Daisy, Nayeli, Ivy and I made candles as an independent experiment. We did this lab because it seemed cool and we like candles.
Looking Back:
I thought the experiment went pretty well. It was pretty simple to make, but very tedious. We had to wait for it to melt the first time, refill it to the top and wait for it to melt again, put the scented wax in and melt it, and finally the crayon had to melt for color. It was so time consuming that it took two days just to get through everyone's. I personally thought the candles were so cute because we all decided to add glitter and chose colors that would match them.
Our experiment was very cautious of the potential hazards. We were aware of getting burned by the hot plate and the pot, which was boiling water. It was also cautious of how much power we used. Many other people were using the outlets and sometimes the fuses would blow out. It was really frustrating because the water wasn't as hot as it should've been and it took 10x longer.
Looking Beyond:
The experiment contained the phase of melting. It's when you add energy to a solid object and it melts into a liquid. The energy, in this case, was the heat of the hot plate. The temperature also has to do with melting. If it was too high, it could potentially overheat the wax and it wouldn't turn out as well.
Looking Inward:
I thought we got our desired results. It was simply to make and we had many tips given to us by others who had done the lab before. We did my candle before I left and I noticed that the wick would come out easily if you tried to straighten it out. My ended up crooked, but I helped the rest of my group by carefully pulling the wick to be straight and taping it to a ruler. Ivy's actually turned out center instead of mine, which is off centered and probably won't work as well.
Looking Outward:
I worked with Ivy, Daisy, and Nayeli. I thought our group was pretty good. We all worked well with each other during the lab. Next time, I wish someone in our group wasn't doing another lab at the same time. For example, Nayeli was switching back and forth with the bismuth experiment with Marco and Dimitri and our project.
Looking Forward:
To get better results, I should've used a ruler to center my wick out because it was all over the place. None of us anticipated that it was going to come out of the post. I was surprised that it happened. I didn't read anywhere that it was easy to takeout, so I didn't think much of it.
If I could do it again, I would have a wider variety of scents because most of them were Christmas ones and it's not Christmas time. Also, I would do different colors in the candle because we were only doing one color for each person. I saw cone candles at Urban Outfitters and they had different colors of wax in it. It would burn and would show the other layers.
Takeaways:
One thing I took away was that wax is really hard to get off of things. It was really soft and got all over my hands. It took a lot of scrubbing to take it off.
Looking Back:
I thought the experiment went pretty well. It was pretty simple to make, but very tedious. We had to wait for it to melt the first time, refill it to the top and wait for it to melt again, put the scented wax in and melt it, and finally the crayon had to melt for color. It was so time consuming that it took two days just to get through everyone's. I personally thought the candles were so cute because we all decided to add glitter and chose colors that would match them.
Our experiment was very cautious of the potential hazards. We were aware of getting burned by the hot plate and the pot, which was boiling water. It was also cautious of how much power we used. Many other people were using the outlets and sometimes the fuses would blow out. It was really frustrating because the water wasn't as hot as it should've been and it took 10x longer.
Looking Beyond:
The experiment contained the phase of melting. It's when you add energy to a solid object and it melts into a liquid. The energy, in this case, was the heat of the hot plate. The temperature also has to do with melting. If it was too high, it could potentially overheat the wax and it wouldn't turn out as well.
Looking Inward:
I thought we got our desired results. It was simply to make and we had many tips given to us by others who had done the lab before. We did my candle before I left and I noticed that the wick would come out easily if you tried to straighten it out. My ended up crooked, but I helped the rest of my group by carefully pulling the wick to be straight and taping it to a ruler. Ivy's actually turned out center instead of mine, which is off centered and probably won't work as well.
Looking Outward:
I worked with Ivy, Daisy, and Nayeli. I thought our group was pretty good. We all worked well with each other during the lab. Next time, I wish someone in our group wasn't doing another lab at the same time. For example, Nayeli was switching back and forth with the bismuth experiment with Marco and Dimitri and our project.
Looking Forward:
To get better results, I should've used a ruler to center my wick out because it was all over the place. None of us anticipated that it was going to come out of the post. I was surprised that it happened. I didn't read anywhere that it was easy to takeout, so I didn't think much of it.
If I could do it again, I would have a wider variety of scents because most of them were Christmas ones and it's not Christmas time. Also, I would do different colors in the candle because we were only doing one color for each person. I saw cone candles at Urban Outfitters and they had different colors of wax in it. It would burn and would show the other layers.
Takeaways:
One thing I took away was that wax is really hard to get off of things. It was really soft and got all over my hands. It took a lot of scrubbing to take it off.