Pharaoh's serpent is the name of a very interesting chemical reaction that produces a snake-like foam. Unfortunately, it requires the use of a toxic mercury compound. Explore this very similar reaction that can be achieved quite simply by using fuel tablets and calcium gluconate tablets and learn a lot about the chemistry that is involved!
This post describes a simple device used to demonstrate and clarify some challenging concepts in thermodynamics at the General Chemistry level.
Dean Campbell uses demonstrations and props to illustrate concepts while teaching his collegiate Materials Chemistry course. Many of the examples described are also suitable for use in high school and collegiate General Chemistry courses.
It has been claimed that because all water ultimately ends up in the water cycle, we drink water that the dinosaurs peed out. What does chemistry have to say about this assertion?
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.
Placing dry ice in limewater is a great demonstration to accompany discussions on a variety of chemical topics, including the impact of ocean acidification on marine organisms that depend upon the formation of CaCO3.
Dean Campbell tries to use at least one demo for every class to illustrate concepts described in his chemistry courses. In this post, he includes short descriptions of the demonstrations and props he has used while teaching his collegiate General Chemistry II courses.
Diffusion of HCl(g) from concentrated solutions of HCl can be used to illustrate some chemistry related to the train accident in Ohio.
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.
