March+22+Applying+past+knowledge+to+new+situations+-+Charles+Wang

In the Kinetics unit, we learned about the different factors that affect rate of reaction. The three factors are surface area, concentration, and temperature. In investigating these factors, we had to carry out two experiments, both dealing with rate of reaction. One of them investigated the production of gas in a tube while the other investigated the loss of mass in a metal substance mixed with hydrochloric acid. From the experiment, we learned how to draw tangent lines and deduce the rate of the reaction. Later in the Kinetics unit, we were assigned to write a lab design and investigate one of the factors that affects rate of reaction. Remembering the past experiment that dealt with magnesium and hydrochloric acid, my partner and I decided to replicate a similar experiment, where we would put zinc, a different metal, into hydrochloric acid and observe how the mass changes as the reaction progresses, except this time, we would alter the concentrations of hydrochloric to see how that affects the rate of reaction.

We applied the skills of drawing tangents and calculating rate of reaction we learned in the beginning of the unit to the data collection and processing process of this new lab report. We also applied an older lab assignment and modified it to become our final lab design in investigating how concentration affects initial rates of reaction. We felt that applying a previously learned lab procedure to our new assignment situation was fitting as it would prove that we could truly understand the meaning of that past lab assignment in relations to our learning and our growth as Chemistry students.

Also, I applied the skills I learned after receiving feedback on my last lab report (the lab comparing the energy per moles of Ethanol and Methanol) in this new lab report. Although I got the same grade on both lab reports, I had a much easier time writing the second one and found myself acting more independently in problem solving. I had to ask less questions about the lab writing process the second time writing a lab report. In applying what I had learned writing my last lab report before this one, I could prove to myself that I could apply previously learned material in new, slightly different, situations.