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What's in a name? Dr. Fisher's chemistry students chalk up the sidewalks outside Gottwald Science Center

Boys write their names with chalk in their study of mass relations. 
Dr. Fisher's chemistry students are studying mass relations in chemistry. The boys have been looking at the relationship between a mole, which is the quantity represented by Avogadro's number, a counting unit, and the mass of a mole of any substance. Under the assumption that sidewalk chalk is entirely composed of calcium carbonate, the boys were able to calculate the moles of calcium carbonate and the number of calcium carbonate formula units it took for them to write their names on the sidewalk outside of Gottwald (by taking the difference in the initial and final mass of the chalk). In doing this, the boys were also able to incorporate past lessons on uncertainty in measurement, significant figures and naming ionic compounds. 


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