Chemistry

The “kick” is up and it is . . . GOOD! Fuel-cell field goal! When properly filled with a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen, a plastic pipet bulb can be projected 20–30 feet across a classroom. The goal of this activity is to make a “chemical field goal”...

How do chemists determine the identity of a compound? A variety of analytical techniques and procedures, ranging from classical, wet–chemistry methods to instrumental methods, have been developed to accomplish this important task. In this stoichiomet...

Here is an impressive and affordable lab activity which gives consistent results in just a matter of minutes! Students perform a redox reaction between aluminum wire and a copper(II) salt. The progress of the reaction is followed by observing the dis...

See the true colors of copper carbonate. The empirical formula of copper carbonate is not obvious but its parts can be investigated and related to the composition of the whole. Students measure the amount of gas generated and apply colorimetric analy...

Eight buns, eight cheese slices, but only seven hamburger patties-how many cheeseburgers can you make? This lab introduces the concept needed to answer this simple question-limiting reagents in chemical reactions. Students prepare a very visual, dens...

The combustion reaction of hydrogen and oxygen has been used to send people to the moon and to design electric vehicles for the future. What factors determine the explosiveness of this reaction? In this microscale lab activity, students generate hydr...

Mole balloons provide a dramatic way to visualize the size of one mole of a gas! Students of chemistry learn that one mole of any gas occupies 22.4 liters. Now you can show your students how much space one mole of gas actually fills by using speciall...

Many students are quite puzzled about moles. Scientists “count out” atoms or molecules by weighing them. Learn or review the concepts of atomic mass, molar mass, Avogadro’s number, conversions, and chemical formula writing with the Mole Concept Puzzl...

Stoichiometry-what a strange and scary word! Teach students about mole ratios and take the fear out of stoichiometry calculations with this student lab activity. The reaction of copper wire with silver nitrate in aqueous solution shows chemistry in a...

This experiment is a very straightforward introduction to quantitative determinations. Students are given a mixture of barium nitrate and sodium nitrate salts. A portion of the sample is weighed and dissolved in water. Sulfuric acid is added to the s...

Stoichiometry! A word as strange to some students as the concept it defines. A balanced chemical equation gives the mole ratio of reactants and products for a chemical reaction. When chemical formulas are known, it is relatively easy to determine the...