ChemEd X activities are student-centered resources intended to aid learning chemistry topics.
ChemEd X encourages engaging activities where students (with guidance from the teacher) pose questions, analyze data, and make observations to offer a plausible explanation supported by data and consistent with physical observations.
Students use a micro-scale method to extract caffeine from tea using dichloromethane. At the end of the activity, the students' dochloromethane extractions are pooled; the solvent is distilled after class for re-use.
Many novice students struggle to see elements' valence electron configuration trends across the rows and columns on the periodic table. There are many diagrams and explanations available as resources for students however, a deeper understanding may be possible when students discover these trends independently through a game called Electron Configuration Battleship.
After a year or more of virtual laboratory instruction due to pandemic restrictions in many colleges, a simple experiment has been designed to provide students returning to in-person lab instruction with the opportunity to gain hands-on experience reviewing basic chemistry laboratory apparatus and techniques.
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.
This is the third in a series of classroom activities using paper tools to teach organic nomenclature. This post covers the two common naming systems used for carboxylic acids and derivatives, and second for alcohols, thiols, ethers, amines, and ketones.
To help introduce students to organic nomenclature in a way that clearly summarizes the patterns that exist in the IUPAC system, a series of paper tools were developed. The paper tool in this activity can be used to introduce the IUPAC naming of major classes of organic compounds. These paper tools are easy to print and distribute to every student each semester.
Organic nomenclature is usually taught as an introduction to organic chemistry. To help introduce students to organic nomenclature in a way that clearly summarizes the patterns that exist, a paper tool for naming hydrocarbons was developed.
This activity aims to boost students’ confidence in representing the atomic world. It also aims to educate both students and the general public about the “chemicals” found in everyday objects.
This classroom activity challenges students to figure out the volume of gaseous carbon dioxide emitted from the combustion of 1 gallon of gasoline fuel.
If a student “gets the wrong answer” while performing mole conversions, it can be difficult (for both student and the teacher) to discern where an error was made. Inevitably sometime toward the beginning of learning these conversions, students can become overly confident, plugging numbers in without thinking about whether they are sensical. This card set slows students down to think about the order and purpose of each of the steps in mole conversions.