Week of 9/16-9/20

            This week we learned more about stoichiometry, in particular limiting reactants, yield, and empirical and molecular formulas. We have been working since the start of the year on stoich problems and this week we further advanced our knowledge on the subject. The further we go into the matters of stoich, the more they build on each other. Our knowledge that we developed in the first couple weeks on molar masses and the mole ratio has been crucial to helping us do problems with limiting reactants, yield, and empirical and molecular formulas.

            We developed our knowledge on limiting reactants through a pogil that we completed. This was very helpful and gave me a better idea on what was really going on when we did problems involving finding the limiting reactants. From there we did some more worksheets to get more practice with finding the limiting reactants. To find the limiting reactant you must find out which of the reactants produces the lesser amount of product. To figure this out we use our knowledge on mole ratios and molar mass to perform calculations. I found these problems fairly simple and straightforward.

            Next we worked on finding the percent yield of a product. We used the lectures and worksheets to understand what was really happening when you look for the percent yield of a product. To solve yield problems you must: balance the equation, determine the limiting reactant, determine theoretical yield, divide the actual yield by theoretical yield and multiply by 100 %. This process is pretty simple and doesn’t involve that hard of math. I thought that I was able to understand and complete all of the problems involving yield fairly easily. I don’t have any questions about percent yield of products because I get the idea to its full extent.

            The last thing that we worked on this week was determining empirical formulas. Like limiting reactants, we discovered empirical formulas through a pogil. At first the idea of empirical formulas didn’t make too much sense but once we were through the pogil the concept was much clearer. By doing the pogil, it was determined that an empirical formula is a formula that represents the simplest ratio among the elements of a compound. However, that doesn’t mean that formulas with the same base formula don’t exist. We found this out when we did a worksheet that had us find the molecular formula by dividing the molecular molar mass by the empirical molar mass. I thought this equation was simple and easy to understand and I had no problem with this worksheet. We also dabbled a little bit in drawing particle diagrams. I was a little bit more confused by this and I was hoping we would work on it more in class.

            All in all, I thought this week I was able to comprehend all of the material and my participation was very high. On a scale of 1-5, I would say I’m at a 5 on the ideas we learned this week. I still need to work a little more on particle diagrams but I think that’s about it. I have to think more about how this process works and how we balance equations with particle diagrams.