Chemistry Lab/Acids and Bases

Acids and Bases (2009)
First of all, an old favorite, acids and bases. Last year in all 4 competitions I participated in (2 invitationals, regional, and states) this meant an acid/base titration lab. If you are not familiar with this lab, you will definitely want to ask a teacher to explain it to you before the competition. Believe me, I have seen a team ask the event coordinator what titrate means in the middle of the test, and he was not a happy person. This is a fairly quick and simple lab to complete and it is more than worth your while to DOUBLE CHECK YOUR LAB if you have enough materials. At the state level, I ran the lab through 4 times and averaged the very close results to come up with a more accurate overall result. In a free-response style lab report, this might also get you some extra points for style and accuracy. In the test, the acid/base questions ranged from difficulty of identifying if a solution was an acid based on its pH to balancing advanced reactions trying to find the acidic constant. In order to excel in this event you must be prepared for all levels.