Thursday, July 29, 2010

Workbook: Chapter 5 - Elements, Compounds and Mixtures

Today, we continued doing the same worksheet as we did yesterday. The lesson was also sort of interesting. Although I had quite a number of wrong answers when doing the worksheet, I felt that I understand more about the topic once Madam Riza and our classmates went through the answers together.


I used to think that the melting point of impure ice is higher than that of pure ice. But I was wrong. Now, after going through the answer, I think that ice which is made from pure water that do not contain impurities has higher melting point than an ice which is made from salt water and so called impure ice.


I also used to think that the layer of protective metal covering the iron is to make the iron becomes stronger. As you know, I was still wrong. But now I think that the protective layer of metal is to protect the iron from rusting as when iron is contacted with moisture and oxygen, it will rust.


Anyway, I came across a quote: "Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new" - By Albert Einstein. I really agree with this quote and I also like it very much! :D

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Practice Makes Perfect

The headline is "Practice Makes Perfect" because we were doing science worksheet on elements, compounds and mixtures for today's lesson. By doing lots of worksheets, we will improve on our answering skill and thus able to answer challenging science questions in the future. I LOVE today's lesson as I had gain more knowledge after that. We were able to discuss answers with our partners and were also being given a time limit to complete some parts of the worksheet. Then, Madam Riza went through the worksheet with us. Although the science lesson today was sort of short, we had a great time learning together!

Monday, July 26, 2010

Fats and Sugars. How We Know?

3 Thoughts (What I have learnt):
1) Benedict's solution is used to test whether liquids contain sugar content.
2) When Benedict's solution is added to a sugar-drink, the colour of the sugar-drink plus the Benedict's solution will turn into reddish-orange or reddish-brown. If the drink does not contain any sugar, the mixture will not turn into any other colour when the Benedict's solution is added to it. [Example (Both mixtures are heated in a water bath): When Benedict's solution is added with Coca-Cola, the mixture will turn into reddish orange in colour. But when the Benedict's solution is added with Coca-Cola Zero, the colour of the mixture will still remain the same as it first uses to be.]
3) When food has a higher change in temperature from lowest temperature (haven start heating) to highest temperature (heating), it will contain more fats.


2 Questions:
1) Who invented the Benedict's solution? And why is the solution called 'Benedict'?
2) Does it mean that the food no longer contains any fats when it is burned until the remains could not be further burned?


1 Useful application:
1) After knowing how to find whether food contains sugars or fats, I am able to change my eating diet. I used to eat many peanuts. But now, after the experiment, I found out that peanuts contain lots of fats. Thus, I am now trying to cut down on eating peanuts.


As for today's Science lesson, it was very FUN, EXCITING and INTERESTING! We did many experiments and I had gained more knowledge after that. The lesson was conducted by our seniors and thus we are able to communicate with them well. Before the start of the lesson, the seniors told us what is the objectives of doing such experiments today. One such objective is to know what is a healthy and balanced diet. I feel that the seniors had put in lots of efforts in teaching us.

Friday, July 23, 2010

Expectations

3 Thoughts:
1) Knowing what are the factors that will affect my marks for the discussion forum in grou.ps. There are many factors involved which are promptness and initiative, relevance of post, expression within the post, delivery of post and the contribution to the learning community by commenting on our peers' post. The maximum points that we can score (if we did very well in every factors) is 20 points.
2) There are three ways in which we can write our learning reflections. Firstly, we can use the "I used to think...but now I think..." method. Second method is using a headline to talk about the most important aspect that should be remembered in the lesson taught on that day. Lastly, it is the 3-2-1 way of responding which I am using it now.
3) I found out why when one fruit is rotten, the rest of the fruits around it will also rot. It is because when a fruit rots, it gives out a type of gas that causes the other fruits around it to rot too.


2 Questions:
1) What is the type of gas in which causes the fruits to rot called?
2) Is the gas harmful to our body?


1 Useful application:
1) By knowing the reason why when one fruit rots, the rest will also rot, we can apply it to our everyday life. When we have a basket of fruits and if one starts to rot, we must quickly dispose it so that it will not cause other fruits to rot too.


Well, most of today's Science lesson, Madam Riza was explaining to us of what she expects to see in the responses and reflections in the discussion forum and our Science blog respectively. I really enjoyed the Science lesson today!