As soon as we found out that we can do our own labs for this section, Monique and I immediately began to research. We weren't looking for anything in particular, just something that would catch our attention. Stumbling upon a random link, I found a video of a really cool lab. It involved sugar and sulfuric acid. I wasn't thrown by the acid aspect, even though I knew it would be a little smelly afterwards. And highly toxic. But details, details. It just seemed really cool. We didn't really understand the molecular reactions that were going to take place, but we still thought it would be sick to try it out. We threw our proposal sheet together, got the stamp of approval (not an actual stamp - but signature..in Sharpie may I add..very official.) and got to work. We set a date, and then another when that fell through. What seemed like months after we initially got approved (which was at most a week afterwards - but it felt long) we were finally able to do our lab. That's when the fun happened.
Looking Back: What happened?
Our experiment worked out perfectly. It was super cool, super interesting, and it didn't kill us. Note to self: sulfuric acid is much more toxic than you think, so don't stand where the smell is drifting towards you. The reaction was quick; once the acid was mixed with the powdered sugar, it immediately began to change color. It looked a lot sticky than I what I thought it would be. My teacher had to scrape the glass stirring rod off a little bit. The substance was sticking to it. Once it changed to black, it sprang up. The expansion was really cool. I honestly thought there would be a lot more of the actual substance, but we used a smaller beaker than what was called for. That turned out to be good, because it was a lot less of a cleanup. Not that we actually got to clean up. It was kind of too dangerous for that. Our teacher had to takeover acid cleanup duty (sorry Andrew).
Looking Beyond: What do you think has happened? What’s the science?
Fortunately, the awesome aforementioned teacher was able to explain really clearly the reaction that was taking place. Since sugar is made up of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, it is a carbohydrate. When you remove the water from the sugar molecule, which is what happens during the lab (exothermic reaction), you're basically left with the elemental carbon. It basically dehydrated the sugar. I thought this was super cool, because you could actually see the water leave the sugar in the form of steam. The black substance was a mixture between the burnt sugar and carbon. Which was weird. I never though you'd actually be able to see carbon in any form. You learn something new everyday.
Looking inward: Humans doing science
I think that the lab went splendid, and we got the results we wanted. Everything went according to plan, and it was really interesting to learn about what was going on with the reaction. I think that this was a really quick lab, and I'm excited to see how we can expand on this in the future. I hope that Monique and I will be able to take what we learned from this experiment and share it with others.
Looking outward: Collaboration and Impact
Like I mentioned before, I worked with Monique to get this lab done. We partner up a lot for these kinds of things, simply because we have a good work ethic. I will be surprised if the answer to this part ever changes. I think that we worked really well on this lab, as it wasn't very difficult. We were able to efficiently gather all the materials we needed, used the resources we had, and put everything away afterwards. I was able to record a lot of what was going on, and I created the video you will see down below. It's kinda my thing.
Looking Forward: What next?
If I could do this again, I would want to experiment with the time that it takes for the reaction to happen with different amounts of sugar. I think that would be super cool to test out. I also would want to know if the amount of sulfuric acid you put in there affects the reaction. I would also want to push to get this lab done a lot sooner, because at one point it felt like it was going to hinder the other things Monique and I wanted to get to.
Take aways:
Honestly, I feel like I better understand how to read the periodic table, and the different elements in a substance. When I was reading the reaction in it's chemical form, I was actually able to break down what each letter and number meant. I think that this is really cool, and a sign of growth for me. In the future, I would like to expand on this part of chemistry, and be able to read different and more difficult reactions.
Looking Back: What happened?
Our experiment worked out perfectly. It was super cool, super interesting, and it didn't kill us. Note to self: sulfuric acid is much more toxic than you think, so don't stand where the smell is drifting towards you. The reaction was quick; once the acid was mixed with the powdered sugar, it immediately began to change color. It looked a lot sticky than I what I thought it would be. My teacher had to scrape the glass stirring rod off a little bit. The substance was sticking to it. Once it changed to black, it sprang up. The expansion was really cool. I honestly thought there would be a lot more of the actual substance, but we used a smaller beaker than what was called for. That turned out to be good, because it was a lot less of a cleanup. Not that we actually got to clean up. It was kind of too dangerous for that. Our teacher had to takeover acid cleanup duty (sorry Andrew).
Looking Beyond: What do you think has happened? What’s the science?
Fortunately, the awesome aforementioned teacher was able to explain really clearly the reaction that was taking place. Since sugar is made up of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, it is a carbohydrate. When you remove the water from the sugar molecule, which is what happens during the lab (exothermic reaction), you're basically left with the elemental carbon. It basically dehydrated the sugar. I thought this was super cool, because you could actually see the water leave the sugar in the form of steam. The black substance was a mixture between the burnt sugar and carbon. Which was weird. I never though you'd actually be able to see carbon in any form. You learn something new everyday.
Looking inward: Humans doing science
I think that the lab went splendid, and we got the results we wanted. Everything went according to plan, and it was really interesting to learn about what was going on with the reaction. I think that this was a really quick lab, and I'm excited to see how we can expand on this in the future. I hope that Monique and I will be able to take what we learned from this experiment and share it with others.
Looking outward: Collaboration and Impact
Like I mentioned before, I worked with Monique to get this lab done. We partner up a lot for these kinds of things, simply because we have a good work ethic. I will be surprised if the answer to this part ever changes. I think that we worked really well on this lab, as it wasn't very difficult. We were able to efficiently gather all the materials we needed, used the resources we had, and put everything away afterwards. I was able to record a lot of what was going on, and I created the video you will see down below. It's kinda my thing.
Looking Forward: What next?
If I could do this again, I would want to experiment with the time that it takes for the reaction to happen with different amounts of sugar. I think that would be super cool to test out. I also would want to know if the amount of sulfuric acid you put in there affects the reaction. I would also want to push to get this lab done a lot sooner, because at one point it felt like it was going to hinder the other things Monique and I wanted to get to.
Take aways:
Honestly, I feel like I better understand how to read the periodic table, and the different elements in a substance. When I was reading the reaction in it's chemical form, I was actually able to break down what each letter and number meant. I think that this is really cool, and a sign of growth for me. In the future, I would like to expand on this part of chemistry, and be able to read different and more difficult reactions.