Laboratory Sessions

Term 1 /2 Sessions

  1. Our first laboratory session was held. In this session we learnt the rules we must obey in the laboratory to maintain our safety. For example: we must wear safety goggles when we heat substances and do experiments.
   After that we tried out the bunsen flames and were taught of the difference between a luminous-flame and a non-luminous flame. The major difference is that the luminous flame is able to be seen and has a orange colour whilst a non-luminous flame cannot be seen. The non-luminous flame is also hotter than the luminous flame.
   We were also taught how to handle the bunsen burner and prevent a strike back from happening. I experienced a strike back and there was a loud hissing sound. The teacher came in time and turned off the tap before adjusting the air-hole with a glass rod.

2. Our next laboratory session. We got used to the apparatus in the lab. We also got our seating arrangement. Today we did a practical on mixing two substances to form a chemical reaction.

3. Today, was the first time we used the beaker for boiling. We boiled water. After boiling we were taught of how to plot graphs. Many of us plotted the graphs wrongly as we did not know the way to do it at a secondary level.

4. We had another practical on plotting graphs. The next few practicals were practice and we did not do much.

Term 3 sessions
 1. This is one of the interesting laboratory sessions
-We were given a beaker of ACID and a egg. We had to dissolve the egg's shell with the acid and than put the egg in a beaker of water. This process took relatively long but it was nevertheless fun. We did another experiment while the egg shell dissolved.  We used a visking tubing filled with sucrose in distilled water. This was a experiment to show the process of osmosis. The egg became bouncy after some time as water has entered it. After this lab session we had observed osmosis and had a better understanding of how osmosis works.

2. In this session, we looked at our cheek cells under the microscope. It was my first time using a microscope and i was pretty excited. We had to scrape off our own cheek cells and apply iodine on it to make it more visible under the microscope. After this session, i learnt how to operate a microscope and tried it for the first time. I also had a close up look at how our cells look like.

3. In this session , my science teacher showed us how compounds are made. She did so by using a magnesium ribbon. Once the ribbon was in contact with the flame, a bright light was formed for a moment and white ashe was the result. This showed that a chemical reaction has taken place as light and heat was created.

(This are only some of the practicals but they are the more interesting and the ones that i benefited more from, hence i chose them)

 

Iodine solution  

This are some of the pictures i took during the sessions!

Boiling water!

Alchohol and leaf!