Teaching and learning the concept of limiting reactants can be challenging. In this activity students manipulate beads to learn about stoichiometry. A virtual drag & drop version is also available.
Nora Walsh has been using interactive notebooks for some time. Here she outlines her stoichiometry unit and explains how she uses the interactive notebooks with her students.
Balloons that inflate using carbon dioxide produced from the reaction of citric acid and sodium hydrogen carbonate can be used to demonstrate a number of aspects of chemistry. Gas laws were used with the balloons to illustrate limiting reactants, molar mass of gases, and rockets. The endothermic reaction in the balloon was visualized with an infrared camera, and the Green Chemistry aspects of these balloons were considered.
This lab is one of my favorite activities to do in my classes and I look forward to it every year. The lab is simple, requires limited supplies, students love it (i.e. high engagement level), and I have found it to really set students up for stoichiometry.
I recently stumbled across a blog about the use of BCA (Before Change After) tables for stoichiometry written by Lowell Thomson. I was thrilled to discover ChemEd Xchange! I wanted to share my journey, spurred on by my students, into the extensive use of the BCA approach in AP and
