Many of us are tasked with planning or teaching chemical quantities and stoichiometry. To support your planning, help you refresh your stoichiometry unit, or provide extra resources to use in your classroom, I have collected some favorite posts on stoichiometry. Like this bonding post, this article links everything from broad-view thoughts on the unit to ready-to-go printouts for student-facing activities. I hope this helps you; please let me know what topic I should feature next!
Check out more in this collection:
Teaching Thoughts
The resources below offer a discussion of stoichiometry and different ways to teach it.
- AP Chemistry Stoichiometry and Reactions Lessons - Kristen Drury
- Stoichiometry Interactive Notebook - Nora Walsh
These two posts offer two different viewpoints on teaching stoichiometry - one being algorithmic, and the other being conceptually.
- Stoichiometry Is Easy - David Licata
- Conceptual Chemistry - Larry Dukerich
- This post describes using BCA tables and particle diagrams to help students conceptually understand stoichiometric ratios, particularly with respect to limiting reagents.
Deeper Dives into Subtopics
In the list below, you’ll find a deeper dive into some of the subtopics within stoichiometry units.
Proportional Reasoning
- Teaching Moles through Beans - Chad Husting
- The Two Words Every Chemistry Student Needs to Learn - Gary Abud
- Using Flip Cards to Support Proportional Thinking - Jordan Smith
BCA Tables
If you are interested in trying BCA (Before, Change, After) tables as an alternative to dimensional analysis for your stoichiometry unit, check out the posts below. (While the last post applies BCA tables to titration, there is a rich discussion of the BCA method itself in the post.)
- Rethinking Stoichiometry - Lauren Stewart
- One teacher’s attempt to use BCA Tables for Stoichiometry - Lowell Thomson
- Doc Saves Everyone - Applying BCA Tables to Titration Calculations - Dena Leggett
Modeling Bonding Concepts
These posts have different ways of thinking about modeling various stoichiometry concepts to support student understanding.
- LEGO Stoichiometry Activity - Josh Kenney
- Stoichiometry with Beads - Nora Walsh
- Using Visual BCA Tables to Teach Limiting Reactants - Melissa Hemling
Labs and Demos
The labs below vary from being quick (the first two options) to being longer real-world investigations that engage students with using stoichiometry to explore familiar substances.
- Quick Lab on Mass vs Moles - Nora Walsh
- How a Burning Candle Can Teach Stoichiometry - Todd Hollis
- Manufacture and Use of an Effervescent Antacid - David Cash
- Using Evidence to Determine the Correct Chemical Equation: A Stoichiometry Investigation - Ben Meacham
- Does Alka-Seltzer Tell The Truth? A Lab activity with a video pre-lab assessment - Josh Kenney
Activities
These activities provide practice for students with a twist.
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This activity is a great culminating project that has real-world applications.
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30 Stoichiometry problems are set up as a loop, and students start at any problem and progress through the activity.
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Stoichiometry Scavenger Hunt - Nora Walsh
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Stoichiometry Scavenger Hunt - Nora Walsh
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Two-day sequence of stoichiometry practice stations
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Help students make a connection to a new topic by playing a favorite card game to introduce dimensional analysis.
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UNO Out…Demystifying Stoichiometry - Nina Hike
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Assessment
- Incorporating Authentic Assessments in Chemistry - Ben Meacham
- Stoichiometry Fireworks Lab Quiz - David Licata
Additional resources from beyond ChemEd X:
American Association of Chemistry Teachers (AACT) - membership required
Classroom Resources: Stoichiometry
PhET
Reactants, Products and Leftovers
TED-Ed
How big is a mole? (Not the animal, the other one.) - Daniel Dulek
NGSS
Students who demonstrate understanding can use mathematical representations to support the claim that atoms, and therefore mass, are conserved during a chemical reaction.
*More information about all DCI for HS-PS1 can be found at https://www.nextgenscience.org/dci-arrangement/hs-ps1-matter-and-its-interactions and further resources at https://www.nextgenscience.org.
Students who demonstrate understanding can use mathematical representations to support the claim that atoms, and therefore mass, are conserved during a chemical reaction.
Assessment does not include complex chemical reactions.
Emphasis is on using mathematical ideas to communicate the proportional relationships between masses of atoms in the reactants and the products, and the translation of these relationships to the macroscopic scale using the mole as the conversion from the atomic to the macroscopic scale. Emphasis is on assessing students’ use of mathematical thinking and not on memorization and rote application of problem - solving techniques.