The “Elephant Toothpaste” experiment is a very popular, albeit messy chemistry demonstration. To carry out this experiment, place a 250 mL graduated cylinder on something that you wouldn’t mind getting messy.
Have you read “Making Thinking Visible”? You should. It focuses on making student thinking visible to the teacher. While still learning to use the visible thinking routines, I really feel more conscious of students’ understandings than ever.
Here is a sample activity that I adapted to fit my honor chemistry students’ needs:
Some orange peels can cause balloons to pop. The compound in orange peels called limonene is responsible for this effect. Limonene is responsible for the wonderful smell of oranges, and it is a liquid at room temperature.
A fun experiment to conduct when discussing phase diagrams is the melting of solid carbon dioxide (dry ice).
Last year I came across a link on Twitter regarding an art installation by Roger Hiorns in England titled “Seizure.” Some of you may have seen it too – a condemned flat in London was essentially sealed off and filled with more than 75,000 L of supersaturated copper sulfate solution.
Conducting experiments with liquid nitrogen experiments is a sure-fire way to energize many chemistry lessons. Check out the Misbehaving Balloon demo!
At my school in Michigan, the second semester just started this week. And, since all chemistry classes (except for IB Chemistry) are semester courses, I have new students and different preps.
Happy New Year! For many, the beginning of a new year involves creating resolutions. And, hopefully not quitting them! Something I have resolved to do is modify the presentation and submission of lab reports.
Happy New Year! Did you know that 2015 is the International Year of Light (IYL)? IYL is a “global initiative adopted by the United Nations to raise awareness of how optical technologies promote sustainable development and provide solutions to worldwide challenges in energy, education, agriculture, communications and health1”. IYL is sponsored by several organizations with interests in science and science education, including the European Physical Society, the Institute of Physics, the American Physical Society, and the American Institute of Physics. You can find several lesson plans, videos and other educational resources on the IYL website2.
This is a Chemical Reactions lab that I modified to meet NGSS guidelines.
