Looking Back:
In this lab we added water to sodium polyacrylate to see how much it could absorb. It was really funny in the beginning because my group was mixing it and nothing was happening, but then it stated to become more like gel and we were so amazed. After we found how much water the sodium acrylate could hold we started trying different liquids. We tried milk and gatorade mixed together for the liquid and it looked so gross. We added so many different things to it and it got worse every time.
Looking Beyond:
We found that the three grams of sodium polyacrylate could absorb about 400mg of water. The water gets absorbed by breaking the salt away from the structure making it a monomer. The water wants to go from an area of high water pressure to low water pressure, this process is called osmosis. The water keeps going into the sodium polyacrylate until the pressure on both sides is equal.
Looking Inward:
I was really challenged by the question of how it works. I thought it was a good idea to have people come up with their own answer before explaining it. I was pretty grossed out by this lab because of how bad it smelled and looked. Other than that, I really liked this lab.
Looking Outward:
I always love the group I work with, they are my best friends and are so great. I can always have fun with them when we do labs. Even when we have to take notes and get through the textbook things, they can always make it fun for me.
Take Aways:
There were a lot of weird things about this lab and I guess there were many lessons to learn. 1. Never mix milk and gatorade 2. Don't let your group add more than two things 3. Keep track of what you are doing 4. Don't get too many things dirty because they are a pain to clean. There are probably more things, but those are all I can remember.
In this lab we added water to sodium polyacrylate to see how much it could absorb. It was really funny in the beginning because my group was mixing it and nothing was happening, but then it stated to become more like gel and we were so amazed. After we found how much water the sodium acrylate could hold we started trying different liquids. We tried milk and gatorade mixed together for the liquid and it looked so gross. We added so many different things to it and it got worse every time.
Looking Beyond:
We found that the three grams of sodium polyacrylate could absorb about 400mg of water. The water gets absorbed by breaking the salt away from the structure making it a monomer. The water wants to go from an area of high water pressure to low water pressure, this process is called osmosis. The water keeps going into the sodium polyacrylate until the pressure on both sides is equal.
Looking Inward:
I was really challenged by the question of how it works. I thought it was a good idea to have people come up with their own answer before explaining it. I was pretty grossed out by this lab because of how bad it smelled and looked. Other than that, I really liked this lab.
Looking Outward:
I always love the group I work with, they are my best friends and are so great. I can always have fun with them when we do labs. Even when we have to take notes and get through the textbook things, they can always make it fun for me.
Take Aways:
There were a lot of weird things about this lab and I guess there were many lessons to learn. 1. Never mix milk and gatorade 2. Don't let your group add more than two things 3. Keep track of what you are doing 4. Don't get too many things dirty because they are a pain to clean. There are probably more things, but those are all I can remember.