4th of July - Celebrations and Bright Colours

Nope, there was no brilliant multi-coloured displays in the sky for us. The only colours we dealt with are red, yellow and pink (plus colourless). Those colours are from two acid-base indicators: Methyl red and phenolphtalein (don't ask me how I remembered that spelling...). 4 July 2006 was the night of the Titration Stakes, state level.

A leaky burette

It is also the birthday of Joel, Mrs Foo, and Nathan (thank you Kim for the reminder).

After school, I sorted out yearbook committee first (in other words, leaving them behind in the IT lab), then joined the other titrators for a photo shoot. Those photos are with Mr Hammond, so I can't post them here... I have a number of my own though! (Sam, read my lips: Sony DSC-T33 *evil laugh*)

A burette on my shoulder

Carine SHS, Team 3!

The apprehensive teachers, comparing the data/calculations of the 3 teams

Waiting for the announcement of results. Clockwise, from the bottom:
Team 1: Neil, Thomas, David
Team 3: Philippa, Neeli (behind the camera - Sze Howe)
Team 2: Clare, Bronwyn (hiding off-screen - Kathryn)

Kathryn's watch (For some reason, I don't have any good photos of her that night... Sorry Kath!)

Final pic before getting out of the car. G'night, people!

I haven't actually mentioned anything about the titrations themselves, have I? Well, we've been practicing over the past few week. Pip is our PIPetter (yes, I'm making fun of your name again), I am our buretter, and Neeli is our everything-elser.

I can't say we're the most organized titrators ever... There was one practice session where I've already emptied the burette into the flask, yet was left wondering why the indicator didn't change colour. Well duh... adding acid to acid doesn't yield much of a result...

We arrived at our final practice session to find out that our sodium hydroxide had been totally used up. Jeng jeng jeng! Oh well, we can always improvise... So, for purposes of going through the routine, we had tap water in our burette. Tap water didn't cause any indicator colour changes either, but I think the session was worth it.

When we arrived at Curtin University's labs for the competition, we were told that we needed to split up, with different teams in different rooms. Mr Strack randomly assigned teams to the rooms, sending Team 3 up the stairs. I believe he forgot the fact that Philippa had two sprained ankles. Whoops? =P

Being the doofuses we were, more mistakes had to occur, of course. What competition would be complete without mistakes? It's no big deal, really... Neeli just forgot to add indicator to one of the solutions, and I made the funnel overflow and spilt sodium hydroxide all over the bench. Twice.

Something else which dampened the mood that night was the fact that Mr Strack's son was rushed into hospital that night with unexplained shooting pains in his abdomen. We found this out while being driven home in Mr Strack's car. Mr Strack kept himself outdated via wireless technology which might not be approved for use in moving vehicles. We had a good laugh at the measures taken to avoid attention from the patrol car near the freeway though... =D

T'was a fun experience, the Titration Stakes. We didn't go for the purpose of winning alone... there's more important things to do, like eating sausage rolls and meeting new people! It's essential to make sure that we have fun even during the biggest of competitions. That way, losing doesn't feel as disappointing, and we'd still gain something out of non-victory.

Besides, doofuses who forget important procedures and spill corrosive substances have no chance of winning a contest of accuracy, right?

End notes: All 3 Carine SHS teams finished in the top 15 (out of 80++ teams) and will advance to the nationals. Great work, everyone! =)

Mr Strack's son came out fine. Turned out that he over-ate.

Being the doofus I am, I even made mistakes after the competition was over. My poor trophy was left behind in the car. Whoops.