As the school year begins, students prepare for tests, homework, or if you’re a chemistry student, labs. On August 7th, Ms. Latimore’s Chemistry Honors class did their first lab. “We were doing a twist on the unknown lab,” Sophomore Manikandan Venkata said. “In this lab we were to observe qualitative data.” Students had to observe a chemical reaction and describe it using qualitative observations. Qualitative observations are observations made without measurements and numbers. “Using words such as lathering and seething, I described how the reactants foamed up before creating the product of the chemical reaction,” Manikandan said, “Watching how the chemicals react and how they look before and after mixing them really brought out my curiosity. Watching it sizzle, foam, loose heat, then gain it back and get even hotter, that’s what chemistry is all about.” Of all of the science classes, chemistry has the most labs, many of which are combining chemicals and observing reactions. There is always something to learn from labs like this, something that the student may have never known before. “When it came to learning something from this lab, I did learn a lot,” Manikandan said, “I learned first-hand how chemical reactions occur and how the reactants and products differ.” “I had so much fun in this lab and cannot wait for the labs in the future,” Manikandan concluded.