Overall, this semester went very well and I think that I learned a lot of new and valuable things. I think that my favorite part was either section 1 or 2. I really liked how to we got to research and design our own labs and choose things that we were interested in. Specifically the crystallization lab and the bath bomb lab I did in the beginning of the year. I liked being able to have freedom when doing it and being able to research and learn a little more independently. I think that I was curious about a lot of things this semester. I liked when we could have class discussions or talks about different subjects. The beginning of the year really got me excited to plan out my labs and choose what I wanted to learn about. The rocket project also made me very curious with space and how the rockets worked. I really liked being able to build a rocket, design a motor, do the math, and see it successfully fly. That felt very accomplishing and I was proud of my work. There actually were not very many things that didn't spark my curiosity. I can't really think of any specific examples but I guess some of the videos were not very interesting. Also, I would have liked to do more independent labs, rather than doing so much work with the rockets. I think that this semester has helped me in many way. I am definitely way more interested in science, specifically space science and rocketry. I also think I learned how to manage my time better. I was a lot of work to keep up with the amount of points that I needed to get for each section. Something I would like to say to anyone going into this class is to work with your time management. Make sure you are blogging everything as you go. You may not want to do it right away, but I cannot stress this enough, you will be very stressed out when the end of the section comes and your blog is not up to date. So, just make sure you do that on time. Also find what you are curious about and try to do labs that are related around that. You will enjoy it way more. To conclude this semester, I really liked it and I am for sure going to miss coming to chemistry class, but I will remember what I have learned and try to continue doing that kind of work.
Today, we launched our final rocket that we had been designing these past few weeks. It was a success. It turned out that we had chosen good materials and done our calculations correctly. Our rocket launched well, and actually went pretty high. The only problem was that when it came back down, the parachute got burned and slightly melted because of the ejection charge. So the parachute was deployed but it never came out properly, so when our rocket hit the ground it came down hard causing two of our fins to break off. Other than that the rocket was fine.
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MorganHi. I am a sophomore at High Tech High in San Diego,CA. This is my chemistry blog that I will be posting on for my first semester. Enjoy! Archives
December 2015
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