Science

Over the summer I chose to restructure the Advanced Chemistry sequence.  After some reshuffling, I decided to start with Nuclear Chemistry, which is also where the Intro to Chemistry course ended last Spring.

We covered the classic topics: types of nuclear decay, fission, fusion, nuclear energy, nuclear stability, and mass defect.  We didn’t do a lab or any demos, which I would love to do with the general chemistry.  Instead, we went through some interactive Flash models of a nuclear power plant and radioactive decay.  Does anyone know if we have a Geiger counter?  Unfortunately, this is a topic that has to be cut short in Advanced because of time restrictions.  Hopefully, I can gather up some materials to work with the Intro course by the end of the year.

We also ended with a lab where they attempt to determine the chemical formula of a hydrated sample of cupric chloride.

Next week we’ll start discussing Atomic Theory.