Reading log #1

Reading Log#1
Title: Thirteen Reasons Why
Text type: Novel
Director/Author: Jay Asher

Thirteen  Reasons Why, written by Jay Asher is a young adult novel published in 2007. It is a story about a boy Clay Jensen who receives a mysterious package that is left on his porch. Inside is seven double sided cassette tapes containing the thirteen reasons why classmate and crush Hannah Baker committed suicide two weeks prior. If Clay listens to the tapes he will find out why he is one of them.

This book it made me think again about the people around me and what they may be going through but we are all unaware of it. " You don't know what goes on in anyone's life but your own".  While reading it i became aware of even the smallest actions can have such a massive impact on someone else's life. "If only we could see the endless string of consequences that result from our smallest actions. But we can't know better until our better is useless". In this novel Zach removes anonymous notes from Hannah's "Bag of encouragement". When she speaks about it in Zach's tape she says "Maybe it didn't seem like a big deal to you, Zach. But now i hope you understand. My world was collapsing. I needed them notes". This also shows us that each different person can be effected due to someone else's actions.

Something that this book taught me was that we need to do things in the moment and not wait until its too late. We see this happen in the book when Clay didn't tell Hannah about his feelings for her. The regret of his mistake started to eat him up inside. We can see Clay is regretful when he says to Tony " I liked her for so long from far away, but i never had the chance to tell her".  But this situation also showed me that this is just human nature, that we try to avoid things or put them on hold because of the fear we will get hurt or rejected. This isn't necessarily a good thing. This creates a negative head space for us because we are building up our emotions.

I would recommend this book to Teens and Adults. It conveys many strong messages throughout the book, and makes us question the way we treat others and how we could be effecting someones life negatively. It also makes me us second think that we don't know what anyone else is going through in their life, because their life is not our lives.

Acid and Base Reaction

How to make salt using Metals, Insoluble Bases and Insoluble Carbonates

Aim: To produce copper sulfate salts by reacting copper oxide with an acid.

Equiptment:

• Copper oxide powder
• Dilute (0.5 mol L-1) Sulfuric acid
• 50 mL measuring cylinder
• Two 100 mL beakers
• Bunsen Burner
• Tripod
• Gauze mat
• Funnel
• Filter paper
• Thermometer
• Spatula
• Evaporating basin
• Stirring rod

Method

1. Add 20 mL of Sulfuric acid to a 100 mL beaker. Heat the acid until it reaches 70.C . Turn off your Bunsen burner. Do not boil the acid.
2. Once heated, use a spatula to add pea-sized portions of copper oxide to the mixture. Stir for 30 seconds.
3. Repeat step 2 until no more will dissolve. Allow beaker to cool.
4. Fold the filter paper and place it in the funnel. Place the funnel into the second beaker.
5. Make sure the beaker is cool enough to hold at the top. The contents should still be hot. You may need your teacher to complete this step.
6. Gently swirl the contents of the beaker to a mix, and then pour into the filter paper in the funnel. Allow to filter through.
7. Rinse the beaker you used to mix the beaker previously, and place it back on top of the tripod filled with 50-60 mL of water.
8. Place the evaporating basin on top of this beaker and carefully pour some of the solution from the other beaker into the evaporating basin.
9. Gently heat the beaker until the solution in the evaporating basin has reduced by half.
10. Leave the evaporating basin to cool. Once cool, move the evaporating basin to a warm place where it will not be disturbed (e.g. a window-sill) and observe over the next few days.