Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Density Lab Practical

On Friday, September 2nd, 2011, you will be taking your first assessment of the semester. The grade that you earn on the lab practical will have a big impact on your grade. You will be tasked to find the density of a material. The material will be given to you as objects. I am going to outline the expectations that you need to follow to do well.



  • You will not write out a purpose, theory, procedure, SEE's, or conclusion statement. You will only be creating a data table and doing your calculations in an analysis section. All tables and work should be neat and orderly. Remember to label all measured and calculated values.

  • Even though you are not going to write out a procedure, certain aspects of good laboratory design need to be followed and will be graded. You will be expected to do more than one trial to help ensure accuracy and precision.

  • You will be expected to maximize the number of significant figures in your measurements and calculations, so having a larger sample size will be required.

  • Adherence to significant figure rules for calculations will graded.

  • The density of the material is known, so you will be graded on the accuracy of your calculated density value.

  • You will be collecting your data BY YOURSELF WITH NO LAB PARTNER. You must know how to read both the scale and graduated cylinder. You must know the proper procedure on how to operate the scale (use of weighing dish). You will only have roughly 15 minutes to collect all of the data for your trial, so you must be quick but also precise.

While half of the class performs the lab to obtain the measurements for the density determination, the other half of the class will be working on the second half of the test. You will be given a scenario that gives a lab procedure that is performed by a chemistry student. You will be asked to answer questions based upon the scenario. All of the questions are written and you will be required to critique calculations done by the student.


The lab practical is roughly 30 points and will go towards the assessment category of your grade, which is 60% of your overall grade. Please take doing well on this assessment seriously.



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