Cetyl Alcohol Lab

For a period of about 4 minutes the temperature of the Cetyl Alcohol remained at 50 degrees Celsius. At first we were extremely confused and weren't sure if we had done something wrong. We then realized that the Cetyl Alcohol was changing phases and that was why there was no change in temperature.

The first thing we did was place a beaker with 400mL of water on a hot plate until it heated to 70 degrees Celsius.

After it was fully heated, we placed the test tube filled with cetyl alcohol into the beaker. From then on, we measured the temperature every 30 seconds until it reached 60 degrees Celsius.

Once the cetyl alcohol test tube reached 60 degrees Celsius, we placed it in an ice bath until it reached the starting temperature once again, 30 degrees Celsius.

The Data Conclusion:

In the cetyl alcohol lab, we accidentally started off with some errors. When the beaker of water reached 70 degrees Celsius, we didn't realize we were supposed to take it off the hot plate, and therefore, we kept on heating the water as we put the Cetyl Alcohol test tube in the hot water. We then took the beaker off the hot plate after we realized our mistake and started measuring the temperature with the beaker at around 80 degrees Celsius and the Cetyl Alcohol at about 30 degrees Celsius. After 9 minutes and 30 seconds, when the Cetyl Alcohol solution reached 60 degrees Celsius, we took the test tube of Cetyl Alcohol and put it into the ice water bath. We then let the temperature cool from 60 degrees Celsius until it reached 30 degrees Celsius after about 9 minutes. What we noticed about the test tube of Cetyl Alcohol while it was on the hot plate was it started melting. Because of the series of about 4 minutes of 50 degrees Celsius, we determined that must be a phase change and as it was going from solid to liquid we considered it melting. Then, when we took it off the hot plate and placed it into the iced water beaker, it there was another plateau as it froze at about 37 degrees Celsius. 

 

Website Evaluation

One website that I spend a decent amount of time on is Facebook. Facebook was created by Mark Zuckerberg and there are many places throughout the website where you can find his name and contact him. Also, on the front page of Facebook, it claims, "It's free and always will be". Despite the advertisements, Facebook is not making any money off the people who register. Finally, Facebook is updated and improved very frequently so the most recent copyright date was in fact in 2011. Overall, as a social-networking site, Facebook comes out on top.

As well as Facebook, I spend a lot of time on music blogs such as Camelback, Good Music All Day, and This Song is Sick. All three are very good websites and my favorite is most likely This Song is Sick. Not only does it provide me with cool, new, free music, but it also is updated daily, isn't making money off my use, and there are ways to contact all the different people who add songs and videos so if you need to contact anyone you are able to.

Bottled Water Web Site Evaluation

Best Website: http://www.nrdc.org/water/drinking/qbw.asp
         NRDC stands for National Resource Defense Council. The information on the website showed both the pros and cons of the plastic water bottle controversy. Also, it gave information on the President of the organization and gave multiple ways to contact and give feedback on the website. It also answered a ton of the commonly asked questions about the subject.

Worst Website: http://www.tappening.com/
         Tappening.com was the worst website because it provided no information about the makers of the site. Although the information did seem somewhat reliable, It was very biased towards the pro tap water side of the controversy. It also had lots of advertising for certain things such as message in a bottle, movies, and a book.

Final Question:
        I have always been very against pollution and littering and especially after reading these articles my dislike of the water bottle industries has increased. According to NRDC, "About 22 percent of the brands we tested contained, in at least one sample, chemical contaminants at levels above strict state health limits." I also learned that some websites can tell you where the water in water bottles come from. I got most of my information from NRDC.

College

After going through the college process with my older brother, I know how stressful it can be, but in the end when he was accepted into every college he applied to, I knew that working hard to get into college, although annoying, is the best choice in the end. A few things that I think will help me get into college are my grades, my dedication to soccer, and the different things I have experienced that many kids my age have most likely not.

Ever since I was young, I've always been really focused on getting good grades and have always been my own worst critic. I despise getting bad grades on tests, quizzes, homework, etc. and for this reason, I always work my hardest to get things done, which has brought my grades to all A's and B's. I have also been playing soccer since I was about 4 years old. I have always been on the most competitive teams in the state including Beachside Premier, Yankee United F.C. and Greenwich Highschool JV and Varsity. Dedication to soccer includes practice and games all year from fall to winter to spring to summer. It never lets up. Tournaments and games include driving or flying up to 4 hours away and to practice for Yankee I put away about 4 hours of time to take a 45 minute train ride there and back, and a 2 hour practice. Finally, some experiences I've had are going to Brazil for an international soccer tournament, and this summer hopefully working as an LT (leadership training) at Camp Lake Hubert in Brainard, Minnesota, a camp I attended for 5 years starting at 9 years old.

POGILS

The part about POGILS that I find most useful is that instead of relying on our teacher to teach us, we learn together as a group and end up teaching ourselves. This helps us to work out our own problems and develops our problem solving skills as well as forces us to interact with our group mates to find the answers. The one thing I do not find useful is the random groups because I truly think people are less likely to work together if they are not friends or don't really know the other people in their group.

One thing I would do to improve these lessons is have different groups work on a portion of the packet together and then as a whole class have each different group teach the other groups what they learned. I think this would bring the class back together and having students teach everyone may make the topics clearer.