot in labs. I remember when I was trying to do the electrolysis experiment, and I wanted to do it all myself because I was used to doing things the way I wanted to. I struggled, and rather than let anybody help me, I wanted to try to solve the problem myself. As a result, I let my group members down, and I feel bad for doing this. I just hate myself for getting APUSH into my head and making me feel that I couldn't do anything anyone. This negative attitude made me less likely to be able to focus on what I loved the most–chemistry.

If I were to transport myself back in time, I would tell myself to remember the first moment I experience chemistry. As a kid, I played with chemistry sets all the time. I even remember the one time when I watched this one movie where this kid mixes the chemicals incorrectly, and the next thing that happens, it blows up, and his face is covered with black goop. This was funny and made me think that chemistry was so cool and inspiring. And it is. I just wish this year I could hold myself above water and not have to sink so deeply. But now that I have grown, I would tell myself not to overreach and overachieve thinking that I would meet success along the way because my leaps of success in the beginning were short-lived and fleeting. I often dealt with failures, such as the lack of balance and a focus balance between two classes I put all my energy in.

In spite of all this, though, I knew that I wouldn't have to worry about this class much because I given the opportunity to reassess on standards that I wasn't able to study in depth because of other affairs I had to attend to. In the middle of the year, I had to reassess 7 of the 9 questions on this one test because there was a huge APUSH test that I didn't want to fail. So, I didn't get the standards that required me to know the atomic charges of the elements we were studying in class. Nonetheless, the reassessments gave me a chance to study the standards and get better grades. I liked the assessments because I could come into school early at 7 to take them over and not have to worry about missing important information during math or some other class. I was able to find my individual of remembering the charges. I used a mnemonic device for the groups. The first group, for example, was KHANLI for potassium, hydrogen, Li for lithium, and Na reversed for sodium–this helped me remember the +1 charged alkaline metals. I also liked the fact that every time I went to the reassessments, Mr. Abud was always there, and if I needed to, I would ask him questions about certain standards and even tell him what I learned along the way. I thought this was a very helpful and enlightening way to learn chemistry.

Then, within a week after reassessments normally, the reassess grades would replace the ones that I reassess for. For the most part, I would do better and go from a 2 or a 3 to a 4, although there were times when I gone from a 3 to a 2, but those didn't affect my grade much. Nonetheless, I thought the ActiveGrade tool was very good because it didn't base the grades on the number I got correct out of all the possible questions on the test. Each question was graded on a scale of 1 to 4 to determine one's mastery. I thought this tool was helpful in assuring the standards I did and didn't know and helped me take actions accordingly.

I think that this class has exceeded the potential I thought it would be. I can't think of anyway this class can't improve in any way for next year.

I know this blog post is way, way long and exceeds the word limit at 2,164 words. But, in spite of my hypercritical and honest nature, I do have to admit that I enjoyed this class very much and learned much from it. I enjoyed this class because the environment wasn't stressful. I could use a tablet if I wanted to in order to take notes without being yelled at. I liked that I could reassess on standards I felt I struggled with and wanted to improve upon. The class activities, I thought, were engaging and entertaining, but helped me learn in a more … observant fashion. When student volunteers had to align themselves and then move around a certain way to demonstrate the movement of particles in solids, liquids, and gases, I thought it was humorous when the students dumped into each other as if though particles would. This made me chuckle a little and see how particles moved. These are the reasons why I enjoyed this class and will be missing it while I take AP Chemistry next year. As a whole, I would say that my learning experience, on a scale of 1-4, was a solid 4 because I learned every step of the way.