Molecular Modelling
This is a follow up to Practical #16 for the Preliminary Chemists. Here are some web links to some useful pages, starting with the home of all things chemical, the Nuffield A Level Chemistry home page (what Mr. Fisher’s Senior Chemists study back in the homeland). There is a useful plug-in called Chime which you can download (see Molecule of the Month website for help here) - this allows you to view and manipulate molecules on some webpages although many use Java which you probably have within your browser.
Nuffield Chemistry Molecular Modelling
Molecule of the Month (Chime link) Follow the links to the MDL website
The Orbitron (yes really!) This is beyond the scope of Prelim but helps you understand how electron clouds combine to form orbitals.
This link shows some molecules using the Jmol applet. The website shows graphite instead of diamond - an error. You can easily change from space-fill to ball and stick to wireframe views (right click-render-schemes)
That’s good old Buckminster-Fuller at the top of this posting in case you were wondering. He has clearly lost his marbles and probably his Bucky Balls too.
The Night Sky
Now is a good time to be looking at the night sky, especially if you are in Year 8 as that is what you are studying in Science lessons. If you go to the Sydney Observatory website you can download the September night sky map, as well as a Podcast that tells you what to look for. Some obvious constellations that are visible are Scorpius (directly overhead) and the Southern Cross (funnily enough located towards the south). If you download the map you can use it to navigate the night sky. If you do this at home you should already have an idea of where north, south, east and west are - if not use a compass or ask your parents!
Building Cells
Go to this interactive link and build the following cells:
- animal
- plant
- and these specialised ones,
- red blood
- sperm
- palisade
- and nerve cell.
Come back to this post and make a comment as to how you enjoyed this activity.
Classification
Choose your favourite organism (e.g. Himalayan Fluffy Cat) and find out its full classification (Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species). A Google search should do it. Once you have done this, enter your findings by leaving a comment on this blog. You must choose an organism that has not already been done by another member of the group. See Section 8.1 p.200 in Core Science 4 for help. You may not choose any organism already classified in the text. Try to see if you can work out the origin of some of the Latin classification terms for your organism - it might refer to colour, size or particular characteristic of your organism or maybe be named after the person who discovered it.
Dwarf Planets
Sydney Morning Herald article: This is a recent article on a new dwarf planet called ‘Makemake’. Read this article and use the internet to answer the following questions. State your answers in comments to this post.
1. Identify three other dwarf planets.
2. Describe what is meant by a dwarf planet.
Year 9 Electric Circuits
Follow this link to revise your understanding of electric circuits. Read pages 1-6 and complete all activities. Make sure you attempt each activity and re-read information as many times as you need to in order to understand it properly.
Record your answers in your notebook and bring to class.
Getting into genes
There are some difficult concepts in this topic. There are a number of new scientific terms that you need to be aware of and the processes occuring inside the nucleus of a cell can be confusing.
The links below are will help you improve your understanding:
BBC Bitesize:
- this is a good revision site that UK students use when studying for their equivalent of School Certificate - be aware that the NSW curriculum is slightly different from the UK one
- as well as definitions of key terms it also has flash animations to help show some of the processes
- you can test yourself at the end of each section
Cells Alive:
- this has some good animations showing mitosis and meiosis (you have to wait for this one to load)
Learning about Atoms
Click here to learn more about atoms and their structure
Refer to Early Ideas about Atoms, and Structure of the Atom, then answer the following questions
Question: What are 2 important aspects of Dalton’s Atomic Theory?
Question: Which 2 main components make up the nucleus of an atom?
Question: What components of an atom are not found in the nucleus?
Alakaline Metals- 2
Read the responses from your classmates.
Using information from all of these comments, write a statement which you think best describes the relationship between these alkaline metals and their relative positions on the periodic table?
