March+22+Creating,+imagining,+innovating+-+Charles+Wang

After carrying out numerous lab experiments in Chemistry class, we were assigned to design our own lab experiment comparing the energy efficiency of Ethanol and Methanol. Given only a set amount of materials we had to devise a procedure in which we can see whether Ethanol or Methanol releases more energy per mole. This task challenged the class, myself included, to go past just reading someone else's lab design and carry it out. This assignment pushed us to apply the knowledge we had previously learned in class and create our own lab design. Not only were we creating a means of testing the efficiency of Ethanol and Methanol, but were were creating a way to present our learning in a more meaning full way than a test. We had to imagine the different ways of testing energy efficiency and choose the one we felt was the most appropriate. This was one of the first time I were able to truly demonstrate my ability to create and construct a product reflecting my learning that wasn't simply answering questions and plugging in calculations. It was an application of my skills and my progression as a Chemistry student.

This task was an example of innovating because my partner and I used equipment we had not used previously in this class. We used the spirit burner and the LoggerPro temperature probe. This was, in a sense, innovation for ourselves because we had never used the spirit burner or the LoggerPro system in a Chemistry setting. We applied the knowledge we had perviously about the tools in order to set up an effective means of carrying out the lab experiment. Many of the other students were using thermometers to measure the temperature of the water above the spirit burners. Using a more "advanced" means of collecting data (which was more accurate as well) demonstrated how we could use more innovative ways of testing energy efficiency. No other student in our class had used the spirit burner in conjunction with the LoggerPro probe (or at least until they saw how effect our set up was), which shows how my partner and I developed a more novel way of recording data that was fully utilizing the technological advances of modern day society.