By Kelby Morgan and Sean Conner

During E block on Wednesday, March 27, Upper School science teacher Leigh Thompson’s 9th Grade chemistry class was involved in a lab to create aspirin. The lab began with students grabbing their safety goggles and heading to their lab stations. Each student was paired with another student, and the groups were reminded of the Honor Code, as Thompson reminded them to not use other groups’ information. 

The goal of the lab was to make aspirin, and in order to do that, the students had to follow many basic steps. The steps started with placing water in a beaker on a hot plate and bringing it to somewhere between 75 and 85 degrees Celsius. Separately, they added 2.00 grams of salicylic to an Erlenmeyer flask, along with phosphoric acid. Two groups were sharing a hot plate that ended up not being functional, which led to wasted time, as other groups continued through the lab at a faster pace. This loss of time led to frustration between the two groups who were falling behind. While the chemistry of the lab was strong, the chemistry between the partnerships became a little tense. 

After Thompson brought the pairs a new hot plate, the anger cooled off, as the water temperature finally heated up. Adversity can be overcome, even in a freshman chemistry class. 

Featured image credit: Wikimedia user Lucasbosch.