CHEMistry 'our life, our future': May 2012

Friday 25 May 2012

Rock Salt

1. What is rock salt?
This is the common name for the mineral "halite". Its chemical formula is NaCl. You might know this substance as table salt.and... Actually, rock salt is not K2SO4; it is NaCl. It can have impurities of gypsum (CaSO4) and sylvite (KCl) but it is very rare to find potassium sulfate as a mineral, although occasionally polyhalite (K2Ca2Mg(SO4)4.2H2O) is found associated with rock salt deposits.

2. How is it formed?
It is typically formed by the evaporation of salty water (such as sea water) which contains dissolved Na+ and Cl- ions.

3. Where does it form?
One finds rock salt deposits ringing dry lake beds, inland marginal seas, and enclosed bays and estuaries in arid regions of the world. At various times in the geologic past, very large bodies of water (such as the Mediterranean Sea and an old ocean that sat where the Atlantic Ocean sits now) also evaporated and made enormous deposits of rock salt. These deposits were later burried by marine sediments, but since halite is less dense than the materials that make up the overlying sediments, the salt beds often "punched up" through the sediments to create dome-like structures. These are now mostly burried by additional sediments.

4. What is it used for?
Table salt is essential for human life. A large amount of the comercially mined rock salt is prepared for human consumption. Rock salt is also applied to road beds in cold climates to help reduce the freezing point of water on the road, thereby allowing it to not freeze-over at 0 deg. C (although I have no first-hand knowledge of this since I live in Hawaii).

5. Why is it important?
As I mentioned above, Table salt is essential for human life.In addition, the formation of Rock Salt deposits from the world's oceans is the major mechanism through which the Ocean's can regulate their NaCl. content, thereby not becoming "overly" salty.Salt formations are also important in the rock record because they form one of the most important "traps" for petroleum in the crust. Geologists often use a variety of techniques to try and locate salt domes in the subsurface when they are exploring for new oil and gas resources.

Dr. Ken Rubin, Asst. Professor

Department of Geology and Geophysics
University of Hawaii, Honolulu

Ionic Equations

Let's improve our understanding.. :)

Tuesday 22 May 2012

Reflection

Study is FUN

Finally, it’s the end of semester one and I had finished SKP 6024 – Teaching and Learning Innovation in Chemistry subject. I enjoyed this subject very much with Cik Asmayati as our lecturer.

It was such a cheerful and wonderful time which I will not forgot as I can spend time with my classmates together during the class session. Although there were a lot challenges and difficulties that I had to go through to complete all the assignments given but it was still a memorable experience in my life.

It was hard for me to complete the first individual assignment entitled The Roles of ICT in Teaching and Learning because it was my first assignment in the postgraduates study. The assignment had tough me the importance of ICT in teaching and learning process in school. I did gain a lot of useful knowledge as I search and browse for information from variety of sources in completion of the assignment. I promised myself to improve my standards of teaching by integrating and implementing ICT into the class.

I was so happy with the e-portfolio assignment because I can gain a lot of knowledge and experience in order to create an interactive and informative blog. That was my first attempt to become an active blogger. Never cross in my mind to become a blogger before. Hope the CHEMistry ‘our life, our future’ blog will help students to understand chemistry much better.

The PowerPoint assignment had tough us to cooperate well within group members. We had been given the topic of Acid and Base. We managed to complete the assignment on time as all the group members gave their full commitment and spent quality time discussed together to make sure that the final product was excellent.

For spreadsheet and 3E simulation assignment, we had to do it in pairs. Thanks a lot to my partner’s, Harlyana for her cooperation in completion of the assignment. Although we were hardly seen each other and busy with the school work but we can still overcome the problems faced. We tried our best to finish the assignment within the time provided.

It was difficult at first to ask my students to be the respondent for the online survey assignment but then, they were really supportive by participating in answering the entire questionnaire asked. It took me several weeks to collect all the data response for the online form because I had to promote my blog to my student.

The last but the most problematic assignment was the camstudio. During the process of recording, the software had created a lot of problems that can’t be solved by us. We had to record the video for more than 10 times because at the end the video can’t be saved. But with help from Cik Asmayati, we managed to solve the problems and complete the assignment. I think camstudio is very helpful software to be used in teaching and learning but it required a lot of time to record and the function of setting can be problematic sometimes.

This course SKP 6024 had tough me a lot to be more independent and knowledgeable person. I really hope that I could implement and share the useful knowledge with my student to improve my teaching and learning process.