Chemical Mystery #8: Go Blue!
Tom Kuntzleman | Fri, 11/04/2016 - 13:36
Addition of a white solid to a green solution causes the solution to separate into some truly beautiful colors...
Demonstrations
The Mystery of the Burning Water: An Update
Lowell Thomson | Mon, 10/17/2016 - 08:02
Tom Kuntzleman loves to share chemical mysteries and that inspired me to create a list of mysteries that are appropriate for the main topics covered in IB Chemistry. In this blog post I'd like to share some detail about how I modified the mystery of the burning water.
Solution to Chemical Mystery #7: Curious Cans
Tom Kuntzleman | Wed, 07/13/2016 - 16:43
In Chemical Mystery #7, a can of Coca-Cola was observed to sink in one container of water and yet float in another! This trick made use of the fact that the density of water changes with temperature.
Chemical Mystery #7: Curious Cans
Tom Kuntzleman | Wed, 07/06/2016 - 14:11
Q: Does an unopened can of soda pop float or sink in water?
A: It depends!
See if you can figure out what is happening in this twist on the classic floating-and-sinking soda can experiment.
Using Chemical Mysteries (in the IB) Chemistry Classroom
Lowell Thomson | Tue, 06/21/2016 - 13:48
Inspired by Tom Kuntzleman*, I started using mysteries in my chemistry curriculum this past year. The first mystery I shared with my students was burning water. While my magician skills aren't perfect, I was able to get the students asking questions and proposing hypotheses. For my IB students, it really allowed me to delve into a number of topics (e.g. combustion, intermolecular forces, polarity, density). And thus an idea was born: Using one mystery per topic. In this blog post I'll discuss my beginning effort to find or develop a mystery for each topic within the IB Chemistry curriculum.
Solution to Chemical Mystery #6: The Case of the Collapsing Can
Tom Kuntzleman | Sun, 06/05/2016 - 17:12
Solution to Chemical Mystery #6 is presented. Also, concepts related to the chemical can crush demo are briefly discussed.
Chemical Mystery #6: The Case of the Crushed Can
Tom Kuntzleman | Mon, 05/30/2016 - 13:34
Can you figure out how this experiment works?
Four Ways to Fight Spring Fever
Allison Tarvin | Mon, 03/14/2016 - 19:52
How can I engage my students (and myself) for the last half of the semester? I read recently that the human attention span in 2015 is 8.25 seconds(link is external), which is down from 2000’s 12-second span. Currently, we are just beneath goldfish, who can attend to one thought for 9 seconds. I’m not sure of the methods of the research study, and I maintain a level of healthy skepticism. However, I admit my thoughts often spring from topic to topic like a bubble gum machine bouncy ball.
The Art of the Chemical Demonstration
Michael Morgan | Wed, 03/09/2016 - 11:43
One of my favorite things to talk about with my colleagues is the use of lecture demonstrations in teaching. There seems to be a push in my district to stop using chemicals whenever possible and get to computer simulations and video in place of wet chemistry. I don’t think they are thrilled with me since I can’t envision ever taking the chemistry out of chemistry.
Flinn elearning video series
Chad Husting | Mon, 02/29/2016 - 11:52
Flinn Scientific has a great elearning video series. Many of the videos have master teachers demonstrating some great labs and techniques that they do in the classroom.