All work from Unit 1 is now past due, but may be submitted without
penalty by Friday, September 16th.
Students who have not yet completed portions of their Unit 1
Exam may come in to work on it today during lunch.
Students who have yet to take the Unit 1 Exam will be
given a Makeup Test that they will have to complete outside of class.
Students will be expected to hand in their Composition Books
to be graded on Monday, September 12th.
A detailed Unit 2 Syllabus will be provided next week.In the meantime, our first assignment is Unit
2 will connect two topics covered in Unit 1, the nature of science
and scientific notation.That assignment will involve a video, ‘COSMIC VOYAGE’, which is
available on-line, HERE:
Chemistry students will be viewing a 36-minute IMAX video in class beginning on Tuesday, September 3rd, and completing a worksheet based on part of the video. The film, 'Cosmic Voyage', was made in 1996 for the Smithsonian Institute and was clearly inspired by a classic science education film called 'Powers of Ten', originally produced in 1977 by the husband-and-wife team of Rae and Charles Eames.
'Cosmic Voyage' approaches the idea of using the metric system, which is based on powers of ten, to explore the question: "What is really large, and really small?" The film first zooms out from an acrobat's ring in St. Mark's Square in Venice, the place where Galileo first trained his telescope on the heavens.
Through 23 powers of ten, we leave first the Earth, then our solar system, then the Milky Way Galaxy behind, until we reach the limit of modern astronomy, where we can see images from about 13 billion years past.
Reversing course, the video then zooms in on drop of water in the Dutch town of Delft, where Antonie Van Leuuwenhoek first trained his early microscope to discover the hidden world of microbes.
As we zoom in on a paramecium, we penetrate its cell nucleus, then zoom in on a molecule of DNA.
Within that molecule is a carbon atom, and the world within that atom is mostly empty space! Within the atom, the atomic nucleus contains virtually all of an atom's mass, made of particles called protons and neutrons. These, in turn, are formed from even smaller particles called quarks.
The film continues with a discussion of the search for a fundamental theory in physics through the use of particle accelerators like Fermilab, along with an overview of the likely "recent" events that led to our sun, our solar system, the Earth and life itself.
Here, presented on YouTube, is the entire film, if you wish to review the material or share it with others. As the narrator (Morgan Freeman) intones, 'we are all travelers on a voyage of discovery!'
Students: HERE is a link to where you can get the Power Point, 'The Nature of Chemistry', which is used to help complete the Study Guide of the same name:
Remember: that Study Guide is a relatively-easy Assignment given to streamline the process of note-taking in this course. You want to complete every part of it and hand it in as soon as possible, as it will be graded and returned to you in order that you can create your complete, detailed Notes inside your Composition Book:
You are not allowed to use the Study Guide on the Unit Test, but you ARE allowed to use your Composition Book, so this is really a very important routine that you must maintain in this class. Make sure you do!
Here is the Syllabus for Unit 1, 'Introduction To Chemistry', in Mr. Hatfield's Chemistry Classes:
Please notice that items marked with an asterisk (*), including the Complete Unit 1 Notes, must be completed to instructor’s satisfaction in order for students to be permitted to take the Summative Exam.
Students are given time to complete most of this work in class. Whatever is not completed in class becomes homework. If students have not completed the work prior to that Exam, they will be assigned Study Hall at Lunch or After-School to complete the work and the home will be contacted.
Students, my name is Scott Hatfield, and I will be serving as your Chemistry Instructor in the 2022-2023 school year. We live in interesting times, in a world of unexpected challenges.
The global pandemic of COVID-19 created real challenges for public schools, most of which were closed for part of 2019 and all of 2020.
School districts switched to on-line learning through platforms like ZOOM or Microsoft Teams, and teachers and students had to adapt to changing conditions.
Instead of real print texts, students often had to use digital texts. Instead of actually writing their own texts or performing actual calculations in real time, students submitted electronic documents. And, in Chemistry, instead of doing actual labs with real chemicals, Chemistry students worked with on-line simulations.
All of these on-line tools have their uses, but no one believes that they are as authentic or rewarding as actually doing real tasks in-person, in real time. I want my students to know we will continue to use on-line resources like Microsoft Teams and this blog to communicate information about this course and research topics in Chemistry.
But, at the same time, please understand we are committed to doing most of our work (reading, writing, calculations and labs) in person, in class. The main usefulness of the on-line resources that I describe below is to support that work:
We already have classes set up in MICROSOFT TEAMS, so you can be automatically notified about important events in class, obtain class materials and communicate with your instructor.* The Teams platform will often contain links to specific posts in this blog, so it is important that all of you are able to access THIS blog!
DIGITAL TEXT:
While you should have already received Vol. 1 of your print text to work with, if you are forced to travel during the school year, it might be more helpful to access a digital version of the text. In that case, you will need to access this through the Clever app.
Once you are in, you will find the 'Saavas Realize' link, that will take you to where you can log onto the digital curriculum, as shown below:
Just like Microsoft Teams, the online version of the text will be organized around classes---and your student information should already be imported into those classes. Pretty convenient!
* So, if you don't have Teams on both your personal computer and your cellular device, click on one of the links provided! Watch the video! Download and install whatever versions of Teams you need! Have questions? Write them down, and send me an email: Scott.Hatfield@fresnounified.org
Mr.Hatfield's Chemistry students should have completed their Notes on material related to pg. 146-171 (volume 2) of their textbook. They can download a copy of the Power Point containing those Notes HERE:
Students received a Study Guide based upon this section of Notes on March 24. If they have not completed it in class today (April 8th), it should be completed and ready to hand in after Spring Break, when Mr. Hatfield's classes will complete their titration labs and have a Unit Test on equilibrium, solutions, molarities, acids and bases.
Students were shown this video in Friday's class. Paul Andersen demonstrates the centrality of water to most acid-base chemistry, and explains how to calculate equilibrium constants for acids (Ka) and bases (Kb), and how to express those as pKa's or pKb's:
