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Chemistry in Earth Systems: Fall Semester 2023

with Barton Clark: Master of Engineering!

Archie Williams High School

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week 1: August 21

Learning Objective Summary:________________

This week was simply to introduce the class called chemistry. Chemical reactions are simply combinations of substances combining to form new substances, which have new, unique properties. Writing equations, making observations, and being able to predict the outcomes of reactions is all part of the class.

New assignments this week.

  • Notes! Students were assigned the task of taking notes during Clark's lecture on Thurs/Friday. (see discussion at right: What is chemistry). Due on Monday.

Additional Resources.

 

Introduction to Mr. Clark. Main point was that he's been "on both sides of the fence".. the student in the "back of the class" who did no homework and just "skated by" and the "heading to CAL" student (for graduate school). The plan is to:

  • first and foremost, to make the class interesting and accessable for everyone.
  • to make it enriching for all, but to structure the class such that students who are planning on majoring in the physical sciences, will be successfull in their first year of college (i.e. not be in the 60% which fails their first-year "weeder" courses)
  • to gain an appreciation for applied mathematics for modeling systems
  • to better understand the patterns and systems that govern "how the universe works".

Class website, policies and grading.. first handouts welcome to class and grading philosophy

Discussion/Demonstration: What is Chemistry? Clark showed how Sulfuric Acid when added to powered sugar, results in a steaming mass of pure carbon spewing out steam. Along the way.. what are sugars? (carbhydrates) What are acids? (proton donors). How do we measure strengths of acids? (pH scale). Substances have properties.. Chemistry is the formation of new substances.

Also.. how to take notes. (Clark discussed how his former wife rose from the bottom of the college chemistry class to not only the top of the class, but ended up changing majors to chemistry and then transferred to UC Berkeley and was recognized as one of the top 25 undergraduate students at the school.. All because of how she took notes.)

week 2: August 28

Learning Objective Summary:________________

This week contiunued with new demonstration including sodium metal being dropped into water to produce hydrogen gas and sodium hydroxide (and enough heat to ignite the hydrogen gas!) and the combustion of methane as an example of how hydrocarbons combust. This also served to introduce the concept of balanced equations in chemistry. .

New assignments this week.

  • Chemistry Text book notes: Sections 3.1 Properties of Matter (and problems 1 and 2 at the end of the section) and section 3.2: Changes in Matter (and problems 11, 12, 13).
  • Mini-lab: Building Models of molecules during combustion

Demo/discusssion: Sodium is a metal which you'll never find in its pure form in nature. Its too reactive. Sodium dropped in water results in the formation of Sodium Hydroxide and Hydrogen gas, which is flammable. Along the way, we wrote out the entire equation including states of matter, discussed the properties of each substance along the way.

Discussion and introduction to first Unit. The History of rainfall in the Western Region. The Paleocene Eocene Thermal Maximum. RainWater Catchment systems. Central Marin Sanitation captures all of our water.

Lecture/Demo Combustion 101. The combustion of natural gas. In this demonstration, Clark filled an old paint can with natural gas (Methane, on this side of the hill). While the flame was burning Clark discussed patterns in compounds (like the structures of sugars) and in chemical reactions (like dehydration reactions and in this case, combustion reactions). Also discussed, was the concept of Natural Gasses, ( varying series of substances with differing lengths of carbon chains, collectively called Hydrocarbons and in this case specically, Alkanes) and their relative amounts of energy and other properties (such as the degree to which they exist as liquids, gasses or heavier oils/tars).

Discussion: How Clark grades 'lab assignments' (using the handout for the lab below as an example).

Mini-lab: Building Models of molecules during combustion. Students used model building kits to create the various Reactants and Products involved in the combustion of Propane.

Could Humans be causing another PETM?

week 3: Sept. 04

Learning Objective Summary:________________

This week is the student's first pass at examining the Periodic Table of Elements and being introduced to Atomic Structure including the nucleus and the electron 'shells' which surround it.

New assignments this week.

  • Chapter from the book: Uncle Tungsten. Chapter 4. The perfect metal. students are to annotate this reading, due NEXT Thurs/Friday.
  • Video notes (messy). Students watched the first hour of the video Hunting the Elements. Notes due next Tues/Wed.
  • Calcium Carbonate Separation lab. This lab handout guides us through the process of separating Calcium Carbonate from the sugars and starches of a Tum's Tablet. Students will write up a formal report over the next couple of weeks incorporating the results and chemistry of this lab with the in-class discussions of Carbon Chemistry and its impacts on climate change. (descriptor for the report will be passed out next week).

No School on Monday. Labor Day Holiday.

 

Introduction to the periodic table of elements and atomic structure. Clark walked through some of the basic patterns of 'reactivity' and properties of elements and introduced the basic structure of the table (atomic number, chemical symbols, atomic weights, etc)

Video: Hunting for the elements. (first 30 minutes only this week). This video explores a variety of metals, how they are mined and processed, and a ton of chemistry along the way.

Step 1 of the Calcium Carbonate Separation lab: (over the next three block periods). Step one was to dissolve calcium carbonate with HCl.. Students proceeded through step 8 on Thurs/Friday and will continued next week.

 

The worlds 20 largest copper mines

week 5: Sept 11

Learning Objective Summary:________________

This week focused on the cycle of Carbon from atmosphere to ocean to rock and then back into the atmosphere.. The big idea is that Earth's natural systems continously remove CO2 from the oceans and turn them into rock (Chalk and Limestone were the rock types we focused on).. but these systems depend on pH levels of the ocean remaining 'basic'.. As the oceans acidify, the ability to do this is reduce and can lead to a 'positive feedback loop' which could cause a rep

Student Progress reports passed out.

New assignments this week.

Additional Resources.

 

 

Monday: Finish up first hour of the Video: Hunting for the elements.

Disscussion: Global Warming 101. Main points were that CO2 emissions are not just due to fossil fuels, but also due to industrial agriculture and cement production.. Interesting facts: Roughly50% of the CO2 being emitted is being absorbed directly by the oceans.. resulting in the formation of Carbonic Acid (causing creatures which build shells such as mussles, oysters and corrals to dissolve).. Also, the increased CO2 in the atmosphere is causing the atmosphere to warm up, but roughly 90% of the excess heat is being absorbed directly by the oceans.. AND to make matters worse, the abilty of the oceans to absorb to gasses (such as CO2 and O2, is a function of tempurature!).

Step two (II) of the Calcium Carbonate Separation lab: (over the next three block periods). Step one was to dissolve calcium carbonate with HCl.. Students proceeded through step 8 on Tues/Wed. Through step 18 on Thurs/Fri.. and we will weight the final filter paper on Tues/Wed of next week to wrap up with final measurement of the filtrate.

Discussion: Carbon cycling through oceans, atmosphere and rocks. (based on the reading geology and climate ) (great graphic of the carbonate-silicate cycle)

Discussion: How last weeks' chemistry lab includes the chemistry that is happening in the worlds oceans. This quick simulation shows how clams produce their shells from calcium carbonate. Also discussed: Cocolithophores and Radiolarians as two types of phytoplankton which grow their shells out of Calcium Carbonate and glass, respectively. Also discussed, was the common occurance of limestone around the world.

Step 3 of the lab on Thurs/Friday.

Video (first 30 minutes) Chasing Ice. (viewable on Amazon Prime). No notes required.. but students were encouraged to take notes about the "ice cores" and the data sets that have emerged from them.

week 6: Sept 18

 

New assignments this week.

Additional Resources.

  • Review guide for Test 1.
  • Examplars of student lab reports (from the Model building lab)
  • Examples of students notes from the video: Hunting the elements.
  • annotations

Monday was paper pass back and first progress reports.. Students also recorded the final weight of their filter paper, measuring how much Calcium Carbonate they recovered..

Tues/Wed was TEST DAY

Thurs/Fri was a quick introduction into the concept of Concentration (Clark explained and did a 'demo' for the class. and also an introduction Heat as a form of energy.. and the concept of Specific Heat Capacity.

 

week 7: Sept 25

New assignments this week.

Additional Resources.

Introduction to Thermodynamics.. Heat is a form of energy.. Energy is the ability to do work.. What is work? If the question is: How much Heat did the object gain? The answer is measured in Joules! If the question is, by how much did the object warm up? The answer is in degrees Celcius.

Discussion. The Specific Heat Equation.. and how to use it (the mini-lab: Hot Bolt into Cold Water utilizes this)..

Discussion: Maxwell-Boltzmann Heat distribution and the concept of Absolute Zero.. (and the Kelvin Scale).

week 8: October 02.

Student Progress reports passed out.

New assignments this week.

Additional Resources.

  • Who was Lise Meitner? She developed the theory of nuclear fission which would allow for nuclear power.

Clark was out on Monday, students read the article In Hot Water and finished up 'the math' on the previous week's Heat Transfer labs.

Tues/Wed. Clark reviewed the exam from two weeks ago, passed out progress reports to students and all papers collected through the end of the R1 grading period.

Following the release of the film Oppenheimer, we watched the BBC film Fallout, describing the history of the development of nuclear weapons.

week 9: October 09.

Additional Resources.

Review of Thermodynamics covered so far (Specific Heat Capacity, heat transfer, phase change, and how heat manifests itself as molecular vibrations.. and the NEW TOPIC of Thermal Conductivity.. the degree to which substance allow vibrations to propagate through their volume and pass them onto other objects.

SPACE travel.. We first considered Virgin Galactic's new Rocket plane, now taking tourists into space. and some of the physics describing how fast you have to be travelling to enter, low Earth orbit. The main point however, was how when these planes reenter Earth's atmosphere, a plasma forms on the underside which is hot enough to melt metal, so materials had to be designed to shield the aircraft from the heat.

Interesting Links we looked at:

Demo heat transfer problems for first 30 minutes.. Clark emphasized to points. All substances strive to achieve Thermal Equilibrium (i.e., arrive at the SAME tempurature). Also, that when heat is exchanged between two objects, the SUM of the two Q's must add to zero. This is the ZERO SUM GAME.

Also discussed:

Demo Heat transfer problem: How much ICE must be added to 300 mL of hot water, initally at 80C to cool it down to 50C?

Image from Plastic Paradise, an award winning documentary describing ocean, plastic pollution.

STOP! The items listed are Clark's 'work space' with different thoughts. Items may be added to, reorderd or deleted entirely.

Additional Resources.

 

Discussion/review: Practice heat transfer problems.

  • How much hot metal is required to raise the tempurature of a sample of water?
  • What is the final tempurature of the system when a chunk of hot metal is dropped into cold water?

Discussion: Thermal properties of materials:

Concentration lab: This lab introduced the concept of concentration and how we measure it. PPM, grams/mL, Molarity, etc. As a demonstration, Clark first recreated sea water (with salt concentrations around 35 ppt).. and demonstrated that fundementaly, concentration is a mass ratio.

 

 

 

Discussion:

 

Getting Started with Oxy-Acetyline torches.

week 14: Nov 14

New assignments this week.

Pass back and review our last test.

Review and discuss last week's lab of exploring properties of elements.

Discussion: The Thermohaline cycle of the North Atlantic Ocean. The ocean has layers.

Video: Chasing Ice. This film describes Extreme Ice Survey, in which the retreat of glaciers is documented with a series of photographs taken over years. (related article: billions of tons of water is flowing off the ice sheet every day)

Lab: Distillation lab. (click here for project descriptor)

The Thermohaline cycle of the North Atlantic Ocean

 

 

 

 

Additional Resources.

Discussion of Nasa's experiment to knock a meteor off course. Nasa crashes a satellite into an asteroid..

 

week 8: Oct. 03

Additional Resources.

Discussion: How storms dissipate heat stored in the oceans. The discussion began with a review of the article: In Hot Water. and how the cause of 'the blob' was the lack of ocean storms in the North Pacific. Then we followed up with a review of the recent hurricane (Ian) which destroyed a large swath of Florida.

PBS News Clip: The destruction of Florida due to Hurricane Ian.

Introduction to The Cookstove Challenge.

 

 

Clark was out on Monday.

 

  • Enginering for complete combustion: Inducing a vortext in the stove and keeping the heat in the container.

Geology and climate

w

 

 

 

Review guide passed out for next week's test. (solutions to math problems).

 

UCLA research shows how carbon filled oceans affect a tiny but important organism.

 

 

 

Art by Nicolas Berberich. A world famous digital artist and poet who lives here in Marin. He frequently hosts lectures, house parties and rock conerts in which he amazingly plays all instrments at the same time. In his spare time, he models fashion, races jet-boats and advises members of the House and Senate on issues important to young voters.

week 12: Oct. 31

New assignments this week.

Video: Kiss the ground. This video explores how regenerative agricluture could be one of the most successful strategies for sequestering Carbon. Students were to take notes on the chemistry (where the Carbon goes) and how this style of farming brings multiple benefits.

 

What is regenerative farming?

week 13: Nov 07

New assignments this week.

Lab: Exploring properties of elements. Students were given samples of eight elements (without their names) to determine whether they were metals, non-metals or semi-metals. Interestingly, they also ranked 'how reactive', how 'conductive' etc.. illustrating that elemental properties can range from strong to weak across the periodic table of elements. (day one was observing and measuring) and day two was giving the names of the elements and seeing where they sit on the table.

 

What is Bauxite?

week 15: Nov 21 Thanks giving holiday break!

An overview of the distilation process.
week 16: Nov 28

 

Monday was a work day to start construction of the Distillation lab report.

Coulombs law: Clark derived the basic structure of Coulomb's law and showed this Phet simulation.

Demonstration: Van de Graaff generator. This device does collect enourmous amounts of charge which results in 'air being torn apart by electric forces'.. (i.e.,becomes ionzed! or.., giant sparks!)

Discussion (continued) trends in the periodic table. Atomic Size Electronegativity

Electron shells and Orbital filling structure and valence electrons

Electron Orbital Shapes

 

week 17: Dec 05

Additional Resources.

Discussion: Electronegativity and Ionization energy.

Final Progress report pass out for the Fall Semester. (students may continue to submit late work, i.e., items marked 'mi'ssing on their progress reports which WILL be graded in the upcomign weeks, but Clark will spend these last two weeks focusing on writing and preparing for Finals).

Lab: (hopefully!) intermolecular forces determine rates of evaporation.

The flame you see is a plasma.. an Ionized Gas.. the colors are a reflection of the tempuratures of the flame

Blowtorching your steak has become a popular cooking technique.

week 18: Dec 12 Finals Week.  
Absolute zero the kelvin skale.    

The “standard grading rubric’ (note: Clark only prints out rubrics the first few lab reports and then simply 'jots down' the scores on student work thereafter).

Completed the assignment? (just the minimum or perhaps something more?)

5

4

3

2

1

0

Clear progression of ideas? (can a reader easily and clearly follow what you did and why?)

5

4

3

2

1

0

Accurate science and conclusions (did you achieve the educational goals of the assignment?)

5

4

3

2

1

0

Creativity in writing, layout and use of illustrations? (how well do you capture the readers interest?)

5

4

3

2

1

0

Overall professional layout and construction (i.e. overall craftsmanship of product)

5

4

3

2

1

0

 

 

Key to scoring each category.

5 = superior. Teacher is impressed
4 = “good job”. (you took 3rd in the race).
3 = you understood the directions and  made a minimum effort to comply.
2 -1 = your effort is less than satisfactory
0 = item is absent altogether.

Note: Final grade for most reports is determined by dividing your score by 23. (i.e. scoring all 4's results in a 20.23 = B+, not an A-) In order to get an A, a student must score an 5 in AT LEAST one category.. (it is possible to get multiple 5's though resulting in extra credit on labs). Some labs may be worth double credit though. (x 2 multiplier)

Two kinds or lab reports;

Formal lab reports (see text at left).. These usually involve not only describing the details of the lab including design of experiment, data collected and calculations leading to 'the answer'.. but also usually include the student adding commentary about related systems (such as the Calcium Carbonate lab descriptor)