Congratulations! :)

Congratulation goes to ‘Azim (8B), Radhi (8C), Syauqie (8B), Iqbaal (8B), Malik (8A), Rohaidi (8A), Fakhril (8D), Faiq (8D), Luqman (8A), Azizul (8A), and Iqbal (8A) for getting an A in Science SPA 2012. 

I like the idea of getting sciencey stuff for them, so I got them a personalized magic mug and some chocolate treats. Have you boys tried using the magic mug yet? For those of you who are wondering what a magic mug is, take a look at the attached animated photo on this post. When we pour hot water into the mug, it transforms from a plain mug to a vibrant image on the mug. Cool right?

 So how does magic mug work?

The magic behind the colour changing mug is actually the heat sensitive coating on the outside of the mug. So when hot milo or chocolate is poured inside the mug, the heat sensitive coating loses color or becomes transparent revealing the personalized photo beneath.

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Celebrating 3000 blog hits!

Hoorayyyyy! www.science4geeks.blogspot.com has reached over 3K hits! Thanks readers for visiting my science blog :) I hope you have fun reading, chatting and playing games on my blog and I apologize if I didn't upload enough blog posts last year. Thanks again for your support! :)

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Abuses to Life Processes (part 1)

Salam readers! Happy New Year! :) It's been a while since my last post. I apologize for that. So...my first post for 2013..."Abuses to Life Processes"...I shall divide this topic into two parts. Part 1 will focus on Drug and Part 2 will be on Alcohol and Smoking. At the end of the lesson, I will include some photos of my students' projects from last year. Oops! I know this is waaaaaaaaay overdue but I decide to post this together since I'm teaching this topic too at school this week.

DRUG

I'm sure you've heard this word before but what is it really? How does it work in our body? Drug. Drug is any substance which, when taken into the  body, has an effect on the way the body and brain work. 

There are two types of drugs:

(1) Useful drugs             (2) Harmful drugs

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Science Project

Salam readers! This week I've assigned my students to do a project on "Abuses to life processes" (drugs, alcohol and tobacco). The project is divided into two tasks, i.e. (1) design a poster (anti-smoking/alcohol/drugs) and (2) making a presentation 'board' which will be presented by the students once they've finished working on the project.

The purpose of this assignment is not simply for the sake of learning it for the exam but I want my students to educate among themselves and show awareness of the dangers of drugs abuse which include alcohol or tobacco smoking that can harmfully affect their own safety and their relationship with families and friends who are concerned about them. I care about you too. (ok..i know that sounds cheesy but it's true...)

So today was the first day of the assignment. I'm happy to learn that my students put a lot of effort working on these projects. I saw some fantastic works done by the students. Smart. Creative. Informative. Highly motivated. Teamwork. I'm very pleased with the progress I've seen so far. I can't wait to see their final group presentations.

(click to enlarge)

I laughed when I saw this well-known internet phenomenon little boy and in the back of my mind, I heard Syauqie saying "SUCCESS~~!!" HAHA..Thanks Syauqie for this. Goodluck on your project! I love what I've seen so far from your group as well as others. So students, think smart! Be creative! I know you can do it *look at the little boy* haha xp But most of all, I really hope you can make a difference :)

 

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Element, Compound and Mixture

Hello readers! Today’s topic will be on “Elements, Compounds and Mixtures” as requested by another Science teacher, Mrs Fromey. Bonjour Madame Fromey! Thanks for visiting my blog ;) I hope you’ll be reading this post and hopefully it’ll help your lessons :)

Elements

An element is a pure substance which contain only one kind of atom. Element cannot be broken down into two or more simpler substances by either physical or chemical means. It can exists as either atoms (e.g. Argon, Copper, Gold) or molecules (e.g. Hydrogen, Bromine, Oxygen)

You might now wonder...what are atoms and molecules? Atom is the smallest particle of an element whereby molecule is made up of two or more atoms that are chemically combined together.

Still confuse? Let me give you several diagrams that might help you understand more about elements that can exist as either atoms or molecules.

Examples of atoms:

Noble gas atoms such as Helium, Neon and Argon

Gold atoms

Examples of molecules:

Molecules of bromine gas (on top) and liquid bromine (below)

Molecules of elements

Below is tabular display of chemical elements called the Periodic Table of the Elements which are organized based on its properties. (please click picture below to enlarge)

 Compounds

A compound is a pure substance which is made of two or more elements chemically combined together. It can be broken down into two or more simpler elements by chemical means only (but not by physical means). It has different properties from its component elements and it always contain the same ratio of its component atoms (fixed composition).

Examples of compounds: 

As you can see from the above examples, the compound is made up of different elements (two or more) chemically combined together.


Making a compound from its elements

Example: Making water from hydrogen and oxygen (2H2 + O2 --> 2H2O)

  

Notice that both elements are in gaseous state initially but once they form compound water, it is liquid. This shows that a compound has different properties from its component elements.

Another example is brown copper burns with green chlorine gas and form yellowish-green copper chloride.

Breaking a compound into its elements

Example: Breaking down molten sodium chloride into sodium and chlorine by electrolysis 

(2NaCl --> 2Na + Cl2)

**Electrolysis is the process of breaking down compounds by using an electric current

 Mixtures

A mixture is made of two or more substances mixed but not chemically joined together. It can be separated into its components by physical means. It has the same properties as all its component substances and do not have a fixed composition of the substances.

An example of mixture is air which consists of different gases such as nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide and water vapour. All of these gases are colourless and odourless and so does air. Air still retains many of the properties of its components.

Other examples of mixtures are muddy water which can be separated into soil and water by filtration or a mixture of copper powder with iron filings which can be separated by using a magnet.

Below are diagrams of several other examples of mixtures to help you understand better:

A mixture of two elements (e.g. argon gas and hydrogen gas)

A mixture of an element and a compound (e.g. hydrogen and ammonia gas)

A mixture of two compounds (e.g. carbon dioxide and water vapour)

Click the link below to test your knowledge on Elements, Compounds and Mixtures. Good luck and have fun playing the quiz :)

http://www.funtrivia.com/playquiz/quiz148865110c980.html

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