Term 3 Reflections

Yay! I finally got an A1 for Science! This is all because of the study sessions I had with my friends once a week and the hard work I have put in! I put in much effort, drawing ray diagrams every chance I had, revising Ecology, memorizing Ecology terms etc. It has been a wonderful term for me as the topics tested were of interest to me, making me research on the topics willingly out of curiosity. I have found out scoring in Ecology is as easy as ABC. All you need to do is to memorize the various terms. Lenses however, is a little harder. If you do not understand and grasp the concept, it will be very difficult for you do draw the ray diagram or answer any questions regarding lenses. Thanks to my Science Teacher and my classmates, I finally understood the concept at around Term 3 Week 5, just before the exam. Thanks to everyone who helped me by explaining to me or offering to "tutor" me. It is because of the help of these kind souls who helped me even though the exams were near that I got such tremendous results.

In this term, the topics that were taught to us were Biology. The topics are Sexual Reproduction in Humans and Ecology. There are not many things to say about this 2 topics. I started learning Sexual Reproduction in the late term 3s till now and Ecology since last term. Ecology is quite a fun topic to be honest. I learnt about many interesting things in Ecology from the basics for example the simple terms habitat, population ,community etc. and their meanings to the more complex knowledge for example the different kinds of Abiotic Factors and Biotic Factors. We also learnt about the different levels in the food web and the reasons for conservation. Last but not least, we also learnt about the carbon cycle as all living things on Earth are composed of carbon compounds.

Reflection of Term 2 Science

For the Term 2 test, we were tested on Refraction and Reflaction on top of Acids Bases and Salts. The Chemistry part of the test really pulled me down while the physics part of the test pulled me up . Overall, I did quite averagely and got a HIGH B3. 69 marks. I did reflect a bit on my marks after getting back the exam paper. Why did I score so low for Chemistry? Why did I do so much better on Physics? it all came down to interest. Just because I find Chemistry boring and hard, I refuse to study it and thus, I scored so badly for it. on the other hand, I was very interested in Physics and thus i was more curious about things related to it and spent more time researching about it. Overall in this term, I found out the way to constantly improve myself in various subjects and areas. The answer is to ask myself questions, be curious and find the answer true various sources. This way, my knowledge than can be limitless.

Term 2 Science

In Term 2, we started learning about Optics – Reflection & Refraction for the 1st 4 weeks before moving on to Lenses and its applications, Colours and Dispersion of Light till week 10. Overall, Term 2 was all about Physics. Optics was a little complex when I 1st started learning it as it was a whole brand new topic that I have never seen or heard about before. Reflection was quite easy to understand but drawing the diagram was not a simple task. On the other hand, Reflection's concept was very hard to understand but the drawing of diagram is actually quite simple. As for Lenses and its Application, It was the hardest topic I came across. What is the focal point? Why does the light ray touches the focal point? All this questions popped up in my mind. Some of them were quite simple to understand while others were so hard that it took much time for me to get the concept correct. It took many lessons and some stay back lessons with friends and my helpful Science teacher to understand the concept and the rules of Ray diagram drawing. Even though I was very bad at this topic when the teacher just started teaching, it has now became my favorite topic and I have read about it alot because of curiousity that helped me understand some unanswered questions. It has also became my best Science topic of the year. Last but not least, there is colours and dispersion of light. This is quite an easy topic as the only work that needs to be done is to memorise the various colours and the colours they form when they are mixed.

Term 1 Science Reflections.

Term 1 Science Reflections. As you all would see from my previous blog prompt, the science syllabus of that term was Chemistry, my weakest Science subject. I got a mere B4 for Science partly because of this reason, but the main reason was that I was not hardworking enough. I did not memorize the various common elements and the chemical reactions when Acids are mixed with Alkaline etc. I also failed to memorize the periodic table accurately and the various elements. If I had the chance to retake this exam, I would definitely work much harder to memorize this key important points that would have tremendously increase my marks. From the whole term of Science lessons, I managed to grasp a rough idea of atoms, the periodic table and acids, bases and salt. From the results of the exam, I realized that I still have not grasp the concept of these few topics well and begin to study quite a bit on it during the sabbatical week and the holiday week. I managed to increased my knowledge on the subjects and broaden my horizons. Now, if I were to take the test again, I am very sure that I would have improved.

Term 1 Science

In Term 1,  we first started learning about the Periodic Table .  We were taught about the history of the periodic table for example, the fact that Dmitri Mendeleev was the first chemist to successfully arrange the elements into a pattern linking their properties arc relative atomic masses.  After learning the basics, we proceeded on to Atomic Structure, Chemical Bonding and Equation Writing.  In Atomic Structure,  I was taught that all atoms are built from just three particles — protons, neutrons and electrons and other various interesting facts about atoms. In the topic Chemical Bonding, I found out that there were two kinds of bonding, Ionic bonding and Covalent Bonding. Ionic (electrovalent) bonds result from the transfer of electrons from metal atoms to non-metal atoms forming positive and negative ions. The electrical forces between these oppositely charged ions produce strong ionic bonds. A covalent bond is formed by the sharing of a pair of electrons between two atoms. Each atom contributes one electron to the bond. Equation Writing on the other hand is much simpler. By learning how to balance the equations on both side of the chemical equation using basic mathematics, it should be easy getting the correct answer. The last topic we learnt was Acid, Bases and Salts. This was by far the hardest Science topic I have ever came across in my entire life. Lots of memory work had to be done, memorizing the various Acids, Bases, Salts and the chemical reactions when they are mixed together.

Convection Currents

This experiment is a very simple yet amazing experiment. There are only 2 steps to this experiment. Firstly, fill a beaker with water and put it over a Bunsen burner. Secondly, add in KMnO4 Crystals and observe. The crystals will move in a circular manner rising from the bottom to the top , and than gradually sinks down to the bottom of the beaker and the cycle continues until the coloring is spreaded evenly throughout the whole beaker. This happens because when the crystals are heated, the purple coloration decreases in density, causing it to rise. But when it cools down, its density decreases and it sinks. The whole cycle will keep repeating but you would not be able to see it if the crystals are spread out evenly throughout the whole beaker.