Wednesday

From the light bulb circuit lab, I recognized the relationship between resistance, voltage, and current. When light bulbs are connected in series, the overall resistance increases thus causing the current to decrease. This will cause the bulbs to decrease in brightness. In a parallel circuit, each bulb will have the same amount of resistance in each branch, therfore the current will be equal through each bulb. This will cause the bulbs to have equal brightness.

The radioactivity lab was very interested. I got lost in the process of deriving the formulas. Collecting the data was quite easy but interpreting it became quite the process, since excel didn't allow us to draw an exponential graph. After much trial and tribulation and thanks to Dr. Koppang, we got a graph to work and determine the half life. This calculation was fairly easy to understand.

I especially liked the enzyme lab. I briefly discuss enzymes in my chemistry class when we discuss the difference between inhibitors and catalysts. I found this lab quite intriguing and plan on incorporating it within my curriculum. This lab incorporated both chemical and biological concepts which made me recall information that I have not been exposed to in a very long time. Hopefully, my AP students can carry over these concepts from AP Biology and see how they are related in terms of chemistry.