June 13 – Presentations and Test Review

Great work on all your presentations today!

As requested, here are the answers to all the test review questions:

• Final Test Review Topics

• Final Test Review Multiple Choice
• Answers to Multiple Choice

• Final Test Review Short Answer
• Answers to Short Answer

Good luck in your studies!

Jun. 9 – Final Project and Final Test

Here is the final culminating project:

• Final Project: Career Exploration and Science Connections

and here are some questions to help you prepare for the final test:

• Final Test Review Topics
• Final Test Review Multiple Choice
• Final Test Review Short Answer

June 3 – Greenhouse Effect and Greenhouse Gases

Today we discussed different things that affect Earth's climate, such as the greenhouse effect.  We also discussed what greenhouse gases are and looked at some examples.

• Effects on Climate
• Greenhouse Gases

Important Dates

• June 12, 13: Culminating Project Presentations
• June 16: Final Test

June 2 – Weather vs. Climate

Today we completed the discussion of the movie, An Inconvenient Truth.  Then we spent some time discussing the difference between weather and climate.  I showed you a bunch of photos with different statements and asked you decide if it was a statement about weather or climate.

Handout

• Inconvenient Truth Discussion
• Weather vs. Climate 

May 30 – Inconvenient Truth

I hope you all enjoyed the basketball game yesterday!

Today we continued watching An Inconvenient Truth.  Here's the handout with related discussion questions:

Handout

• Inconvenient Truth Discussion

May 28 – Unit 4

Today we started our new unit!

Unit 4 – Climate

We started by watching a movie called An Inconvenient Truth.  Where a former US presidential candidate, Al Gore, explains some of the concern behind climate change.  Here are some discussion questions that you should be able to answer as we watch the film:

• Inconvenient Truth Discussion

May 26 – Unit Test Practice

Today we did a practice test.  Your Unit Test tomorrow will have the same format and topics, but the questions will be different.  If you can do the practice test, you will have no problem with the actual test tomorrow.  Good luck!

Handouts

• Optics Test Review
• Optics Test Practice

May 23 – Converging Lenses

Here are the notes from today:

Handouts

• Converging Lenses
• Converging Lens Diagrams
• Applications of Converging Lenses

• Optics Test Review

Remember to study for the Unit Test on May 27th!

May 20, 21 – Optics Investigation

Yesterday and today, we used ray boxes along with lenses and mirrors to try some hands on activities.  How do rays of light move in real life?  Did the things I tell you in the notes really work?  We'll find out!

Handout

• Optics Investigation

May 16 – Total Internal Reflection

We played with a laser on Friday!

I did a demo using some plastic piece and the laser.  At certain angles, the laser beam goes right through the block, but as I increase the angle, at a certain point, the laser stops going through the block and reflects off the inside of the block!  This is called total internal reflection.  It can happen whenever light moves from a shower medium into a faster medium.  The angle when this happens is called the critical angle.

Here are some notes:

Handout

• Total Internal Reflection

And some examples:

This is a photo from under a swimming pool.

 At large angles (bottom of photo), the water reflects the bottom of the pool (total internal reflection).  At small angles (top of the photo), the water lets light from above the pool get through.  The critical angle is the line where the colour changes from black to blue.

High speed internet requires fibre optic cables, which use total internal reflection along plastic wires to carry information at high speeds.  See how the light only comes out the end of the plastic wires?  Endoscopes also use the same idea to let you see inside the human body using a plastic wire.

Here's what laser beams would look like as they bounces around inside a plastic fibre optic wire.

May 15 – Refraction

Today we discuss why this happens:

See how the laser changes direction as it goes through the glass and water?  This is called refraction.  It can make things look different when light moves through different media:

Or even make fish look further away:

Finally refraction through hot and cold air can cause mirages:

Have a look at the handouts for definitions and practice problems.

Handouts

• Refraction notes
• Refraction worksheet

May 14 – Mirror Diagrams Practice and Uses of Mirrors

Handouts

• Ray Diagram Practice

Today we worked on the package that I left with the supply teacher yesterday.  I hope you guys are getting a better feeling of how to draw these ray diagrams.

Towards the end of class, we discussed and brainstormed applications of mirrors.  Here's what you guys came up with:

May 12 – Curved Mirror Diagrams

Today we discussed more about curved mirrors and how to find the images using ray diagrams.

Handouts

• Curved Mirror Diagrams

May 9 – Practice and Curved Mirrors

Today we practiced more of the sketching reflections from yesterday's handout:

• Plane Mirror Reflections

Then we discussed the following...

Where have you seen these before?

What do they all have in common?  They're all curved mirrors!

Here are two reflections in as spoon.  What's the difference?  One is on the convex side and one is on the concave side.  Can you tell the difference?

Here are the notes with the new vocabulary:

Handout

• Curved Mirrors

May 8 – Reflection Ray Diagrams

Handout

• Plane Mirror Reflections

Have a look through the handout and practice drawing the ray diagrams for a plane mirror.  You should be able to figure out where the images will be if you have a plane mirror.

May 7 – Quiz and Reflections

Today we did the first quiz for this unit.  Congratulations on completing it!

Handouts

• Reflection Angles
• Law of Reflections

Next we discussed reflections.  What's wrong with this refection?

How do you know it's not real?  Here are some other fun reflections:

Can we figure out where objects have to be for us to see them in a mirror?  Why is "AMBULANCE" always written backwards on the front of an ambulance?  These are things we will discuss over the next day.

Apr. 30 and May 1 – Mixing Colors

Today we looked at additive and subtractive colours.  They're two different ways to mix colours, using light and using pigment.

It is tricky to have two different ways to mix colours, so try your best to keep them separate in your head.

Handouts

• Abosorbing, Reflecting and Transmitting Worksheet
• Mixing Colours Notes
• Mixing Colours Worksheet

We also watched Bill Nye explain colour and light!

Apr. 29 – Reflection, Transmission and Absorption of Light

Today we looked at what happens when light hits and object.  Does it bounce back (reflection)?  Go through (transmission)?  Or gets absorbed (absorption)?

Handouts

• Light worksheet
• Reflection, Transmission and Absorption

Light can be REFLECTED.

Light can also be ABSORBED.

Light can also pass through things (TRANSMISSION).

Here are some transparent fishes!

Apr. 28 – Light as Electromagnetic Rays

Here are the notes for today:

• Light as Electromagnetic Rays

And the powerpoint to go along with it:

• Light as Electromagnetic Rays PowerPoint

Apr. 25 – New Unit: Optics!

Today we started our new unit!

We discussed where light comes from, what makes light and different methods of producing light.  Here are the notes:

Handout

• Introduction to Optics

Apr. 23 – Practice Test

Today we studied for the Unit Test by working on a practice test.  If you can do the practice test, you will do well on the Unit Test tomorrow.  Good luck!

• Chemistry Practice Test

Apr. 22 – Chemistry Review

Today we did some chemistry review.  Your Unit Test has been moved to this Thursday.

Handout

• Writing and balancing chemical equations review

Here are some solutions we worked out in class.

Apr. 14 – pH Lab Activity

Today we conducted the pH Lab!  We used pH paper and cabbage juice to measure the pH of various household products.  We also investigated two mystery chemicals, one of which was hydrochloric acid (HCl)!  Were you able to tell which one it was?

• pH Lab

Work on the questions in the application part of the lab and hand it in tomorrow.

Apr. 11 – pH Scale

Today I finally got the Smart Board working!  Here are the exciting notes we took as a class:

Handout

• PH Scale

Here are some examples of Acid-Base indicators:

We will be using some of these indicators on Monday!  Bring substances from home that you would like to test.

Apr. 10 – Acids and Bases

Today we began talking about Acids and Bases.

What's an acid?  What is a base?  Have a look at the notes here:

• Acids and Bases

Here are some common household items that are either acids or bases.

They have some similar and some very different properties.  We completed a Venn diagram of the similarities and differences of acids and bases.

What this video of what some powerful acids and bases can do to coke cans:

We then guessed if some substances were acids or bases:

Acid or Base?

 - tomato juice (acid)

 - cough syrup (base)

 - oven cleaner (base)

 - water (neutral)

 - blood (mostly neutral)

 - seawater (base)

 - coffee (acid)

 - saliva (neutral)

 - hair bleach (base)

 - vinegar (acid)

 - baking soda (base)

Apr. 9 – Conservation of Mass Lab

Today we completed some questions and analysis on the Conservation of Mass Lab that we completed yesterday.

Here is the handout in case you don't have it:

• Conservation of Mass Lab

This version is updated with the applications questions on the last page.  If you are not done, you should complete it and hand it in Tomorrow.

Unit Test

We are almost done the chemistry unit and that means a unit test is coming up.

• The test will be on Wednesday, Apr. 23.

Start reviewing early!

Apr. 7 – Lab Prep

Today we discussed the lab activity that we will do tomorrow.

Handouts

• Laboratory Safety Rules
• Conservation of Mass Lab

Remember all our discussion about safety precautions.  I will expect you to treat safety as the first priority when we are conducting the lab.

We then went through the lab procedures together to ensure that you understand the topic we are investigating.  During a chemical reaction we expect mass to be conserved throughout.  This means the total mass of the products is the same as the reactants.  We will investigate if this is true when we perform a reaction in a closed container and in an open container.

We took some time to write down our hypothesis.

Then we looked at the procedures to make sure that you are familiar with all the equipment we will be using.

Here's the setup for part A of the lab.

Finally, we discussed how to describe the appearance of chemical solutions.  Try describing milk and water using the proper terminology.  Which one is transparent or opaque?  Which one is colourless or white?  Which one is more viscous?   Which one is liquid?

We practiced by describing milk and water.

Be prepared to conduct the lab tomorrow!

Apr. 4 – More on Balancing Equations

Today we continued with yesterdays work:

• Balancing Chemical Equations

This is a very difficult procedure, so don't be discouraged if you don't get it right away.  Take your time and go through it using the steps I showed you in class.

Apr. 3 – Balancing Equations

Today we talked about the Conservation of Mass.

Have a look at this video:

The cat turns into their teacher!  This is magical because of many reasons, but one thing is that the woman is much bigger than the class.  She has much more mass.  In real life, mass does not change in a chemical reaction.  The mass of the reactants are the same as the mass of the products.

We talked about what this means when it comes to chemical equations: the number of atoms in the reactants is equal to the number of atoms in the products.

This means we have to adjust chemical equations to make them balanced.  I showed some examples and a method of how to balance them.

Handout

• Balancing Chemical Equations

Apr. 2 – Counting Atoms

Today we reviewed how to count atoms, this time with brackets and coefficients.

Handouts

• Counting Atoms in Chemical Formulas
• Counting Atoms Practice

I also handed back the quiz and went over the solutions.  Please see me if you have any questions.

Apr. 1 – More on Writing Chemical Formulas

We all need more practice on writing chemical formulas.  So today we did a review and covered all the steps and rules.

Handout

• Writing Chemical Formulas

Continue working on the handout from previous day.

• Writing Chemical Equations worksheet

Mar. 31 – Writing chemical equations

Today we took on the task of writing chemical equations.  This is not easy and there are plenty of rules, but if you remember how to write chemical formulas from the name, you're already half way there!

This process is quite complicated, so take your time and keep practicing to get use to all the steps.

Handouts

• Writing Chemical Equation Notes
• Writing Chemical Equations worksheet

Mar. 28 – Types of Chemical Reactions

Today we finished up this handout from Tuesday:

• Bohr-Rutherford Diagrams for Compounds

Remember that in ionic compounds, the atoms gain or lose electrons.  In molecular compounds they share electrons.

Next, we talked about the signs that a chemical reaction has occurred.  Look at each of these and decide, was it a chemical reaction or not?

Cutting up a carrot?

A carrot rotting?

Boiling an egg until it is hard boiled.

Boiling water.

Lighting a campfire.

Explosives going off.

Baking a cake.

Water freezing.

Bending a paper clip.

Finally we looked at different types of chemical reactions.

Handouts

• Types of Reactions
• Types of Reactions worksheet
• Classifying Chemical Reactions

Here are the different types that you should know:

Synthesis

Decomposition

Single Displacement

Double Displacement

See the handouts for details, examples and practice problems.