WarlockAlan

Summary

Chapter 1 is Ten Principles of Economics. These 10 principles can be divided into three parts and I write some examples to explain them.

How People Make Decisions

1.People face trade-offs.

2.The cost of something is what you give up to get it.

These two principles explain opportunity cost (the next best alternative forgone for an economic decision). Why we should use this concept? Here is an example about considering the cost of studying in a university. Some people may calculate the cost like tuition fee and meal fee. However, it is wrong because you still need to use meal fee for meals if you don’t go to a university. Besides, you don’t calculate your cost of time.

3.Rational people think at the margin.

Margin change means a small incremental adjustment to a plan of action. For instance, if a plane ticket costs 500 dollars, it should sell a ticket with the price greater than 500 dollars to earn profits. However, if there is a free seat and no one would reserve it, it could be sold with the price smaller than 500. Why? Because in this case, the marginal benefit is the price of that ticket, and the marginal cost is the oil used by plane to carry one more passenger (it could be ignored). In other words, it is profitable when the marginal benefit is greater than the marginal cost.

4.People respond to incentives.

e.g The law of demand. (The higher the price, the lower the quantity demanded and vice versa.) People respond to incentives so they could get more profits.

How people interact

5.Trade can make everyone better off.

Because countries can specialize in what they are good at. In other words, producing goods with the lowest opportunity cost.

6.Markets are usually a good way to organize economics activity.

7.Governments can sometimes improve market outcomes.

These two principles explain mixed economies and introduce the invisible hand–market, which can allocate resources efficiently.

How the Economy as a Whole Works

8.A country’s standard of living depends in its ability to produce goods and services.

9.Prices rise when the government prints too much money.

10.Society faces a short-run trade-off between inflation and unemployment.

Increasing the amount of money in the economy stimulates the overall level of spending and thus the demand for goods and services.
Higher demand may over time cause firms to raise their prices, but in the meantime, it also encourages them to hire more workers and produce a larger quantity of goods and services.
More hiring means lower unemployment.

###Definitions

1. Scarcity– the limited nature of society’s resources

2. Economics– the study of how society manages its scarce resources

3. Efficiency– the property of society getting the most it can from its scarce resources

4. Equality– the property of distributing economic prosperity uniformly among the members of society

5. Opportunity cost– whatever must be given up to obtain some item

6. Rational people– those who systematically and purposefully do the best they can to achieve their objectives

7. Marginal change– a small incremental adjustment to a plan of action

8. Incentive– something that induces a person to act

9. Market economy– an economy that allocates resources through the decentralized decisions of many firms and households as they interact in markets for goods and services

10. Property rights– the ability of an individual to own and exercise control over scarce resources

11. Market failure– a situation in which a market left on its own fails to allocate resources efficiently

12. Externality– the impact of one person’s actions on the well-being of a bystander

13. Market power– the ability of a single economic actor(or small group of actors)to have a substantial influence on market prices

14. Productivity– the quantity of goods and services produced from each unit of labor input

15. Inflation– an increase in the overall level of prices in the economy

16. Business cycle– fluctuations in economic activity, such as employment and production

###Review

There are some exercises in this book. I recorded questions I didn’t answer correctly here.

1.Your opportunity cost of going to a movie is_____(Correct answer: C)

a. the price of the ticket

b. the price of the ticket plus the cost of ant soda and popcorn you buy at the theater

c. the total cash expenditure needed to go to the movie plus the value of your time

d. zero, as long as you enjoy the movie and consider it a worthwhile use of time and money

My wrong answer: D

2.Because people respond to incentives,_____(Correct answer: D)

a. policymakers can alter outcomes by changing punishments or rewards

b. policies can have unintended consequences

c. society faces a trade-off between efficiency and equality

d. All of the above

My wrong answer: A

3.Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” refers to_____(Correct answer: D)

a. the subtle and often hidden methods that businesses use to profit at consumers’ expense

b. the ability of free markets to reach desirable outcomes, despite the self-interest of market participants

c. the ability of government regulation to benefit consumers even if the consumers are unaware of the regulations

d. the way in which producers or consumers in unregulated markets impose costs on innocent bystanders

My wrong answer: B

Backgrounds and my responsibility

In the beginning of Grade 10, my class advisor asked me to be the Class Sanitation Commissioner. It is a job to manage the students to clean our classroom and deliver meals from canteens to our class. Originally, my class advisor let me to do this simply because I was the only one who lived in the school dormitory since this job was time-consuming. (The Class Sanitation Commissioner needed to supervise students to do their work after school.)

What I did at first

At the beginning, I needed to make a table to make sure each student in our class had their position (like sweeping the floor in Monday or cleaning the blackboard in Wednesday). But I made a mistake at that time–I let my classmates choose the positions they want. After I asked them to choose positions they want in our QQ group online, I realized I shouldn’t do that. Obviously, some classmates complained that they wanted to do another work, and the process of choosing students was time-consuming. Finally, our monitor advised me to redistribute positions by myself and I did it.

What I have learned from it

Sometimes I should think twice before making a decision. Tell you the truth, when I redistributed the positions, some of my classmates argued with me. That was my fault because I let them choose work they want before.

The cooperation between two Class Sanitation Commissioners

As time passes, our class advisor realized it was difficult for one Class Sanitation Commissioners to do all works so she asked another student to do this work as well.
Generally speaking, we didn’t split the responsibilities the Class Sanitation Commissioner should take into two totally different parts. Some classmates used to say it was not wise to do so because we may ask the other Class Sanitation Commissioner to bear responsibilities. However, as something wrong in our classroom (about sanitation), one of us would bear the duty actively when the other one was absent.

By the way, thanks to this experience, I even made friends with another Class Sanitation Commissioner, Jason. We discuss tough questions in the spare time.

What we and I did during this year

Except stuffs I have mentioned before, the obligations also include passing the check from school supervisors every week and taking the disinfectant from another building every day.
It is worth mentioning that our class pass each check excellently.

Each year, our school asks us to choose one person who bears the most obligations and provides the greatest services for students in each class. Obviously, the Class Sanitation Commissioners take more duties than others. And I take the disinfectant every day, that means I bear a little bit more duty than another Class Sanitation Commissioner, Jason.

You could see a picture below. In the blank of Rewards and punishment record, you will see “Outstanding Student Leader” in Chinese.

My feelings

Through being a Class Sanitation Commissioner is really exhausting, I was still grateful to get this opportunity. I strengthened my ability to lead others to bear their own duty. During this process, I developed the spirit of helping my classmates and bearing responsibilities actively. Besides, I got to know how to communicate with classmates efficiently and kindly. Sometimes students may be angry about duties they have. They may think it is unfair and complain it with Class Sanitation Commissioner. In order to avoid getting into trouble (like arguing), it’s important for us to handle such things properly. I used to go mad easily, now I’m much better in terms of controlling my feelings. Last but not least, I have learned how to organize students to do suitable work. For example, students in our class thought it was easy to clean the blackboard so they all chose to do this work. And I chose someone who wasn’t capable enough to do other work to clean the blackboard.

Backgrounds

Our A-level center organized an event to let Grade 9 students who wanted to study in our center learn more about our center. During this event, our teachers set different lessons and Grade 9 students could choose what they were interested in. In order to let them have better experience during the lessons, our A-level center also asked its students to take part in the lessons and help them.

What I did

I was proud of taking part in the Chemistry lessons because our Chemistry teacher chose students by herself instead of choosing students randomly. (Actually, all teachers except Chemistry teacher chose students to take part in their classes randomly.) During the Chemistry lessons(actually, we had three same lessons at that time), I needed to help students do an experiment called titration.

Introduction: what is titration

Titration is used to indicate the concentration of an unknown solution, which is usually used in acid-base titration.

The actual end point of the titration usually adds slightly more amount of solution than it need to ensure the other solution is fully reacted.

In acid-base titration, we often use litmus, methyl orange and phenolphthalein as indicator.

My preparation

Truth to be told, titration is an experiment in the A-level Chemistry practical paper syllabus. In other words, students in Grade 11 had already did it in their A-level examinations. But thing is that, as Grade 10 IGCSE students, I only knew the theoretical knowledge about this experiment. In addition, I was not good at doing experiments on my own. I even felt scared of using a burner! In other words, it must be a challenge for me to do this experiment.

Practicing it in advance

Our teacher found the spare time and let us do the titration experiment in the school laboratory in advance. She taught us the theoretical knowledge first (and I had acquired it before), then she let us do the experiment step by step and guided students.

Here is a photo from our Class Advisor.

Review and improve the experiment

It was hard for us to use the burette and pipette. We hadn’t used it before and the way to use them was a little bit complex. I practiced the way to use them for three times in order to master it.

My feelings

I was proud of getting the opportunity to do this titration experiment. Firstly, titration is an experiment in the A-level Chemistry examination syllabus. I practiced it for my A-level Chemistry examination in advance. Secondly, I am poor in doing the experiment on my own. (It is not my fault but the problem the majority of Chinese students have. In Chinese, Chemistry exams don’t involve practical experiments, leading to a fact that most of us are poor in it.) However, if you want to study Chemistry in the universities all around the world, it’s important to develop skills of doing the practical experiment. But we cannot access the chemical laboratory to practice them in our daily life. In other words, today’s titration experiment was a valuable experience for me.

Why I do it

I have used Github for several months (although I just updated articles recently). Actually. my original purpose of using Github is just to record contests and extra-curriculums I did and show my feelings about them. However, thanks to Github, I was interested in recording my daily life gradually. In addition, I write this article to thank for one of my friends, Justin, who helped me a lot to give me technical support about how to use Github.

My feelings of using Github (Programming part)

Tell you the truth, it’s quite difficult for me to set my own Github repository since i don’t have the gift for programming. It is worth mentioning that Github is not suitable for the Greenhand, since it needs complex codes to operate. I used to search information online to set my Github blog（it took me nearly two weeks, but I was not totally successfully– I didn’t know how to send my articles to Github! Anyway, at least I developed my skills of self-study and searching information during this process.

My feelings of using Github (Writing articles part)

With my friend Justin’s help (I will mention it later), I could push my articles to my Github easily. I was proud of my Github whenever I see the layout of it is fantastic (at least I think so). In addition, I have a sense of achievement when I see my articles on it.

What’s more, I have been developing the habit of recording my daily life gradually. I was surprised when I saw my previous experience (I nearly forgot half of them). I used to think that keeping diaries is just a waste of time. Thanks to Github, I found it was quite meaningful.

Finally, i must mention that my English writing skill is improved. Some of my classmates were confused why I didn’t use my mother tongue to write articles on Github. I wanted to strengthen my ability to write English articles and obviously I wouldn’t lose this chance.

My contributor Justin and more

I am grateful to Justin for his helping hand. Generally speaking, I could say that I cannot use Github so comfortably without Justin’s help.

First, he made a linkage to my repository, that means I can push my articles to Github much easier.

Besides, he helped me to change the theme in Github. The theme in Github can be described as a format you used in your Github. Each format has its own pictures and layout. Justin let me look through some websites to choose a theme l love, (Without his guide, I even couldn’t find the websites to download themes) then he changed the theme by himself. （I just loved a few themes, but he was so patient that he helped me to choose a reliable theme. In addition, it was time-consuming and complex to change a theme, I even didn’t how to change it.）He also taught me many useful skills such as judging which theme was good by looking through the functions it has. I used to judge it only by which picture it had was beautiful.

Last but not least, I also acquired quite a great amount of useful knowledge about Computer Science from Justin. For example, the way how the Github operates. I used to simply learn how to use Github, but I did never think about what is Github before Justin teaching me.

Conclusion

I was keen on updating articles on Github, not only i loved recording my daily life, but also I met my friend Justin through Github.

My unique school life

Truth to be told, I lived in school dormitory, that makes my school life quite different compared with other students, since I need to live at school 5 days per week and have breakfast, lunch and dinner at canteen as well. Other students, however, just need to go to school at seven twenty in the morning and go back their home in the 5 p.m.

Daily routines

My daily routine has a little bit difference due to living in the school dorm (SWOT Analysis )

Students in my class are asked to go to the classroom at 0730. Then we have 30 minutes reading time. From 0800, we have lessons at different periods. We have 10 periods at school every day and we’re allowed to go back home at 0500.

Advantages

I get up at six fifty every day in the school dormitory, then I go to the school canteen to have breakfast at seven o’clock. I get up late compared with my classmates since they have to spend time commuting. Even though, they still go to the classroom nearly 0730. In contrast, I arrive at my classroom at 0720 and even have 10 minutes spare time to do the self-study.

Disadvantages

I have no choice but to have terrible meals at school every day. It sometimes makes me feel sick and decreases my efficiency of study.

Opportunities

Only a few students live in the school dorm, that means I may feel isolated from time to time. However, that also means that no one could disturb me to study.

Besides, the majority of students who live in the dorm are top students, I could learn the way how they study. But it also means the peer pressure is hectic for me.

Threats

The self-study room has a poor signal, that means it’s hard for me to use digital devices sometimes. As an international student, I couldn’t live without them in order to look through websites of different universities.

My Feelings

One of my friends used to say that it may be wise for me to rent a flat nearby my school. Actually, my parents rented a flat when I was in the junior high. (My mother has retired so she has enough time.)

But I didn’t think it was be a good choice. Generally speaking, I didn’t want to disturb my mother’s live since she had retired. In addition, I personally reckon that I must get benefits from my school life.

First, I do self-study in the evening and ask for my teachers’ help if I need it. (My teachers sometimes work overload until evening) During my school life, I have already developed the ability to concentrate myself to do self-study by reading textbooks or searching information online. I suppose I could fit the self-study life in the university rapidly since I have already lived in this life for a long time.

Second, I can avoid feeling isolated or even depressed though I live alone. Tell you the truth, when I concentrate on studying, I even forget about time. (And I seldom keep in touch with my parents during weekday.) Since culture gap exists, some international students may feel depressed and homesick when they go abroad to study, which makes them perform badly in their study. Obviously, I was not one of them.

Third, thanks to my school life, I have developed the habit to make to-do list to manage my time properly. Many students, including me, feeling relaxed and wasting their time at home.
As I don’t have any way to do the entertainment, I must study hard at school (and get great exam scores as well).

Last but not the least, I can do the majority of things in my everyday life now. Actually, many students, especially the Chinese students, having a poor ability to live alone.

In other word, I enjoy my life living in the school dormitory.

Backgrounds

Our economic teacher organized a game called Marshmallow Challenge in her class after we finished CAIE international examinations. In this game, students worked in groups (a group had 4 students) to build a tower by using marshmallows and sticks. Our teacher would measure the height of tower and gave students tokens (1 mm= 10 tokens). It is worth mentioning that the marshmallows and sticks were charged. The first 1o marshmallows were free, but others were charged by 20 tokens per marshmallows. And each stick needed 10 tokens too.

What our group did

When we got marshmallows and sticks, we first measured their length and found that the cost of marshmallows and sticks was quite low compared the tokens you could get if you build a higher tower. As the diagram showed, you just needed three extra marshmallows and six extra sticks to enlarge the tower. (Each stick was 5 cm long, in other words, you could 500 more tokens while only pay for the cost of 120.)

So we(members in our group) built the tower together and asked our teacher to measure its height. It was 25.5 cm tall which was the tallest in our class.

Here is a photo to record our achievement.

Analysis–why we could build the tallest tower

Cooperation

We performed well partially because we cooperated with each other excellently. Each member in our group did tasks positively, we tried our best to think ideas and gave others advice through the efficient communication. For example, one of us advised to build one layer of the tower then combined the tower and its new layer through sticks, it could make sure our tower is solid enough.

Besides, when we felt that our tower would topple down, we would try our best to reinforce it.

Scientific design

We used a scientific way to design the structure of our tower. Actually, we were asked to draw a poster to introduce our tower. And in this poster, we enumerated some advantages of our design.

This is our poster.

This is our marshmallow tower.

1. Triangular structure: We have already mathematic trigonometry knowledge in primary school or secondary school. Triangular structure is the solidest structure.

2. Bearing： We used two bearings to reinforce our tower efficiently. As we know, the base was important for a tower. It would topple down by the turning effect caused by the weight.

(Simple physic knowledge, you could even find it in IGCSE physic book.

Teachers’ summary– what economic knowledges we have learned from this activity

Fixed cost and variable cost

In this game, the cost of marshmallows and sticks changed as the number of them we used were changed. In other words, the cost of them were variable cost. Meanwhile, the cost of hiring workers (we were workers) to build the tower remained the constant, so it was a kind of fixed cost.

Diminishing marginal benefits

We may find that it is easy to build the first layer of the tower. However, as the tower enlarged, you may find that it is much more difficult to add an extra layer. You needed to add bearings to support the base. In other words, with the same marginal revenue (one layer of the tower means a fixed value of extra height and thus get the tokens). the marginal cost increased the marginal benefits diminished.

The prize– we were winners

Students who built the tallest tower would get a badge. There were four types of badges (all of them have contents related to Economics on them) to choose. I took a picture of my badge. The “MC=MR” stands for marginal cost equals to marginal revenue, which is an economic concept for profit maximization.

Backgrounds- why we could do it at school

Our school has a center called Steam, which aimed to provide different kinds of extra curriculums for students. This center is well-equipped, for example, it has complex laser cutting equipment, that means we have the opportunity to access laser world–laser cutting!

Activities- what we did here

We used an application online to model different objects. Then we sent our designs to teachers’ computers and they manipulated laser cutting machines by using a computer to cut wood boards. It is worth mentioning that we could bring our designs back home as souvenirs!

What I did there

Actually, I downloaded a picture about The University of Toronto on the Internet in order to make a fridge magnet in the morning. It was so successful that our Physic teacher showed my work in front of my classmates. In the afternoon, since I had already experienced the way to use the modeling application, I designed a box with cover. It took me 2 hours, and I also asked for help during this process.

My fridge magnet is here below.

You could see there are two tiny magnets to help this stick on the walls of fridges.

This is the box I made.

It’s clearly there is a cover.

The thing that made me feel quite terrible.

To be honest, I put pictures about different top universities in the Canada and UK originally on the box. However, the laser cutting couldn’t draw complicated pictures. As a result, you could only see a little bit pictures on my box!

I also made some other fridge magnets. They didn’t have clear university pictures as well. Here is an example.

My feelings– what I learned from today’s experience

For my interests

Generally speaking, on the technical level, I had learned the exact way how laser cutting operating. I was surprised that how precise the laser cutting is–the box I made was as good as the handicraft boxes the shops sold. It may boost my comprehension further about engineering–Tell you the truth, I loved handicrafts, and todays’ experience may let me decide to learn engineering in the university. (I decided to learn either Chemistry or Business before.)

For my faults

During today’s event, I didn’t consider about how precise the laser cutting could reach. As a result, I didn’t make a fancy box with different universities’ pictures. (And I wasted some materials as well.) It taught me a lesson that I should think twice before doing something. This may also explain why I made some stupid choices before. I couldn’t change the history, but the thing is that, I could learn how to behave better from my daily life.

What i did in my childhood

When I was 9, I began to show an interest in accounting and modeling. I guess I loved those mainly because I wanted to save more money. (Actually, I have been developed this habit now.) By learning accounting, I could realize the thing I didn’t need to buy and thus using my money in a more efficient way. By modeling, I could use mathematic knowledge I learned in my classroom to solve practical problems like identifying which scheme would use the lowest money to buy the most goods.

Backgrounds for Chinese junior high students

Since finance is not a compulsory subject in Chinese junior high schools, I had no choice but to give up my dreams of learning it temporarily. The majority of Chinese students, including me, did time-consuming extra-curricular work in order to pass tough examinations to access senior high schools. Despite this, I continued acquiring knowledge about modeling as I thought that it may be useful in Finance. I sometimes did self-study by downloading online books about Matlab during my senior high school years.

Special opportunity for me (being an A-level student)

In Grade 10, I was delighted to be provided with the opportunity to learn Economics at our A-level centre. I have been learning Business knowledge enthusiastically. In order to get excellent final exam results, I study this subject as soon as I finish my dinner every evening.

My experience of learning Economics at school

It is worth mentioning that we have two capable economics teachers. Whenever I have problems, they give me a helping hand to solve them and boost my comprehension further. They are like friends accompanying with me when I am in trouble, rather than simply teachers focused on teaching the syllabus. For example, I got an 80 percent mark in a mock exam, which made me feel sad. My economics teacher did not criticize me at that time. Instead, he smiled at me and said What happened?” Later, he helped me correct my mistakes and I have had much better results in exams since that time.

What I did for my further study

Then my economics teacher advised me to take part in a business contest called The Future Business Leader of America. My classmates and I achieved China top 18th in this teamwork event. During the event, I was surprised by how little I knew about economic terms and concepts, so I developed the habit of reading economic essays regularly to broaden my horizons. Thanks to the presentation we did there, I realized that my poor communication skills could have an adverse effect on my academic progress. As a result, I have practiced my speaking by giving more presentations in class.

Backgrounds

Our A-level centre organized an extra-curriculum to let all its A-level students live in a countryside for three days. This activity aimed at strengthening our teamwork spirit and experiencing lives as volunteers, so our countryside life included not only busy work, but also relaxing entertainment.

Busy work

We did a lot of meaningful activities, such as growing scindapsus aureus, making dumplings, removing weeds, using grass to make shoes and cutting branches.

Obviously, all of them above required teamwork, but the majority of them just needed us to work as a team. Each student did the same work in these activities. In other words, everyone didn’t need to specialize in a particular task and did their specific role.

Therefore, I will introduce another activity we did there–making a kind of Chinese traditional drink–soybean milk.

Making soybean milk

The step of making soybean milk is below:

1.Put soybeans and water in a stone mill.

2.Rotate the stone mill horizontally by holding a handle on it.

3.Collect the soybean milk by using a brush.

4.Put the soybean milk into the stone mill again. Then continues the steps 2 and 3 above.

Five or six students needed to work as a group to make the soybean milk. Each student had its own task. One student needed to put soybeans or soybean milk into the mill, one student needed to collect soybean milk, one student needed to wash the mill, other student needed to rotate the mill.

You can see that it’s impossible for us to make soybean milk unless each student does their own task well. I was interested in making soybean milk, (mainly because I loved drinking it)
so I chose the hardest work–rotating the mill.

And I was the leader of my group as well. With effective communications (and my strength to rotate the mill), our group made the soybean milk efficiently.

Here is a photo:

Entertainment

We had also watched a firework show. In addition, we had a talent show in a theatre. I think it couldn’t be seen as unforgettable experience, so I didn’t introduce them here.

My feelings–what I have learned from this field trip.

Generally speaking, l had learned the spirit of teamwork during those three days. We worked together, ate together, relaxed together and even slept together! We sometimes shared technique skills of doing busy work like making soybean milk in order to save effort, and we always cooperated with each other to work efficiently. We sometimes argued with each other since we had our own ideas, but we accepted each other gradually through the three-day-long work. As classmates, I believed that our common experience would boost us to care each other in the future.

In addition, we have also mastered skills that we could only learn in the countryside, like growing scindapsus aureus. We realized how difficult the farmers were and thus saved grains and protect plants.

In other words, a meaningful memory.

Backgrounds

After finishing CAIE international examinations, our A-level center held an extra-curriculum. It asked students’ parents to provide internship and each student could choose one job to practice. Originally, I would like to work in a bank for one day. However, the opportunities to go there were limited so I made my second option—going to a laboratory to do chemical experiments.

###What we did there

In the morning

At first, we looked around a company (The laboratory was in the company). From a staff in it, we got to know what this company did. Generally speaking, it was a company for graduates from the university to do experiments, they applied for patents and the company tried to produce and sell products related to their patents. In other words, this company was a business incubator for innovation.

The stuff introduced three projects they currently did, including a new kind of insulator (which is used to replace air conditioners in rural areas), a new kind of conductors (which is used in the digital devices, I will introduce it later) and a modern technique to produce masks (by using electrostatic force).

In the afternoon

After lunch, we chose the topic we were interested in and did the experiment on our own. I chose to make the new kind of conductor with my friends.

The conductor we made– why it was uncommon

The purpose of it was uncommon

Have you ever thought about using conductors in the digital devices like mobile phones? It may be ridiculous if you hear of this idea for the first time. You may think the use of conductor make the digital devices hotter. Truth to be told, I had the same idea as well at first. Then the staffs (actually two graduates) told us they would use the conductor to combine the microprocessor (the thermal energy comes from here) and the device to release thermal energy. In traditional digital devices, only air conducts energy from microprocessor to cooling equipment, but air is an insulator to conduct thermal energy. Obviously, this innovation can make thermal energy release more rapidly and thus protecting the digital devices.

The reaction of it was uncommon

They use carboxylic acid and aluminium oxides as reactants (also need a kind of catalyst). This reaction was uncommon because its raw materials were cheap and they were not toxic or poisonous. It is worth mentioning that this reaction happens in room temperature rapidly and the product is in liquid state–which means it could be shaped easily.

Our cooperation during the experiment

You can see our team have six students.

According to the experiment plan, we split into three groups A1,A2,B1. And the two graduates were in group B2. Group A needed to do the reaction without the Al2O3 while group B needs to use both reactants and aluminium oxides.

With the help of precise equipment, we discovered that it was important to use aluminium oxides. Without it, the products we made were still poor conductors.

However, I still didn’t know how to explain this phenomenon. The two graduates simply said this reaction was a kind of additional reaction. Anyway, this experiment boosted my interest of learning sciences, especially Physics and Chemistry further.

The difficulty we met

There were too many difficulties during the experiment. For example, it was too time-consuming to use precise equipment like digital balance to weigh the mass of reactants. One kind of reactants, for example, carboxylic acid, is a kind of ropy liquid. When you add it to the container on the balance, it may stick on the wall of container.

You could see how difficult we weighed the reactants from this picture.

Besides, the reaction was vigorous when you added the catalyst. We needed to stir the reactants by a glass rod to make sure the product was uniform.

Our products and my feelings

This is the product our group A1 made. I am proud of our successful product.

I think it is meaningful to do the experiment in a laboratory today. First, I got to know what I would do in an experiment. This brought benefits not only for my practical A-level Chemistry examination but also let me know what I would do if I decide to be a scientist in the future. In other words, my today’s experience helped me to decide what subject I would learn in the university. Besides, we developed the skill of cooperation（for example, ways to communicate efficiently with each other） and strengthened the fundamental scientific skills(organic chemistry),

Last but not least, I also realized how weak my ability to do the practical reaction. I spent much more time to do this experiment and it taught me a lesson that I should practice and do more experiments by myself instead of simply learning theorical knowledge.