In this experiment, two chemicals that can be found around the house will be mixed within a plastic baggie, and several chemical changes will be observed.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Diagram/Illustration, Lecture Notes
How do you know if a chemical equation is balanced? What can you change to balance an equation? Play a game to test your ideas!
Material Type: Simulation
Students learn the basics of acid/base chemistry in a fun, interactive way by studying instances of acid/base chemistry found in popular films such as Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and National Treasure. Students learn what acids, bases and indicators are and how they can be used, including invisible ink. They also learn how engineers use acids and bases every day to better our quality of life. Students' interest is piqued by the use of popular culture in the classroom.
Material Type: Lesson Plan
Students hypothesize whether vinegar and ammonia-based glass cleaner are acids or bases. They create designs on index cards using these substances as invisible inks. After the index cards have dried, they apply red cabbage juice as an indicator to reveal the designs.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
The PhET project at the University of Colorado creates "fun, interactive, research-based simulations of physical phenomena." This particular one deals with Beer's Law. "The thicker the glass, the darker the brew, the less the light that passes through." Make colorful concentrated and dilute solutions and explore how much light they absorb and transmit using a virtual spectrophotometer! The simulation is also paired with a teachers' guide and related resources from PhET. The simulation is also available in multiple languages.
Material Type: Simulation
The purpose of this resource is to quantitatively evaluate the accuracy of a classification system. Students sort birds into three possible classes based on each bird's beak: carnivores, herbivores, and omnivores. Students compare their answers with a given set of validation data.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Data Set, Homework/Assignment, Interactive, Lesson Plan, Student Guide, Teaching/Learning Strategy
In this video adapted from NASA, two members of a NASA research team working to produce carbon nanotubes share some background behind this new technology, show examples of how it will be useful, and explain the various tests being performed to ensure readiness for spaceflight.
Material Type: Lesson
Students learn about various crystals, such as kidney stones, within the human body. They also learn about how crystals grow and ways to inhibit their growth. They also learn how researchers such as chemical engineers design drugs with the intent to inhibit crystal growth for medical treatment purposes and the factors they face when attempting to implement their designs. A day before presenting this lesson to students, conduct the associated activity, Rock Candy Your Body.
Material Type: Lesson Plan
In this interactive activity from the Building Big Web site, use your knowledge of bridge design to match the right bridge to the right location in a fictitious city.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Interactive
Students act as engineers to learn about the strengths of various epoxy-amine mixtures and observe the unique characteristics of different mixtures of epoxies and hardeners. Student groups make and optimize thermosets by combining two chemicals in exacting ratios to fabricate the strongest and/or most flexible thermoset possible.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
Starting from atoms, see how many molecules you can build. Collect your molecules and see them in 3D!
Material Type: Simulation
Student groups construct simple conductivity probes and then integrate them into two different circuits to test the probe behavior in solutions of varying conductivity (salt water, sugar water, distilled water, tap water). The activity culminates with student-designed experiments that utilize the constructed probes. The focus is to introduce students to the fabrication of the probe and expose them to two different ways to integrate the probe to obtain qualitative and quantitative measurements, while considering the application and utility of a conductivity probe within an engineering context. A provided handout guides teams through the process: background reading and questions; probe fabrication including soldering; probe testing and data gathering (including circuit creation on breadboard); probe connection to Arduino (including circuit creation and code entry) and a second round of testing and data gathering; design and conduct their own lab experiments that use the probes; online electrolyte/nonelectrolyte reading, short video, comprehension check and analysis questions.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
Construct and measure the energy efficiency and solar heat gain of a cardboard model house. Use a light bulb heater to imitate a real furnace and a temperature sensor to monitor and regulate the internal temperature of the house. Use a bright bulb in a gooseneck lamp to model sunlight at different times of the year, and test the effectiveness of windows for passive solar heating.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Assessment, Diagram/Illustration, Lecture Notes, Student Guide
This is an lesson about spectrographs. Learners will build and decorate their own spectrographs using simple materials and holographic diffraction gratings. After building the spectrographs, they observe the spectra of different light sources. Requires advance preparation to spray-paint the inside of the containers black the day before construction. The activity is part of Project Spectra, a science and engineering program for middle-high school students, focusing on how light is used to explore the Solar System.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan, Student Guide
In this demonstration, the teacher will use a potato and hydrogen peroxide to generate oxygen in a closed environment. Students can then observe its effects on a burning wooden splint and on burning steel wool. They will understand that a large amount of energy can be released by the process of oxidation. As an extension, the teacher can discuss how the appearance of oxygen (produced by cyanobacteria) in Earth's early atmosphere initially resulted in the formation of large deposits of iron oxide (Banded Iron Formations) and then aided in the evolution of more complex life forms.
Material Type: Interactive, Lecture Notes, Simulation
In this demonstration, cook a cake using the heat produced when the cake batter conducts an electric current. Because of safety concerns, this activity should be conducted as a demonstration only and learners should be kept at a safe distance.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
Do you know how many calories are in a macadamia nut? This video segment highlighting a Calorimetry experiment will give you the answer.
Material Type: Lesson
There are two types of catalysis reactions: homogeneous and heterogeneous. In a homogeneous reaction, the catalyst is in the same phase as the reactants. In a heterogeneous reaction, the catalyst is in a different phase from the reactants. This activity addresses homogeneous catalysis.
Material Type: Data Set, Diagram/Illustration
This video segment explains centripetal force and illustrates how roller coasters rely on it to give you a thrilling ride.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
It discusses the process of equation writing and balancing chemical equations in perspective of the chemical changes that take place during a reaction. This module is the third in a series on chemical reactions.
Material Type: Interactive, Unit of Study
