ChemEd X activities are student-centered resources intended to aid learning chemistry topics.
ChemEd X encourages engaging activities where students (with guidance from the teacher) pose questions, analyze data, and make observations to offer a plausible explanation supported by data and consistent with physical observations.
Nora Walsh outlines the interactive notebook pages she uses for her first unit of the school year: Scientific Reasoning. All of the documents and foldables are available for download.
In this lab, students are presented with nine unknown substances. By performing a series of tests, analyzing chemical structures, and applying their understanding of how intermolecular forces affect the properties of a substance, students will ultimately determine the identity of each unknown.
Nora Walsh shares the outline of the interactive notebook pages she uses for her thermochemistry unit. All of the documents and foldables are available for download.
The major component of a non-carbonated drink such as KoolAid or a similar beverage is usually a fruit acid, either citric acid or malic acid. The titratable acid (H+) concentration of such drinks has been found to be in the range of 0.02 to 0.04 M. A weak acid-strong base titration of these drinks with 0.1 M NaOH solution is feasible as a student exercise. The use of such drinks as reagents is safe, convenient, and inexpensive. Experiment instructions are included.
Nora Walsh shares the outline of the interactive notebook pages she uses for her gases unit. Templates for all of the documents and foldables are available for download.
This engaging activity uses wrapped and unwrapped candy to simulate alpha and beta decay.
Nora Walsh has been using interactive notebooks for some time. Here she outlines her stoichiometry unit and explains how she uses the interactive notebooks with her students.
Michael Jansen runs this engaging "big picture" lab on day 1 of Grade 11 Chemistry, which is the students' first dedicated Chemistry course.
In recent years, the fluorescence properties of pumpkin seeds have been highlighted on social media. When illuminated with a UV lamp, pumpkin seed extract appears orange/red to the human eye due to fluorescence associated with protochlorophyllide that is present in the seeds. Chlorophyll extracts can also be used as a fluorescent dye in “glowstick” chemiluminescence experiments. The similarities between chlorophylls and protochlorophyllide raised the question, is it possible to use pumpkin seed extract as a fluorescent dye in chemiluminescence experiments? In this short article, some results are reported from attempts to use pumpkin seed extracts for chemiluminescence experiments.
Engage your students with this stoichiometry scavenger hunt!