Possible Activities for Elementary Classroom Visit
| 1. | Freezing Point Depression | ||||
| Need: | Slightly
melted or slushy snow (may substitute with ice and water) Cup or beaker Thermometer Salt |
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| Demo: |
Place snow into cup or beaker and measure the temperature. Ask
students to predict what will happen to the temperature when salt is added
(increase, decrease, or stay the same). Add a bunch of salt, stir with the
thermometer and observe what happened to the temperature. Were predictions
correct? Explain. |
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| 2. | Tape/Static Charge Demo | ||||
| Need: | Scotch
tape Comb or balloon (optional) Buret with water and/or hexane (optional) |
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| Demo: | Place
tape on edge of bench and rip up to demonstrate effect of how objects with
like charges interact with each other. Place the two pieces of tape
together, rub to remove charge, then rip apart to demonstrate effect of
objects that have opposite charges. This is a great one
to have the kids try themselves! Rub balloon or run comb through hair
to show how static charge attracts water (molecules). Explain. |
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| 3. | Make Old Pennies Look New | ||||
| Need: |
Well-used Pennies Small Cups with Water |
Vinegar,
Salt, Water Paper Towels |
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| Demo: |
Try cleaning pennies in vinegar. Try
cleaning pennies in salt water. Try cleaning pennies in mixture of vinegar
and salt water.
Rinse with water and dry with
paper towels. Let each kid clean one or two and send them home with the
kids. Explain. |
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| 4. |
Chemiluminescent Reaction |
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| Need: |
500 mL
solution A |
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| Demo: | Mix
together varying quantities. Try to
pass through tubing. Soak some in gauze, rub together. Pour
solutions back and forth. Explain. |
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| 5. | Liquid Nitrogen demos | ||||
| Need: |
Liquid
Nitrogen |
Balloons Bananas, nails, wood |
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| Demo: | Discuss
liquid nitrogen, dip flower into liquid nitrogen and crush, place rubber
hose into liquid nitrogen and use to spray, smash rubber hose or
racquetball, blow up balloons and allow them to shrink, use banana as
hammer. Explain. |
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| 6. | Acid-Base Chemistry | ||||
| Need: | vinegar
(acid) household ammonia (base) water (neutral) |
red
cabbage filter/strainer blender or hotplate with beaker |
other household chemicals (salt, 7-Up, lemon juice, window cleaner, baking soda, rubbing alcohol, etc) |
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| Demo: | Cut
off chunk of red cabbage. Blend
with or heat in water. Pour
cabbage juice into several beakers. Add
vinegar to one, ammonia to a second, and nothing to a third. What is the color of the neutral (no acid or base), color of the
acid, color of the base? Test
other household chemicals to see whether they are an acidic, basic, or
neutral. Explain. |
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| 7. | Magic Signs | ||||
| Need: | Signs
painted with phenolphthalein (formerly found in Ex-Lax and other
laxatives). Spray bottle of window cleaner (that contains ammonia!). Paper towels or spray over sink Cotton swabs |
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| Demo: | Spray
signs with window cleaner over paper towels, sink or
garbage can. Ask
for explanations from students. Perfect
follow-up to activity #6 above. Explain. |
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| 8. | Iodine Clock Reaction | ||||
| Need: | 6
beakers with 50 mL of solution A (note: you must prepare your own solutions),
stirring rods 6 beakers with 50 mL of solution B (this solution must be prepared fairly fresh) |
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| Demo: | Pour
1 beaker of sol A into sol B at 5 sec intervals. Count 1 chemistry, 2
chemistry, 3 chemistry, etc. Several other methods of
presentation -- could show the effect of increasing the temperature or
decreasing the temperature on the reaction rate. Could also show the effect
of concentration by diluting samples and mixing. Explain. |
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| 9. | Styrofoam Peanuts in Acetone | ||||
| Need: | Styrofoam
peanuts Acetone Paper towel or transparency |
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| Demo: | Put
as much styrofoam peanuts into some acetone as possible. Play with it.
Pour off
acetone into another beaker. Pour
new plastic onto a transparency or paper towel. Explain. |
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| 10. | Invisible Chemicals (Gases) Demo | ||||
| Need: | 2 test tubes each of CO2 , O2 , H2 | ||||
| Demo: | Select
a student from class to examine the test tubes. What's in there?
Test
each gas with a glowing or flaming splint. Explain. |
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| 11. | Making Gluep | ||||
| Need: |
Elmer's glue Borax water |
food coloring paper or plastic cups craft sticks Ziploc bags |
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| Demo: |
Prepare a 50%(v/v) mixture of Elmer's glue in water.
Prepare a 4%(m/m) Borax in water. Mix together approximately equal amounts
of the Elmer's glue solution with the Borax solution into a small cup. Add a
drop of food coloring. Mix thoroughly with a craft stick. Store in a plastic
bag. |
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| 12. | Others you have seen: Other activities may be allowed. If there is some other activity you would like to carry out, it will require the instructor's approval. Activities involving flammable liquids or even moderate hazards will not be allowed. |
Sign up for your activities before leaving lab today.
Revised January 28, 2008. VLM