A fan letter for a chemistry experiment? Well, yes. I read Tom Kuntzleman’s blog post “Soap Boat 2.0” over four months ago and immediately bookmarked it.
My students and I intend to use a high-speed camera to film a variety of chemistry experiments in slow motion. The first reaction we have decided to film is the “Whoosh Bottle”. You can read more about this pa
Want to try an easy, yet interesting chemistry experiment this winter? Try this: Blow some bubbles into the outside winter air and catch one of the bubbles with a bubble wand.
I get excited when I see the outside temperature drop below 0°F (-18°C). This is not because I enjoy cold weather. It is because when the outside temperature gets this cold, I can conduct a particular experiment that I think is quite beautiful. Check out the video.
One of over 100 activities in the collection, JCE Classroom Activity #92 describes how to test for the presence of iodide in iodized salt using only water, iodized salt, 3% hydrogen peroxide, vinegar and liquid laundry starch. Watch the video for an added twist to the activity.
Halloween is a great time of year to do experiments with fluorescence. Check out the video in which we experiment with some fluorescent yarn.
Have you ever seen the soap boat experiment? Check out the video.
Some students of mine and I have published two papers in the Journal of Chemical Education that describe how stunt people use chemistry to safely set themselves ablaze while filming action movie scenes. The secret behind this stunt lies in the use of superabsorbent polymer (SAP) gels. To pull off this trick...
Wow! A very neat experiment, called “Hydroglyphics”, published by Kim, Alvarenga, Aizenberg, and Sleeper in the Journal of Chemical Education allows you to transform a common plastic Petri dish into a unique teaching tool to demonstrate the difference between hydrophobic and hydrophilic surfaces. Check it out in the video.
Have you seen the new Crayola Crystal Effects Window Markers? You can draw on windows with these markers. Better yet, you can use these markers to teach students some chemistry! After drawing on a window with these markers and waiting a little while, the marker ink appears to crystalize! Check out the video.
