Chemistry Coding… Coding with Chemistry?

So we have just recently finished our chemistry coding project. The key to coding is to never give up, even if it seems like it won’t work. I learned this over the project. I found it pretty hard, but I am proud of my finished product.

The point of this projet was to create something that showed our knowledge of atoms and molecules. It also included:

  • Different states of matter
  • The Kinetic Molecular Theory 
  • Different models of atoms
  • Physical and Chemical changes
  • Some key vocabulary
  • What makes up and atom

The driving question of this project was: How is the motion of atoms and molecules related to temperature?

At the start of this project I created a mind map to show what I knew, and what I hoped to learn. On the left there are my questions from before, and my answers from now. On the right there are things I knew about atoms and molecules, and in green there are facts that I just added.

Chemistry Coding

Now onto the core competencies!

  • Questioning and Predicting:

Demonstrate a sustained curiosity
about a scientific topic or problem
of personal interest.

I think that during this whole project I did a pretty good job of being interested the whole time. I didn’t play games on my iPad during class. (I may have read my book a little when I was done, but other than that I was pretty focused.)

  • Scientific Communication

communicate ideas, findings, and
solutions to problems using
scientific language
representations, and digital
technologies

For this competency I’m very proud of how I did. I used different states of matter during my project. I included a “historical model” of 2 atoms and 1 molecule. I have a little temperature sign that shows the temperature of my the atoms, and how fast they’re falling. I struggled with making the atoms fall at a different speed for each temperature. I needed some help, and even now, I’m not sure if I 100% understand the code that is there. I did some pretty good problem solving, so that there are actually 2 variables that say the temperature. You only see 1. 1 controls how fast the atoms move, and the other controls at what degree they freeze at. For each different atom and molecule the temperature in kelvin they freeze at in the game is the one they freeze at in real life.

  • Reasoning and Analyzing

Use
logic and patterns (including
coding) to solve puzzles and play
games.

My scratch game is very interactive, and it does make sense. I’m pretty proud of how well it works. It didn’t used to really work. It was very frustrating and I found it hard to keep going and not give up. I am proud of how it turned out though.

Goodbye for now!

-Kate

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