Laboratory Experiments for E-Term!

BY MARYANN, PANTHER BLOGGER

Before my senior year at Ferrum College, I am taking a three-week Experiential Term (E-Term) course this summer. The Experiential Term I am taking this summer is CHM 405, Advanced Chemistry with Dr. Powell. This E-Term’s curriculum is mostly made up of lots of time in the lab conducting hands-on experiments. Every day, we individually conduct at least one or two experiments.

The first day of class, we each made a different compound; I made hexaamminenickel (II) bromide. It is a coordination compound, which basically involves the formation of a product due to coordinate covalent bonds.

hexaamminenickel (II) bromide

You feel good when a lab goes as planned, but sometimes you have to expect that a lab just might not work. Even when our experiments do not always work right, we do not let that stop us; we learn a lot from both successful and unsuccessful experiments.

Colloidal silver

The other day, each student in my class conducted a different experiment and then presented it to the rest of the class. I made colloidal silver. Colloidal silver is a nanoparticle, which is a really small particle. It was used long ago to stain glass windows in churches.\

My class is learning a lot in this E-Term course! We are working individually as well as consulting with each other to solve problems. I am looking forward to the many other experiments that we’ll see throughout this class.