acid/base

A few years ago, the faculty in our department at Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania decided to switch to an atoms first approach to the General Chemistry course.

In Chemical Mystery #13, the contents of a "magic" cup were poured over a blue-colored cleaner. As a result, the color of the cleaner immediately changed from blue to white. In another case, the color change occurs when the magic cup is simply held over the cleaner.

This chemical mystery is very easy to perform. Figuring out how this trick is done is also easy...if you know your chemistry!

How do you demonstrate the workings and effectiveness of buffers in your acid-base unit?

Citric acid is a weak tricarboxylic organic acid. It is highly soluble in water and, once it dissolves in that, it shows weak acidity but a strongly acidic taste which affects sweetness and provides a fruity tartness for which it is widely used to complement fruit flavors in the food and beverage industry.

Recently, while attending the High School Teacher Day at the ACS National meeting in New Orleans, we were given Wack-A-Pack™ valentine balloons and encouraged to play with them.

The unit of acids and bases is difficult for most students in Advanced Placement Chemistry. The variety of various calculations can be overwhelming. I decided it was time to make the pH calculations more exciting.

My first year teaching chemistry, I was looking for a soap-making lab or activity that I could run in my chemistry class with 25-30 students working at the same time.