SAVE FRED!
Pre-Lab Questions
1. Why is it important to follow an agreed upon procedure for a laboratory experiment?
- Something could go wrong if we began without communication. If we have different ideas and haven't discussed a plan, we could ruin the lab.
2. Why is it important to document your procedure, errors you may have made, or differences in actual outcome vs. expected outcome?
- If an experiment requires multiple trials and mistakes are made in some or some must be redone, you won't have documented what you did and won't be able to recreate the experiment as you had done it before.
3. Why do we normally not have food in Chemistry?
- There is a possibility of contamination of your food or the experiment. It is dangerous.
Experimentation
Purpose:
Save Fred by putting him in his life preserver safe on the boat.
Procedure:
- Lift Fred
- Lift boat and grab lifesaver
- Flip boat
- Put Fred in lifesaver
- Put Fred in boat
Data/Observations:
- On our first try, we got the lifesaver and almost put Fred through it, but dropped him into the black hole.
- On our second try, we flipped the boat over and put Fred through the lifesaver and saved him.
Conclusion:
- We definitely needed a plan. Otherwise, Fred would have died right away. We were able to save him by working together and communicating.
Error Analysis:
- When we first tried, we put Fred in the lifesaver while holding him above the air, which resulted in him dying in the black hole. To fix that on our next try, we flipped the boat over and put the lifesaver on him while he was in the boat to prevent death.
Post-Lab Questions
1. Was one of you more a leader and the others followed, or did you share the responsibility for ideas equally? Why did it work that way?
- We shared the responsibility. We both had similar ideas so we talked, made a plan, and worked together.
2. What areas of expertise can you bring to a project?
- I like coming up with ideas, I am usually a leader in groups, and I am good at communication.
3. How do you feel about conducting laboratory experiments?
- I enjoyed it because it taught me how important teamwork and communication is while doing a lab. By working together, we solved the problem.