Tissue paper can be folded and cut with chemistry-related patterns to make decorative paper banners that can be used as Mexican-themed decorations. Chemistry concept connections include lattice energy, bandgap energy, and ionic crystal fracture.
Regularly dimpled trays such as those used in food packaging can be used to represent layers of atoms in solid structures. For example, the square array of dimples in transparent plastic mini quiche trays can be used to depict layers within cubic or tetragonal unit cells. Multiple solid structures and ways to represent those structures are described.
Description of a Detroit Area Pre-College Engineering Program (DAPCEP) course for middle-school students about the chemistry and biology of water.
Brain Breaks are powerful tools in education, supported by research showing improved focus, retention, community building, and reduced stress among students. When structured using chemistry principles, like in the Water Maze Race, brain breaks can also introduce or reinforce fundamental chemistry concepts.
The floating soap bubble is an impressive experiment that is surprisingly easy to carry out.
Josh Kenney shares three simple and inexpensive demonstrations using Elmer’s glue.
With a little chemical investigation, you can figure out how Jet-Puffed's new color changing marshmallows work!
The shapes of plastic bottles can be used to represent orbitals. Using various connectors, a bit of packing tape, and a few other more specialized touches can produce large scale molecular models that feature orbitals, sigma bonds, and pi bonds.
Laser cutters can be used to cut and engrave a variety of thin materials. Compact discs, composed of layers of polycarbonate plastic and aluminum metal, were explored for their ability to be shaped with a laser cutter. The laser can successfully cut and engrave the compact discs into the shape of snowflake. However, each disc must first be coated with a material like glue in order to protect the plastic from discoloration and the byproducts from cutting the plastic that can accumulate on the disc surface.
Egg cartons and small objects such as milk jug caps or plastic eggs can be used to illustrate chemical concepts. The egg cartons can be cut into trays to represent atoms or to represent energy levels associated with atomic orbitals. The plastic caps or eggs distributed among the dimples of the trays can be used to represent electrons or pairs of electrons.
