Science 9 -Inquiry Project- Anna, Ara,Shanez-1f6y75a

 

Solution fluency – ADL 10 pt.2 of inquiry project

 

DEFINE:

:

Our challenge as a class was to find an item that our group related to and used often, then we had to identify chemical components, substances or reactive materials used in the object/item. Our first task was to think of a big question that was used often by team members in our group and that related to chemistry. Our group’s question was “How does Ethanol in hairspray affect our surroundings?” We thought that hairspray would be something interesting to research about and it is especially useful for us because it holds the hair in place and makes it look put together (it is especially useful for me because I have quite curly hair and hairspray helps me straighten out my fly-aways!) After we found out that the main substance used in hairspray is Ethanol which we wanted to find out if it was dangerous, how to make it how it is related to chemistry, how it affects our surroundings/environment and many more. We ended up finding out that it is dissolvable once mixed with water, that it is 100% natural which was surprising and is usually made by naturally fermenting sugars or grains in water for a long period of time.

 

DISCOVER: Once we agreed with what product we were going to elaborate on and came up with our big question, we came up with many under questions that still related to the main questions and that related to chemistry. Some of our question were about hairspray and if there were any other chemical substances used in hairspray as well as ethanol.

 

Here are our group questions and some answers:

 

1. What is the role of ethanol?
   What is ethanol?

 

• Ethanol is found in alcohol and it’s the intoxicating ingredient.
• Ethanol is a colourless volatile flammable liquid which is produced by the natural fermentation of sugars/alcohol
• Ethanol is a biodegradable and non-toxic alternative to gasoline and it quickly              breaks down into the earth and is harmless to the earth. Even though it is                                                    harmless to the earth it is still highly flammable and needs to be transported
• Ethanol is used making gases, making many or medical prescription products and many household cleaning supplies.

 

2. How does ethanol affect us/our surroundings?
   How does one cause it?

 

• All if not most products are used for cleaning or beauty contain resources that are non-renewable and renewable which can have effects on our planet.
• Ethanol, in some places has become a controversial subject, debating whether or not levels should be increased or decreased. Locations such as the U.S heartland has a major environmental issue – one that will only continue to increase with more ethanol.

• How does hairspray keep hair in place?
  How is ethanol hairspray created?

 

• Typical hairspray contains polymers (chain-like molecules) in a solvent and sometimes propellant. After spraying, the solvent evaporates and leaves behind a stiff layer of the polymers on the hair to keep it in place.
• Ethanol is a common ingredient in many cosmetics and beauty products. It helps clean skin in lotions as a preservative to ensure that the ingredients in lotion do not separate and is used in hairspray to help harden the hair and make it stay put.

 

4. Does ethanol have chemical reactions with us/our surroundings? How?

 

• Hairspray is made up of many chemicals and a chemical reaction happens for it to work. It is sprayed onto hair by dispensing it from a bottle with a pump or an aerosol spray nozzle.
• Ethanol is made up of C₂H₅OH (two parts Carbon 5 parts Hydrogen and 1-part hydroxide). The chemical reaction occurs when the hairspray attaches to hair..
• Ethanol has no chemical reaction, as it is quick to dissolvein water

 

5. The relationship between ethanol hairspray and chemistry is…?

 

• Ethanol is used in hairspray, they both basically use sorts of alcohol in them, therefore they both have a substance that goes through fermentation processes because of how ethanol is formed
• Ethanol is formed from sugar cane grains mixed with water then fermented for an amount of time to be in its purest form. (not harmful to touch) Although gives the same effect as drinking alcohol if consumed.

 

DELIVER:

Our big question and information were presented on PowerPoint. This is a program that me and my group members are quite familiar with and we decided that it looked more professional than some of the other programs and I like my information more in point form, so it gives other space to add their own ideas and perspective of the answers.

 

DEBRIEF:

The process of completing this project was sometimes challenging at parts we especially struggled with the “relationship between ethanol hairspray and chemistry is?” Overall the process went smoothly, and we all discussed issues and helped each other out. At first our group wanted to ask a big question about our phones, but we decided that even though it’s something we all relate to and use a lot, we didn’t find much information about it it’s wasn’t really something our group was happy enough with and many people were doing something phone related and we wanted something different, so we decided to go with hairspray since I mentioned using it to put my hair up in a pony tail and it went forward from there!

 

Here is how we split the project:

 

We basically had 6 questions, but we put 2 together because they worked together so we each decided to answer 2 questions each then help out with other questions that needed more answers.

 

Me: asked questions, helped out when group members had questions, answered questions on PowerPoint and helped out with missing points, added links

 

Anna: created PowerPoint, asked questions, helped out group members that had questions, answered questions on PowerPoint and added missing points, added images, added links

 

Ara: asked questions, helped out when group members had questions, answered questions on PowerPoint and helped out with missing points, added links

 

 

Establish: As a group, we established some rules and what steps we were going to take to complete the project;

 

• Ask questions
• Come to class prepared and use your time wisely
• Help each other out
• Split project into 3 equal parts
• Work hard and trust each other
• Encourage ideas and perspectives

 

 

Envision: As a group our main focus was to answer these questions then elaborating them to make a couple more questions.

 

1. What does Ethanol do in hairspray?
2. Is Ethanol toxic or non-toxic?
3. What other chemicals are mixed with ethanol in hairspray?
4. What other things contain ethanol in them?

 

 

 

Execute: after our group finished answering our questions, we transferred all of our information into a PowerPoint in point form so that only the main/important points are on our final PowerPoint presentation.

 

 

Examine: After finishing our whole project I am very proud of my group and how much they contributed to this project, overall, I think we did a good job and that we all made sure to ask for help when needed and include everyone’s ideas. We didn’t have many concerns, our only concern while completing this project was with answering our last question but after researching hard and working together we finished answering the question and we are fairly satisfied with the effort and hard work that was put into this project.