Project Purpose
The purpose of this project was to create a product that involves chemistry and water, and apply the knowledge we have gained in this unit. We were given around three weeks to create the entire project. This included brainstorming, researching, creating a prototype, and making some sort of presentation. Each group chose some problem involving water in it to focus on, and each group found and researched a unique way to solve that problem. Most groups created some sort of prototype for their solution, although it was not required to be extremely accurate to the solution due to there being a limit of what could be done for in a high school chemistry lab. At the end, we had to present everything we had been working on to judges from the Novato Rotary Club who knew all sorts of water treatment in order to receive professional feedback about our projects.
Process
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Brainstorm
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Project Focus
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Research
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Product
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At the very beginning of our project, each group was tasked to think of as many ideas as possible that relate to water and chemistry. We all had around 5-10 minutes to say anything without elaboration. Meaning that we were not supposed to put any deep thought or detail into any of the ideas. Below are a few things that we had thought of.
We decided to follow through with the Better Water idea and filled out a project planning guide, given to us by our teacher, with that idea in mind. The planning guide is below, it does contain parts of our research, however most of the research can be seen in the next tab.
Below is the research we conducted to determine the outcome of our final product. It included the research we conducted about all the recommended amounts of vitamins and minerals a person should have daily, along with the ones we chose. There is also data on what each person in our group consumed and what vitamins and minerals they had. There is also the recipe for our product and the materials needed to make it.
Our finalized product ended up being a drink that was a combination of prune juice and vitamin water. As you might already be able to tell, our secret ingredient was prunes, because they are rich in vitamins and minerals. The product ended up being called Power Prune to symbolize the healthiness of prunes and the fact that they are so important to our product. In total the product cost around $3.09 to make and is very healthy, but a little bit alcoholic. If we had more information we would improve the product by ensuring there was less sugar and making it non alcoholic so that it would be safe for children.
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Terms
Solution
A solution is a mixture of two or more substances that are spread throughout each other. The solution that we used in our project was the product itself because it was a mixture of prune juice and vitamin water. In this case, the prune juice can be thought of being evenly spread throughout the vitamin water, or the vitamin water throughout the prune juice.
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Solute
Solvent
solubility
This is the ability of a substance to dissolve in another substance at a certain pressure and temperature. This is expressed by the amount of the solute that will dissolve in the amount of solvent. An example of this is how many prunes can we put in 50ml of water.
Dissolving ions in solution
Many ionic compounds are able to dissolve in water. If an ionic compound is able to dissolve in water, their ions seperate from one another and become immersed into the water. They are then free to move around the solution, and the solutions are electrical conductors. However, there are ionic compound does not dissolve, but the attraction between the water molecules and ions are not overcome.
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organic matter in water bacteria & virus
Bacteria- This organic matter is something that is alive, grows, and does not always need a host. Some are used to clean water, however there are a lot that grow in water and are harmful to humans to consume.
Virus- These grow by attaching themselves to a cell or host and reproduces at the cost of another life form. These are harmful to drink in water and just in general as well.
Virus- These grow by attaching themselves to a cell or host and reproduces at the cost of another life form. These are harmful to drink in water and just in general as well.
ionic vs. molecular
Ionic Compounds are made up of ionic bonds. Ionic bonds are bonds between Metal and Nonmetal atoms that have opposite charges. The atom with the positive charge is called a cation, while the negatively charged atom is an anion. Due to this, the force that holds the ions is very strong, and the force between the molecules are stronger than molecular compounds. These bond also tend to make their melting points higher than moecular compounds. They are also very brittle and hard, even smallest shift of a row of ions can cause a big buildup of repulsive forces. This makes it difficult for layers relative to each other to move.
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Molecular compounds are made up of covalent bonds. Covalent bounds are bonds between either two nonmetals or a metalloid and a nonmetal in which they are bonded together by sharing electrons. The molecule made up of of the molecular compound is strong, however the bond between the molecules are not as strong as ionic compounds. This also causes the melting point of these to be lower.
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Polarity
This is the separation of electric charge along a bond, this leads to the molecule having an electric dipole or dipole moment. Dipoles are when there is an unequal sharing of electrons between atoms in a molecule. These are in covalent bonds.
Tests
Taste
We got some prunes and tried them. None of us could remember the taste of prunes due to not eating them in a long enough time, and therefore tried it to see how bad they were. They are not bad but we agreed it was not something we would every single day and after the project, I do not believe any of us became regular prune eaters.
We had also made prune juice and two of the people in my group tried it. They said they enjoyed it, this led us to believe that the Power Prune would taste good as well. However, we never truly were able to taste it with the sugar removed due to there not being enough time to ferment anything. These are pretty much the only tests we did so if we could do this again we would want to actually test what vitamins were in the prune juice if that is possible.
We had also made prune juice and two of the people in my group tried it. They said they enjoyed it, this led us to believe that the Power Prune would taste good as well. However, we never truly were able to taste it with the sugar removed due to there not being enough time to ferment anything. These are pretty much the only tests we did so if we could do this again we would want to actually test what vitamins were in the prune juice if that is possible.
Presentation
Reflection
This project definitely felt very different compared to all of the other projects I've done while in the STEM programs but also simply from the other groups as well. My group had taken the prompt given to us and ran wild with it in a sense, however, I must say that it was enjoyable. Overall, I would say that we had done pretty well with what we were trying to accomplish with the fact that we made the recipe of Power Prune and we found a way to make it less sugary. I felt like a couple of peaks for this project was relating the project to our everyday lives and just the fact that we chose to do something very unique. Although, a few times we fell a little flat on was the lack of testing we did and the fact that we should have split the work a bit more.
The creation of the recipe was a very important part of this project since when we started out we weren't so sure if this was actually something that we could make ourselves in the chemistry lab. However, we made a recipe that could potentially have been made if we had started prototyping sooner, and it was not as difficult as we had previously believed. That is why the recipe is such a big peak because it was something that we were able to accomplish that we did not think we could have. In addition, I was able to extend on my critical thinking skills and my communication skills because the entire team was researching and finding information on different things. We each thought thoroughly about what we found, how the information could be used, and what it would be doing in the final product. Then we had to communicate with each other and figure which of our ideas overlapped and how they fit together to create the ultimate recipe for our product.
We really ran wild with the prompt since most groups were doing some sort of water treatment and we were basically making a form of vitamin water. This is a peak because it really showed how in school you are able to learn about many different things and not everyone has to do the same filter or do some sort of water treatment. When we begun the project we weren't really sure if this was really following the prompt or purpose that she had given to the class, even though she said it was fine and it was also half a joke at the time as well. So this just shows that even things that you think are just a joke can turn out to be something interesting and can actually working, I was able to build my character through this project because it took a lot of thinking outside of the box and having a really open growth mindset. There were a lot of times that we ran into things that we thought would be a big problem, like how we all thought prune juice would taste really bad and no one would want to drink it. Then we found out prunes weren't the worse thing in the world. At some point we thought that the product would have to use a lot of different ingredients to have all the vitamins and minerals we were trying to have, but we were able to preserve and find out that prunes had a lot of the vitamins that we needed. There were definitely times that I had doubt in my mind that it would work, but I tried to have an open growth mind set about it all and it actually worked out well and we were able to actually make the recipe and make part of a prototype.
As you can already tell, the most testing we did was with tastes because we did not believe that we would actually be making the prune juice, and when we did we weren't sure what to be testing for. There were a lot of tests there that were really to check if water was safe for consumption, and we did not really have water. We should have tested for vitamins and minerals but we were also unsure on how to go about that and we were also running out of time so it flew over my head. Knowing the vitamins and minerals would have really helped prove that our product would actually be accomplishing the goal we had in mind and would have told us about how much nutrients we were extracting from each prune we put. If we knew that we would have been able to then adjust the recipe accordingly to that and it would have made it more accurate. A way I could have improved on this was if I had better collaborations skills because there were definitely times when I could have had another team member be working on while I was working on something and the other way round too. Then maybe while the presentation was being worked on, the other half of the team could have been working on tests. There were also times when I wasn't being a mindful participant and was not really sure what was happening in my team member's brain. Asking what was happen would have made this project a bit quicker and more time efficient.
We should have split the work up more in the group because there were times when there were only one or two people working and the others were doing something else. This can been seen with the presentation, most of the time there was only one or two people working on it so it was completed a bit last minute. Had we all worked on it at the same time and used our time efficiently, we probably could have finished it faster and had time to practice the actual presentation instead of winging it on the spot. It would have also helped make it so we had less work to do while at home, and just make it more efficient in general. I could have improved on this had I been a better conscientious learner because I think there were times where I was a bit unaware of what was happening and I could have managed my time better. During parts of the project I was not sure where things fit in and I did not always make the best effort of figuring it out. An example of this would be the process of fermentation. I tried to figure it out by looking it up and reading about it but I could not really understand exactly what was happening in each step. The project itself was a bit last minute and if I was better at managing time I could have done my work faster and the project would have been completed earlier, allowing us to have more time to do tests and practice the presentation.
At the end of the day I think I enjoyed the project, although at sometimes it was stressful because it was really vague for a while on how we were actually completing the project. The concept was really cool, although if I had the choice I wouldn't do this particular Power Prune thing since there were so many unknowns and it was just kind weird. But it was fun and I guess that matters too.
The creation of the recipe was a very important part of this project since when we started out we weren't so sure if this was actually something that we could make ourselves in the chemistry lab. However, we made a recipe that could potentially have been made if we had started prototyping sooner, and it was not as difficult as we had previously believed. That is why the recipe is such a big peak because it was something that we were able to accomplish that we did not think we could have. In addition, I was able to extend on my critical thinking skills and my communication skills because the entire team was researching and finding information on different things. We each thought thoroughly about what we found, how the information could be used, and what it would be doing in the final product. Then we had to communicate with each other and figure which of our ideas overlapped and how they fit together to create the ultimate recipe for our product.
We really ran wild with the prompt since most groups were doing some sort of water treatment and we were basically making a form of vitamin water. This is a peak because it really showed how in school you are able to learn about many different things and not everyone has to do the same filter or do some sort of water treatment. When we begun the project we weren't really sure if this was really following the prompt or purpose that she had given to the class, even though she said it was fine and it was also half a joke at the time as well. So this just shows that even things that you think are just a joke can turn out to be something interesting and can actually working, I was able to build my character through this project because it took a lot of thinking outside of the box and having a really open growth mindset. There were a lot of times that we ran into things that we thought would be a big problem, like how we all thought prune juice would taste really bad and no one would want to drink it. Then we found out prunes weren't the worse thing in the world. At some point we thought that the product would have to use a lot of different ingredients to have all the vitamins and minerals we were trying to have, but we were able to preserve and find out that prunes had a lot of the vitamins that we needed. There were definitely times that I had doubt in my mind that it would work, but I tried to have an open growth mind set about it all and it actually worked out well and we were able to actually make the recipe and make part of a prototype.
As you can already tell, the most testing we did was with tastes because we did not believe that we would actually be making the prune juice, and when we did we weren't sure what to be testing for. There were a lot of tests there that were really to check if water was safe for consumption, and we did not really have water. We should have tested for vitamins and minerals but we were also unsure on how to go about that and we were also running out of time so it flew over my head. Knowing the vitamins and minerals would have really helped prove that our product would actually be accomplishing the goal we had in mind and would have told us about how much nutrients we were extracting from each prune we put. If we knew that we would have been able to then adjust the recipe accordingly to that and it would have made it more accurate. A way I could have improved on this was if I had better collaborations skills because there were definitely times when I could have had another team member be working on while I was working on something and the other way round too. Then maybe while the presentation was being worked on, the other half of the team could have been working on tests. There were also times when I wasn't being a mindful participant and was not really sure what was happening in my team member's brain. Asking what was happen would have made this project a bit quicker and more time efficient.
We should have split the work up more in the group because there were times when there were only one or two people working and the others were doing something else. This can been seen with the presentation, most of the time there was only one or two people working on it so it was completed a bit last minute. Had we all worked on it at the same time and used our time efficiently, we probably could have finished it faster and had time to practice the actual presentation instead of winging it on the spot. It would have also helped make it so we had less work to do while at home, and just make it more efficient in general. I could have improved on this had I been a better conscientious learner because I think there were times where I was a bit unaware of what was happening and I could have managed my time better. During parts of the project I was not sure where things fit in and I did not always make the best effort of figuring it out. An example of this would be the process of fermentation. I tried to figure it out by looking it up and reading about it but I could not really understand exactly what was happening in each step. The project itself was a bit last minute and if I was better at managing time I could have done my work faster and the project would have been completed earlier, allowing us to have more time to do tests and practice the presentation.
At the end of the day I think I enjoyed the project, although at sometimes it was stressful because it was really vague for a while on how we were actually completing the project. The concept was really cool, although if I had the choice I wouldn't do this particular Power Prune thing since there were so many unknowns and it was just kind weird. But it was fun and I guess that matters too.