That it was the "Best Class EVER" seems to be the common refrain every year by most every one of Yvonne Clifford's students over the past 30 years after the Dry Ice Day. This is an engaging chemical to bring to the chemistry classroom or an outreach event because many concepts can be applied and it affords a great deal of fun and excitement!
The lab activity shared here is a simple experiment where students use stoichiometric principles to experimentally determine the amount of sodium bicarbonate in an Alka-Seltzer tablet. Novice students tend to find stoichiometric calculations difficult, so practicing the calculations on a pre-lab assignment boosts their confidence and ultimately leads to more successful labs. The Asynchronous Video Pre-Lab Assignment shared here demonstrates the procedure and the calculations required in the experiment.
The Golden Drain is a case study developed by Sharma and Wolfgang where students work to uncover a company’s lost revenue due to the error of a new employee.
In this lab, students connect the workings of an electrochemical cell in the lab with the symbolic equations used in electrochemistry and manipulate a model representing the particulate level of what is happening during the electrochemical process. Although this lab was previously highlighted on ChemEd X, there are now virtual options offered!
Students will be engaged in this activity that will help them make the connection between food and chemistry. Acid, bases and pH are addressed.
After receiving positive feedback from Peter Mahaffy, the IUPAC project co-chair of Isotopes Matter, I decided to add an additional component to the original isotope assignment I posted. The second component of the assignment focuses on the applications of both radioactive and stable isotopes using the interactive IUPAC periodic table.
This lab was written as part of the Target Inquiry program at Grand Valley State University in Michigan. Students build an electrochemical cell, learn about the symbolic equations used in electrochemistry and manipulate a model representing the particulate level of what is happening during the electrochemical process.
