MacGregor 1

Mathew MacGregor

Professor Kevin Okleberry

Chemistry 1010

9 December 2017

Summative Reflection

When I first started this class at the beginning of the semester, I had little to no

knowledge about the field of chemistry. Over the duration of the course however I noticed

several times where I was able to improve my critical thinking, make connections to other

courses and my daily life, and reflect on how this class has shaped my perspective.

An example is when I read the first 5 chapters in the Introductory Chemistry book and

really started to learn how to use a periodic table, how to think like a scientist in terms of using

the scientific method and even be able to name elements and compounds. Some specific

examples I can think of that helped improve my critical thinking and really help me see how

chemistry is used in daily life, was in the fire work case study. I never really thought about just

how much chemistry goes into how the explosions of fireworks take place.

This chemistry course has been a great experience and has even helped me make

connections between other classes such as biology 1090. Even though it is a biology class, just

about everything that goes on inside the body involves chemistry in one form or another.

Another connection I can make is between the air bag case study and an accident I got into

roughly a year ago were the airbag was deployed. Back then I thought it was just a bag of air that

rapidly inflated, now I know just the level of math and chemistry that goes into the inner

workings of an airbag, and exactly how the reaction takes place to inflate the airbag.
 MacGregor 2

There were also several things I learned when I was trying to create my signature

assignment. The first thing I learned was that a lot of what is done by scientists isnt necessarily

difficult, and anybody with the right tools and knowledge can create a scientific study. A lot of

what goes into scientific studies about things such as the ozone layer are just a lot of

observations, experiments, and mathematical statistics. The next thing I learned is that even I am

capable of being able to perform scientific studies given my limited knowledge in chemistry, as

was demonstrated in my signature assignment where I calculated how many grams of carbon

monoxide was produced from the combustion reaction of propane and oxygen.

There were also several skills that I ended up mastering in this course. The first skill was

being able to interpret a periodic table and completely understand what it means. I am now able

to understand what elements and compounds are, how many atoms, protons, and electrons they

have, and even what their normal charge is. The next skill I mastered was how to combine

elements and write out ionic and covalent bonds, and then classify the type of reactions that took

place, such as a combustion or decomposition reaction. I also mastered the skill of being able to

write out the electron configuration of every element. There were so many skills that I mastered

in this course, these were just a few examples of the level of expertise I have taken away from

this course.

Overall, I feel that this class was an amazing experience. I have learned so much

regarding chemistry and how it applies to just about everything that happens here in the universe

and in my daily life. I feel like I have improved on my ability to think critically, given that I now

know the scientific method, and a lot more about what elements are, which are essentially the

building blocks of the universe itself. I now have a new profound perspective on what life is and

how exactly the universe functions through elements and their reactions.