Classroom Resources: Chemistry Basics
1 – 25 of 75 Classroom Resources
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Physical Properties, Physical Change, Culminating Project, Chemical Change, Chemical Change, Mixture, Chemical Properties, Chemical Structure | High School
Project: Analyze a Family Recipe
In this project, students will select a family recipe, or a favorite recipe to investigate. They will analyze several of the ingredients in order learn more about the chemistry of each one, as well as their purpose in the recipe. Additionally, students will examine several ingredient interactions to learn more about the chemistry of cooking.
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Physical Properties, Physical Change, Polymers, Molecular Structure, Heat, Monomer | High School
Activity: Ingenious: The World Has a Receipt Problem Video Questions
In this activity, students will answer questions while watching the video The World has a Receipt Problem from the Ingenious series produced by the American Chemical Society. Each episode investigates a different topic related to how leading-edge chemistry is taking on the world’s most urgent issues to advance everyone’s quality of life and secure our shared future. This episode investigates the process of thermal printing on receipts, and the limitations related to the paper that currently prints using leuco dyes. This heat-sensitive ink appears when it reacts with an acid developer embedded in the paper. Scientists are working to develop a new kind of thermal receipt paper, that can use the same printers, however it offers many additional benefits and potential uses.
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Physical Properties, Physical Change, Polymers, Molecular Structure, Heat, Monomer | High School
Video: Ingenious Video 7: The World has a Receipt Problem
The receipts you take home from the store – or stuff in your bag, or lose in your car -- employ a printing method that’s been around since the 1970s. Thermal printing involves heat-sensitive inks called leuco dyes that show up when they react with an acid developer embedded in the paper. Not only do these inks fade easily, but receipts that use them aren’t recyclable, and could even be dangerous to your health. Taking a cue from a failed experiment, scientists are developing a new kind of receipt paper that will use the same thermal printers without leuco dyes. Instead of acid developers, this paper is coated in reflective microspheres that collapse under heat, allowing regular ink underneath to show through.
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Observations, Physical Properties, Solubility, Physical Change, Precipitate, Identifying an Unknown, Chemical Change, Indicators, Chemical Properties | High School
Lab: Using Qualitative Analysis to Identify Household Compounds
In this lab, students will be introduced to common laboratory techniques, safety procedures, lab reagents, and terminology, all while identifying unknown household substances. Students will learn how to use qualitative analysis techniques as a systematic way to identify unknown materials. As part of this process, they will practice careful observation and documentation, as well as identifying relevant physical and chemical properties and changes, including solubility, color change, gas formation, and precipitation of solids.
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Separating Mixtures, Density, Physical Properties, Phase Changes, Introduction, Elements, Physical Change, History, Lab Safety, Chemical Change, Molecular Motion, Accuracy, Dimensional Analysis, Measurements, Scientific Notation, Significant Figures, SI Units, Chemical Properties, Mixtures | High School
Lesson Plan: The Chemistry Basics and Measurement Quick Start Unit Plan
This Quick Start Unit Plan includes all the materials that a teacher will need for the first 10 class meetings of the school year. Each day is outlined with teacher notes, and includes slide presentations as well as directions for demonstrations, activities and labs to use. The fundamental topics covered in the 10 days of lessons are: laboratory safety, laboratory equipment, experimental design, classification of matter, chemical properties, physical properties, chemical change, physical change, phase changes, separation techniques, dimensional analysis, unit conversions, factor label method, accuracy, precision, significant figures, and percent error calculations. This Quick Start Unit plan aims to help students to build a foundation of understanding, and master important topics before moving deeper into the chemistry curriculum.
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Observations, Physical Properties, Physical Change, Chemical Change, Chemical Properties | High School
Lab: Determining Physical and Chemical Properties
In this lab, students will determine the physical and chemical properties of several different substances through testing and observation. Additionally, they will further their understanding of chemical and physical changes, and their ability to recognize each type of change.
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Observations, Physical Change, Chemical Change | Elementary School, Middle School
Lab: Comparing Physical and Chemical Changes
In this lab, students will analyze different scenarios in order to determine if a physical or chemical change has occurred. This lab experience will provide students with the opportunity to record observations, as well as improve their ability to differentiate between physical and chemical changes.
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Observations, Phase Changes, Physical Change, Chemical Change, Specific Heat, Temperature, Heat of Combustion, Intermolecular Forces, Heating Curve, Boiling Point, Heat of Vaporization | Middle School, High School
Demonstration: Cooking an Egg in Chemistry Class
In this demonstration, students will observe the very high latent heat of vaporization for water by boiling water over a Bunsen burner in a paper cup to cook a boiled egg. The discussion can be extended to incorporate intermolecular forces to explain the unusually high boiling point of water, as well as heat of vaporization and specific heat capacity.
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Observations, Solubility, Physical Change, Solute & Solvent, Precipitate, Identifying an Unknown, Chemical Change, Mixtures, Graphing, Error Analysis | Middle School, High School
Lab: Chemicals, Chromatography, and Crime!
In this lab, students will test “evidence” that has been collected from a crime scene. In order to determine if the victim was poisoned, students will perform a solubility and crystallization test on an unknown powder. Then, students will attempt to identify the culprit by using paper chromatography to analyze the lipstick from the potential criminals.
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Observations, Physical Change, Chemical Change, Chemical Change, Mixtures, pH | Elementary School
Demonstration: The Chemistry of Cheese
In this demonstration, students will observe the chemical process that occurs when making cheese. Students will be become more familiar with fundamental chemistry terms while making important observations.
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Observations, Physical Change, Chemical Change, Molecular Structure | Middle School, High School
Lab: Determining a Chemical or Physical Change
In this lab, students will follow a laboratory procedure that instructs them how to heat a small sample of copper(II) sulfate pentahydrate. Students will make observations in order to determine if a chemical or physical change occurs.
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Observations, Physical Change, Chemical Change, Polarity, Molecular Structure, Chemical Change, Lewis Structures | High School
Lab: DIY Triiodide
In this lab, students will investigate how iodine interacts with various substances. They will use color changes to justify whether a chemical or physical change is taking place. This activity is referenced in the October 2019 ChemMatters article called “Cash, Chemistry, and Counterfeiting.”
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Density, Physical Properties, Physical Change, Chemical Change, Chemical Properties, Graphing, Alloys | Middle School, High School
Lesson Plan: The Captivating Chemistry of Coins
In this lesson, students will develop a better understanding of physical and chemical properties of matter by comparing the composition of different pennies. This is done by determining the density of different pennies which will be compared to the density of different metals.
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Physical Properties, Physical Change, Chemical Change, Chemical Properties | Elementary School, Middle School, High School
Activity: A Physical vs. Chemical Challenge
In this activity, students will first complete a card sort to best categorize examples of change as physical or chemical change. Then they will compete in teams to identify whether given situations represent a physical change or a chemical change, or a physical or a chemical property.
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Physical Change, Chemical Change, Chemical Change, Activity Series, Redox Reaction | High School
Demonstration: Understanding the Discrepant Reactivity of Copper in the Presence of Strong Acids
In this demonstration, students practice their observation skills during the additions of different acids to two test tubes containing copper. The activity is structured to allow students to make thoughtful remarks about what they observe, using rich indicators of both chemical and physical properties and changes. In subsequent lessons on new concepts, students can reflect back on their observations to rationalize the discrepant results of the reactions in the demonstration.
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Observations, Physical Properties, Physical Change, Chemical Change, Dimensional Analysis, Measurements, Matter, Chemical Properties, Mixtures | Middle School, High School
Activity: Cupcake Conversions, Bench to Bakery
This activity will help to reinforce the importance of scientific measurement and apply it to the introduction of chemical reactions. Using an example of baking a single batch of cupcakes, students will plan for a larger production scale in a commercial bakery. This will help to introduce the idea of producing a reaction at the lab bench and converting it to mass production. In addition this activity investigates how chemistry is used in everyday life and challenges students to consider potentials errors that may occur when completing chemical reactions in the kitchen.
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Solubility, Physical Change, Solute & Solvent | Elementary School
Demonstration: Crystallization of Sugar
In this demonstration, students will observe how to make rock candy in order to understand how sugar crystals form. They will be able to explain what a supersaturated solution is and how it is relevant to sugar crystallization.
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Physical Change, Dimensional Analysis, Measurements, Matter, Mixtures | Middle School, High School
Activity: Cooking with Conversions
In this activity, students will be given a common homemade recipe for German chocolate cake with measurements in English units. They will be asked to convert the English ingredients list to metric units through scientific calculations. Students will also be asked to identify the ingredients as solid, liquid or gas. While reviewing the cooking procedures, students will classify certain steps as containing compounds or mixtures as well as identify whether chemical or physical changes are taking place. The culinary chemistry involved in this lesson should be introduced throughout the activity.
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Physical Properties, Physical Change, Intermolecular Forces, Polarity, Molecular Structure, Molecular Structure , Chemical Properties, Molecular Geometry | High School
Lesson Plan: An Exploration of Intermolecular Forces
In this lesson students will explore intermolecular forces, and their associated effect on physical and chemical properties. Students will experiment with volatile liquids to investigate their predictions about intermolecular strength.
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Density, Elements, Physical Change, Periodic Table, Review, Chemical Change, Matter, Mixtures | Elementary School, Middle School
Activity: Chemistry Basics: Crossword Puzzle
In this activity, students will complete a crossword puzzle by solving each clue that is related to a basic, yet fundamental chemistry topic.
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Separating Mixtures, Physical Properties, Introduction, Physical Change, History, Lab Safety, Chemical Change, Measurements, Significant Figures, SI Units, Chemical Properties | High School
Lesson Plan: Chemistry Basics Unit Plan
The AACT High School Classroom Resource library and multimedia collection has everything you need to put together a unit plan for your classroom: lessons, activities, labs, projects, videos, simulations, and animations. We searched through our resource library and constructed a unit plan for introducing the basic chemistry concepts to students: Laboratory Safety, Equipment, and Reports, Periodic Table Basics, Physical and Chemical Properties and Changes, Endothermic and Exothermic Changes, and Classification of Matter. These topics are very important for your students to master before they dig into other chemistry concepts. This unit is designed to be used at beginning of the school year.
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Observations, Physical Change, Chemical Change, Chemical Change, Indicators | Elementary School
Lesson Plan: Explorations of Baking Soda and Vinegar
In this lesson, students complete a series of simple lab experiments to better understand chemical reactions as well as differentiate between chemical change and physical change. Students will also be introduced to the pH scale, and have the opportunity to understand how chemical reactions can be used in real-world scenarios.
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Separating Mixtures, Phase Changes, Physical Change, Distillation | Middle School
Activity: Distillation in Survival Mode
In this activity, students will investigate methods for purifying water as they consider a survival based situation that requires clean drinking water. Students will investigate processes such as boiling and distillation, as well as review the phase changes within the water cycle.
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Mixtures, Physical Change, Chemical Change, Matter, Mixtures | Elementary School
Activity: Chemistry in the Kitchen!
In this activity, students will describe the steps required to complete a recipe of their choosing. They will identify any physical and chemical changes that occur throughout the process.
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Observations, Physical Properties, Physical Change, Polymers | Elementary School, Middle School
Lab: Paper or Plastic?
In this lab students will research and compare the physical properties of various types of plastic bags. The recorded data will be analyzed by students, and they will use the results to design a plastic bag to meet a given set of criteria.