1st SAC (Chemical Anaylsis)

[VCE_2012]

Hi guys. I will be doing my first SAC soon and I need some pointers.
Alright, my teacher said that the SAC will involve 'Fertilizer' and possibly volumetric analysis (Area of study 1). My teacher also said that the Manufacturer of the Fertilizer is also involved in the SAC, I can sort of see were this is heading.

So can anybody give me some tips or perhaps general question I should expect or even Formulas. It would be even better if someone can direct me to a pass SAC that involves Fertilizer.

Many thanks

[Phy124]

Question 4 on the VCAA 2011 Exam (1) involved a plant fertiliser, maybe you could check that out?

Some of the advice I can give you is to highlight the important information from the question because as you can see in question 4 above there is a lot of pointless stuff which you don't need. Also, make sure you take note of the ratio's for certain atoms - this is very important and although it may "only" lose you 1 mark, that could be the difference between a 39/40 etc.

I'll try and add more as I think of them, been a while since I did any chem analysis

[VCE_2012]

Question 4 on the VCAA 2011 Exam (1) involved a plant fertiliser, maybe you could check that out?

Some of the advice I can give you is to highlight the important information from the question because as you can see in question 4 above there is a lot of pointless stuff which you don't need. Also, make sure you take note of the ratio's for certain atoms - this is very important and although it may "only" lose you 1 mark, that could be the difference between a 39/40 etc.

I'll try and add more as I think of them, been a while since I did any chem analysis

Thanks for your help, I believe that the SAC would lean towards Gravimetric Analysis not Volumetric. 

[mihir94]

I had part one of the extended experimental investigation last year during our headstart. The sac was on gravimetric analysis and was really straight forward. We basically had to find out the percentage by mass of sulfur in the fertilizer through a series of calculations. That was probably the easiest part as the calculations were simple. The rest was drawing a flowchart of the basic procedure of gravimetric analysis and answering error questions, such as if the filtrate was not tested with silver nitrate solution when the precipitate was washed, how would the results be affected? etc. The last question asked us to account for the differences between our percentage and the manufacturers percentage- again another error question.

All in all it was a pretty straightforward SAC but then again it was only part 1. I guess the key to this SAC is the errors and how they affect the results.

Hope that helps.

[oliverk94]

Hey guys, are teachers allowed to use sample assessment tasks from the Heineman Chemistry workbook as SACs, because in my workbook it has a sample assessment task called "Analysis of fertiliser - an extended experimental investigation" could this possibly be the SAC?

Our first SAC is also do to with fertiliser.. so I'm thinking this could be the SAC.

I'm hoping that it is..

[omgwtf123]

yes that could be on the SAC lol, well it was for me last yr >.<

[mihir94]

Yeah, it was for me as well 

However, my teacher did put in some additional questions of her own, such as draw a flowchart of the basic procedure of gravimetric analysis. It was worth 3 marks i think!

[Phy124]

Hey guys, are teachers allowed to use sample assessment tasks from the Heineman Chemistry workbook as SACs, because in my workbook it has a sample assessment task called "Analysis of fertiliser - an extended experimental investigation" could this possibly be the SAC?

Our first SAC is also do to with fertiliser.. so I'm thinking this could be the SAC.

I'm hoping that it is..

We did both SACs from the workbook and teacher-written SACs (and a couple of hybrids too) so it is a possibility. Most of the time, they were hybrid and we were given a couple of lessons to complete the prac and the questions and had to hand our books in at the end of the lesson. Afterwards our teacher would give us another sheet (a test) which related to the SAC with questions we hadn't seen to further decipher students apart.

It would be worth reading through that task and developing a good idea of what needs to be done, why it needs to be done and what the outcome will be. Even if it isn't your SAC you will probably get something similar so this will definitely aid you in scoring well.