For this project we where assigned to create a board game using the chemical knowledge we have learned throughout the year. We where asked to demonstrate different types of chemical reactions such as signal displacement, double displacement, and gas reactions. One aspect of our project that was different from others is that we worked with a group of eight instead of four. We chose to combine with another group, because we both saw that we had similar themes. Our theme was based of of the movie Toy Story, and our title was called "Andy's Coming". Our game play was similar to games such as Candy Land. We has two groups of cards. One where action cards, theses cards told you where to move on the board. For example one card might say move forward two places. Then we had star cards. If you look at our board, you can see that there are red stars through our yellow path. If you land on one of theses stares you get to make a chemical reaction. One card might say "Busters favorite color is yellow, make yellow to distract him. Mix 5 drops of .25m potassium iodide (KI) with 5 drops of .125 Lead Nitrate to make yellow!" Then the player would mix the two and it would form the color yellow and they would move to the next space. Finally to win the game you must light up the toy box to signal to the other toys that Andy's coming! To do this the player must land on the star in front of the chest and preform the reaction. When the reaction is done, the chest lights up and you win the game.
Content
Single Replacement Reaction- a type of chemical reaction where an element reacts with a compound and takes the place of another element in that compound. In our project, we used a single replacement reaction in our project by mixing aluminum and copper chloride. The aluminum was connected to a breadboard with an LED, and when the copper chloride dissolved the aluminum, the electrical circuit would be completed and the LED would light the chest and you would win the game.
Double Displacement reaction- a type of chemical reaction where 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. In our project we used double displacement reaction when creating the color brown. we mixed Potassium Chromate and Iron (III) Chloride to produce the color brown.
Gas Evolution reaction- a chemical reaction in which one of the end products is a gas such as oxygen or carbon dioxide. For our gas evolution reaction we blew up a balloon using hydrochloric acid and calcium carbonate.
Combustion Reaction- a type of chemical reaction where a compound and an oxidant is reacted to produce heat and a new product. For our project we lit ethanol on fire, resulting in a flame releasing CO2 and a new product of water.
Cation- a positively charged ion
anion- a negatively charged ion
Reactants-substances initially present in a chemical reaction that are consumed during the reaction to make products
Product- a substance that is formed as the result of a chemical reaction
chemical reaction- a process in which one or more substances, the reactants, are converted to one or more different substances, the products. Substances are either chemical elements or compounds. A chemical reaction rearranges the constituent atoms of the reactants to create different substances as products.
Synthesis- a type of reaction in which multiple reactants combine to form a single product.
Decomposition- a type of chemical reaction where one reactant yields two or more products.
Reactivity Series- A series of metal elements, and sometimes carbon and hydrogen, that is arranged according to their reactivity.
Reflection
This project was very fun and was a great first chemistry project. Our group did many thing well together, but I also noticed that throughout this project personally I had one things that i need to work on. During this project I noticed that our group had a hard time communicating properly and making sure we were all on the same page. When we were making the rules for our game we where debating on what we thought the rules should be. After a little wile we noticed that we were both saying the same thing, but just in two slightly different ways. This could be fixed by making sure I fully understand my partners ideas before stating mine, so I'll know if the idea is the same or very similar to mine. Secondly with as big of a group we had it became hard to distribute the work evenly through all of the members of my group. No one in our group was really slacking, but with so many people the work we all did was minimal. I noticed this especially during our project presentation. Not all of our group members got much time to share and explain their knowledge because we had so many people in our group, and a relatively short time. Although our project did have some flaws, we also had many peeks throughout the project. One thing I liked about this project was our group dynamic. For being such a big group we all worked very well together. We all agreed on the same ideas most of the time, and when we would disagreed we could all respectfully debate with each other to quickly make a choice on what we want to do. With such a big group this dynamic made the project very fun, and made it easy to work with everyone. Lastly in this project I felt like I took more of a leadership role than I normally do. I helped make many of the groups choices, and helped encourage people in out group to work if I noticed they where just sitting around. Being in this small leadership position I felt like I understood out project better. This was a super fun and creative project, and I'm looking forward to my Junior year in chemistry!