General

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. If it is cold enough outside, the bubble will freeze! 

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. The experiment is easy to carry out: boil some water and throw the hot water into the frigid air. Check it out below:

Wow! Talk about an interesting idea! A very neat experiment, called “Hydroglyphics”, has been published by Philseok Kim, Jack Alvarenga, Joanna Aizenberg and Raymond Sleeper in the Journal of Chemical Education.

I came across a simple, yet interesting experiment that was first described by Elizabeth Sumner Walter in 2001. She merely had students pour water into a dish containing some Gobstoppers candies.

Have you ever cooked a marshmallow in a microwave? In case you are not familiar with this experiment, when a marshmallow is heated in a microwave, gases trapped in the marshmallow expand and escape. When the gas molecules escape from the marshmallow, they push against the marshmallow, causing it to expand. To see this experiment, play the video below.

Students will proceed through a pre-lab engagement activity, organize element cards based on similarities & trends, discuss trends with the class and then produce a periodic table that includes the trends discussed within the lab. The teacher will check for student understanding at specific points as groups work together.