Project Description
For the chemical dominoes project, we were assigned to create a fun and interactive board game that included chemical reactions. Each board game was to include a single displacement reaction, double displacement reaction, production of a gas, lighting of an LED, chemical change, and a physical change. Along with our board game, we needed to create a detailed instructions sheet, safety requirements sheet, detailed explanations of all our chemical reactions, an intricate blueprint of our board game, and game pieces. We worked on our project for approximately three to four weeks, and at the end of our work period, we had to present our board games at the "Family Game Night" and in class, but unfortunately we had to present our board game through a video for Mrs. Vogl to see. All board games had a set theme, so my group based our game off of the super popular game that was number 1 on the app store for months, "Clash Royale." The objective of the game is to destroy the opponents towers using "spells," so we incorporated this into our game by making the game board which contained three towers on each side. Then, we used four different spells, and each one was a different chemical reaction. The winning team and losing team, both, get their own chemical reaction at the end. Overall, our game contained six total chemical reactions.
For the chemical dominoes project, we were assigned to create a fun and interactive board game that included chemical reactions. Each board game was to include a single displacement reaction, double displacement reaction, production of a gas, lighting of an LED, chemical change, and a physical change. Along with our board game, we needed to create a detailed instructions sheet, safety requirements sheet, detailed explanations of all our chemical reactions, an intricate blueprint of our board game, and game pieces. We worked on our project for approximately three to four weeks, and at the end of our work period, we had to present our board games at the "Family Game Night" and in class, but unfortunately we had to present our board game through a video for Mrs. Vogl to see. All board games had a set theme, so my group based our game off of the super popular game that was number 1 on the app store for months, "Clash Royale." The objective of the game is to destroy the opponents towers using "spells," so we incorporated this into our game by making the game board which contained three towers on each side. Then, we used four different spells, and each one was a different chemical reaction. The winning team and losing team, both, get their own chemical reaction at the end. Overall, our game contained six total chemical reactions.
Concepts
Single Displacement Reaction: (A+BC = B+AC) an element reacts with a compound and takes the place of another element in that compound
Double Displacement Reaction: (AB+CD = CB+AD) two compounds react and the positive ions (cation) and the negative ions (anion) of the two reactants switch places, forming two new compounds or products
Synthesis Reaction: (A+B = AB) multiple reactants combine to form a single product and release energy in the form of heat and light
Decomposition Reaction: (AB = A+B) single compound breaks down into two or more elements or new compounds and usually involves an energy source
Combustion Reaction: (CH4+2O2 = CO2+2H20) a substance reacts with oxygen, releasing energy in the form of heat and light and yields oxygen and water
Polyatomic Ions: a charged ion composed of 2 or more atoms covalently bonded to act as single unit
Reflection
I don't know how any project in the second semester of this class can top this one. This brought back great memories of my freshman year when I took STEM engineering/physics. This project reminded me how much I enjoy building things. Not only did I like the engineering portion of this project, but I felt like I actually learned the chemistry part in a more efficient way for me. I gained a deeper understanding of polyatomic ions and how to balance equations through this project and the previous labs that tied into the project. This project had many ups and down, but in the end, the ups outweighed the downs making this project a success in my opinion. The first thing that didn't go well was the partitioning of work. I felt like some of us in the group had to do more than others. This leads me in to the next downside which was the lack of communication. I wasn't able to contact two of my group members, because I did not have their phone numbers, and they were always at work. Another down would be time management. We wanted to go above and beyond by including six different chemical reactions, when other group only had three or four. Also we focused a lot on the engineering part. Part of my group tried 3-d printing our castles, so we just hoped that the end product will be what we wanted. Sadly, the castles were too small, so they were not proportional to the rest of our board. Because of this, we had to hand make the castles, which took so much more time. My group had to meet outside of school for more than seven hours. This doesn't sound like much, but when you take into account that its our junior year in high school and everyone has work, it was a struggle. One of the ups in this project was my leadership. This was one of the first times in a STEM project where I felt like I was the leader. Not only did I come up with the theme and how the game board should look, but I took the initiative of telling people what to do in an assertive way. I was always open to new ideas and I was never aggressive with my ideas and only went forward with them if the whole group agreed. Another good thing was the final product. We definitely succeeded. Even though the journey was difficult, my group and I were very proud with our board game. It was also really cool when other groups came up to me and told me that our board game was the best in their opinion. I think this project definitely showed the development of my maturity from the previous years through leadership, work-ethic, and determination.