In this Activity, students investigate the luminescent properties of common items such as glow-in-the-dark stickers, wintergreen-flavored hard candies, and a chlorophyll solution made from spinach leaves. After making observations, they use a flowchart to categorize the luminescent items as fluorescent, phosphorescent, or triboluminescent.
In this Activity, students compare the combustion of different substances such as a glowing wooden toothpick and lit birthday candle in air, oxygen, exhaled breath, and carbon dioxide environments. The oxygen and carbon dioxide are generated from supermarket chemicals. This Activity can be used to explore the chemistry of oxygen and combustion.
In this Activity, students investigate the process of osmosis through a differentially-permeable membrane formed by the precipitation of copper(II) hexacyanoferrate(II). This Activity allows students to watch and investigate osmosis, which reinforces the concept of transport in living cells.
In this Activity, students investigate flavorings by making artificial "cooked apples" from a mixture of crackers, sugar, cream of tartar, and water, as is done for the filling in recipes for Mock Apple Pie. This Activity focuses on consumer chemistry, and can be used to introduce natural and artificial flavors or lab experiments that make esters.
In this Activity, students make a cross-linked polymer called "gluep" using white glue and borax solution. They then investigate its properties, and "un-gluep" and "re-gluep" it using vinegar and baking soda. This Activity can be used in discussions of polymers or properties of liquids and solids. It demonstrates the composition and alternative use of a common household product.
In this Activity, students compare incandescent bulbs and LEDs powered by dc and ac voltage sources. They use circuits made from cut-up holiday light strands, with some of the incandescent bulbs replaced with LEDs. The diode nature of LEDs is demonstrated, as well as the energy associated with different wavelengths of light.
In this Activity, students use a CD to build a simple spectroscope. They use it to investigate how different colors of light interact with colored matter. This qualitative Activity could be used as a general introduction to spectroscopy and the concepts of complementary colors and absorbance.
In this Activity, students make a chemical clock using chemicals found in the supermarket: vitamin C tablets, tincture of iodine (2%), hydrogen peroxide (3%), and liquid laundry starch. They investigate what happens to the speed of the clock when the reactant solutions are made more or less dilute.
In this Activity, students extract DNA from liver and onion cells, and precipitate the DNA. The Activity fits well with a discussion of nucleic acids, hydrogen bonding, genetic coding, and heredity. DNA extraction can also be used in conjunction with a discussion of polymers and their properties.
In this Activity, students use building-block car kits to explore stoichiometry in a concrete manner. They determine the relationship between the number and mass of each required car component (the pieces in the kit) and the mass of the final product (the completed car). This Activity works well as either an introduction or review of stoichiometry.