Reflection for ePortfolio

Joshua Hill

I had taken basic chemistry in high school and I loved it, this class has made it so much more fun

and has expanded on the ideologies of the high school course significantly. The farthest I remember

going in high was as far as the introduction of orbitals and moles, but thats about it. I dont remember

there being as much math in chemistry, so I believe that my math skills, problem solving, and critical

thinking skills have increased due to the types of problems we have covered in this class.

Back in the first unit when we were covering physical and chemical changes, I was practicing

trying to classify my daily activities into either physical or chemical changes. Since then, I continue to

catch myself trying to figure out what kind of change is occurring in something. I also catch myself trying

to differentiate between potential and kinetic energies of things that I see. There has also been times

when I try to figure out what a reaction equation would be. For example, I was taking an off-brand of

Tums and on the bottle it said calcium carbonate. So, I tried to figure out what the equation would look

like between the CaCO3 and the HCl in stomach acid.

I have been an avid person of science since I can remember. It is a field I am striving to go into,

however I cannot decide which branch of science to pursue quite yet. I have loved chemistry since I took

it in high school and this class has helped me understand it so much better and develop and even

greater love for it and I am definitely debating majoring in chemistry because of it.

This semester I have taken two science classes, chemistry and human biology. It was interesting

to see the various chemical reactions that occur in our bodies and what they do for us to allow us to

survive. There was actually a whole chapter in the biology book dedicated to chemistry because it is so

important in our bodies. Over the rest of the course chemistry would pop back up when we went over
different organ systems, for example, the nervous system relies almost entirely on potassium and

sodium ions to function properly.