One thing I had learned during this year in science was how chemical reaction work and what happens when other chemicals mix to form or create a new substance. During this learning session, we did activities and small projects that taught us about chemical reactions and their chemical reactions that made the new substance with how we knew there was a chemical reaction occurring(temperature change, color change, etc.)

 

One artifact that can demonstrate this growth of understanding chemical reactions is the first experiment that we did in the chemistry unit in class. Before this unit, we didn’t know very much of chemical reactions. We had did this experiment to start observing chemical reactions and their property changes. When we took notes about what we observed, we didn’t fully understand what caused the aluminum foil to dissolve or burn up in the copper chloride. After the end of the chemistry unit, we now know that a chemical reaction occurred. Evidence of this chemical reaction was when the aluminum foil had a color change. We notice this change in color because the color of the aluminum was at first silver, but after putting it into the copper chloride, it had become a reddish color. There was also a temperature change because the beaker was hot to the touch and that the beaker was nice and cool before this experiment. This can show that a chemical reaction occurred between these two substances because a chemical a chemical reaction had occurred. This can be shown by the change of properties in the aluminum and the copper chloride. Another artifact that demonstrates that I grew in the understanding of chemical reactions was the soap making experiment where we made our own soap with very hazardous chemicals and we had to be very careful when handled with these chemicals. When we did this experiment, we saw that the beginning of the activity, it was a liquid batch that wasn’t heated yet. Then after a while, the chemicals mixed together would slowly become heated after being mixed evenly so everything was evenly heated. After we were finished, we had to wait for a while for the chemicals to harden fully so the soap could be safe to touch. Throughout this experiment, a chemical reaction occurred because when the Sodium Hydroxide chemically bonded with the other substances or chemicals in the beaker, they had formed a new substance that is safe to use because the molecules rearranged to make a new substance. Evidence that a chemical reaction occurred is that there was a change in the temperature and color. The color was at first a clear mix of chemicals, and after hardening, it had become and yellowish color. The temperature changed because the chemicals would had to be heated to rearrange molecules. These two pieces of evidence show that a chemical reaction occurred in this experiment.

 

Before this unit, I had known nothing of chemical reactions, but after this unit with the experiments and readings, I had become more aware about chemical reactions and how can you tell one occurred.  I will be able to further develop my growth of chemical reactions by doing more experiments and read or study more interesting information on chemical reaction so I can be more influenced by the time I have to learn this material in later grades. I can grow more in this growth by doing more experiments that would involve a change of the substance of chemical(s).