What's the latest from Mr. Wisdo's Honors and AP Chemistry labs? He shares an update with us for the blog.

Honors Chemistry - Determining the Specific Heat of Aluminum

How do you determine how well substances transfer energy? Honors Chemistry students explored the concept of specific heat, or how easily a substance can transfer heat energy, through the use of calorimetry. Calorimeters are commonly used devices to study thermodynamics due to their insulation and ability to measure energy change through thermometers. Commercially, calorimeters are used to determine the caloric content of food! During our lab, students were tasked with determining the specific heat of aluminum through the use of these devices and temperature probes. By heating up a sample of aluminum and then measuring how it transfers its energy to room temperature water in a calorimeter, students can calculate aluminum's specific heat. They will complete this analysis and submit a lab report outlining their results and a comparison of their answer from the lab to the actual value of aluminum's specific heat. 

AP Chemistry - Calculating Amounts of Active Ingredient

AP Chemistry got a little taste of biology in a titration lab! Titrations involve determining the unknown amount of a substance by reacting it with a known amount of a different substance. This process involves a piece of very accurate glassware known as burettes (which are the tall cylindrical objects in the pictures) and the use of indicators (the pink color you see) to identify when the reaction is completed. In our lab, students were tasked with acting as quality assurance agents to determine the amount of acetylsalicylic acid (a weak acid) in an aspirin tablet. To accomplish this goal, students wrote and adapted their own procedure to complete a series of titrations using a strong base- sodium hydroxide.