Our Project
The purpose of the project was to create board game that would show our understanding of different reactions and present it to our friends and family at a "Family Game Night". In my group's game, we did single replacement reactions, a double replacement reaction, producing a gas, lighting LEDs and a physical change. We did the experiments all to a Winder wonderland theme. Our Single replacement reactions had two separate experiments. Both used copper chloride to dissolve the aluminum to release a surprise of light an LEDThe Double displacement reaction used copper nitrate and ammonium sulfate to create a blue substance, which we called "melted snow." Our production of gas created carbon dioxide by combining sodium bicarbonate and acetic acid. Our physical reaction was the production of fake snow using polyacrylic acid, sodium salt and water. Further explanations of each experiment and how to play are in the photos below.
Content
- Single replacement: a reaction where an element reacts with a compound and takes the place of another element in that compound
- Double replacement: a chemical reaction where two compounds react and the cations and anions of the two reactants switch
- Decomposition: separation of a single chemical compound into its two or more element parts or simple compounds
- Synthesis: a chemical reaction in which two or more simple substances combine to form a more complex product
- Combustion: an exothermic reaction in which something reacts with oxygen to produce carbon dioxide and water
- Ion: an atom or molecule that has a net charge
- Compound: a product when two or more elements are bonded together
- Physical Change: a reaction where the chemicals are changed physically but their chemical compounds remain the same
- Cation: an ion that has a positive charge
- Anion: an ion that has a negative charge
Refection
Overall, this project was very fun and very creative. One thing that was difficult was the amount of time we had to finish the project. We did not have much time to build our project. In order to complete the project by the deadline, my group and I spent hours after school working on it. Although this was difficult to work around, we did finish it on time and made it look beautiful. All of our experiments worked every time and we were able to run through our game six times, in one night, smoothy. I did learn that I can work easily with people even if we are on a time crunch. I also learned that putting ever one's strengths to different places will allow things to run more smoothly. Personally, my strength was in helping design and build the actual board itself. If this project was to by done again by my group and I, I believed we would have spent more time on the writing portion of the experiment and explaining the chemicals in a simpler way for the younger kids that played our game.