These activities were originally published in 2018 as a mini-unit on gas laws for IB Chemistry. They have been updated for 2020 since they lend themselves well to an online or flipped format. 

Using the online simulation tool (Atomsmith Classroom Online) and the ADI framework students investigate the properties of gases, along with two gas laws. An ADI "whiteboard discussion" helps in getting students to really process what the results of experiments mean to us as chemists - and how this leads to expanding our understanding of matter. 

  Figure 1 - Screen shot of Atomsmith Online (accessed 4/17/18)

Activity 1 replaces a lab I previously did using the Vernier gas pressure sensors where students essentially completed the same four activities in a lab setting rather than a simulation. Each of these scenarios has benefits and drawbacks. Students certainly benefit from being in the lab - where they have to solve some logistical issues, even though I previously gave them much of the recipe for the lab. The biggest drawback to that is time. When I have students collect multiple trials for five levels, the amount of class time used can stretch beyond what I would like. And that's one of the big advantages of the simulation: It's not nearly as time-intensive. The other benefit is the ability for students to actually visualize what is happening with the gases in a simplified particle model. The students don't know it at the time, but we'll be revisiting the LiveLab to look at Maxwell-Boltzmann distributions during our kinetics unit, so I want them to be familiar with this tool - and the behavior of the particles.

Activity 2 involves using the LiveLab again to explore Avogadro's Law and Dalton's Law using the Argument-Driven Inquiry model of Claim-Evidence-Reasoning. This simulation activity also required students to do some creative thinking about how to collect data that would actually provide evidence for their claim. In the end, each group got it worked out - but not without some stumbles along the way. And to me, these challenges lead students to expand their thinking and learn to be more creative with their problem-solving.

A few whiteboards are shown below, providing a bit of range of detail within the explanation.

Figure 2 - Whiteboard #1 for Activity #2.

 Figure 3 - Whiteboard #2 for Activity #2.

Figure 4 - Whiteboard #3 for Activity #2.

 Figure 5 - Whiteboard #4 for Activity #2.

Materials

Atomsmith Online website, Google Slide presentation & other documents, whiteboards & dry erase markers

Background

Procedure

Begin with a quick pre-lab handout to get students thinking about the relationships between volume, pressure, temperature, and number of particles. This is just intended to remind students that these are not completely new ideas. Rather than going over the prelab or correcting it, you might wish to return to it after the activities are complete and ask students to make adjustments if necessary after considering their data. 

Activity 1 

One student from each group (2 or 3 students recommended) will download a copy of the Gas Laws Using Atomsmith Online Google Slide Presentation and share it with their group. Students will then work through each investigation adding text to the slides as they go. (Note: Visit Samantha Ramaswamy's blog post for a video that explains how to "force a copy". This is very important so that each group has their own document to work with.) 

To complete the activity, students log into Atomsmith Classroom Online and design a method of investigating each of the questions presented. There are four mini-investigations to complete. You may need to introduce students to the "Live Lab" interface from Atomsmith Classroom Online before they work on the activities. After groups are done with all of the investigations, come together as a class to discuss the relationships found. 

In my classroom - Students worked in pairs or groups of 3, with conversation happening throughout the activity. Questions 1-3 of the investigation are all pretty straight-forward. But question 4, "How does the amount of gas (in moles) affect the pressure of the gas at a fixed volume and temperature?" required a bit of thought. The key here is not so much how to change the number of moles - that's quite easy. The issue is how to keep the controlled variables constant. This was a nice bit of problem-solving that students had to accomplish, and I think they benefited from not being spoon-fed the directions and simply following the recipe here. Each of the relationships is pretty straight-forward - and we talked as a class at the end about how they all can connect together, leading into the ideal gas equation.

 

Activity 2 

Use the Live Lab on Atomsmith Online to explore Avogadro's Law and Dalton's Law using the Argument-Driven Inquiry model of Claim-Evidence-Reasoning (see the Avagadro's Law / Dalton's Law worksheet below). This simulation activity requires students to do some creative thinking about how to collect data that would actually provide evidence for their claim. 

This activity requires students to create a whiteboard with their Claim-Evidence-Reasoning outlined and ready to share. My hope is that each "claim" will essentially be a restatement of Avogadro's Law or Dalton's Law (which I haven't given them yet). I have groups present to the class. If you are short on time, you might assign just one group per law. 

In my classroom - Each group had a claim that was a nice re-statement of each of the laws. The one area that needed a bit more detail was the reasoning. Students needed a bit more detail to support their claim, both with a bit more evidence and reasoning that would actually explain the law.

Gas Laws Using Atomsmith Online Google Slide Presentation

Questions

Concepts

Relationships between gas pressure, gas volume, gas temperature and amounts of gas, Avogadro's Law and Dalton's Law 

Time Required

May complete in a 50 minute class period. More time may be required if students are required to complete whiteboards and engage in rigorous class discussion.

Preparation

Provide documents and Google Slide presentation

Attribution

ADI (Argument Driven Inquiry)  & Atomsmith Online 

Credits