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Teaching Methods

Equilibrium

Started about 3 years ago by Alyse Riehl.

Hello,
I will be beginning the equilibrium unit soon, and I was wondering what are some of the demos you might do at the beginning of the unit? I used all of the ones you gave me for the kinetics unit. :)

3 Comments

  • Alyse Riehl

    Posted about 3 years ago

    By-the-way, we move quickly because our classes here are one semester classes. We have 85 minute periods at my school, so we get quite a bit accomplished. We have our mid-terms in two weeks! :)

  • Alyse Riehl

    Posted about 3 years ago

    Thanks Kim! Actually, I did the two beaker demo, which I love. I did not think of the glow stick one as an equilibrium demo...but that is perfect! Also, thank you for the online lab for LeChatelier's Principle. I would definitely like to use that!

  • Kimberly Duncan

    Posted about 3 years ago

    Good morning, Alyse!
    You seem to be moving quickly - already finished with Kinetics and moving on to equilibrium! I had a couple of demos that I did during the unit. I opened the unit with a visual (non-chemical) demonstration similar to the one described in the attached PDF file. However, I used two big beakers instead of wash tubs and smaller beakers to make the transfer. This YouTube video looks similar to the set up that I used: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMs2WhGY3NE. It helps students understand what it means to reach equilibrium - what stops changing even though the forward and reverse reaction continue. Later on, when we get to LeChatelier's Principle, I used a chemical demonstration. I had an NO2/N2O4 sealed tube that I put in hot and then in cold water to see the effect of temperature on a reaction. This YouTube video shows the reaction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVZXq64HSV4. If you don't have one of those tubes you can use a glow stick in hot and cold water. I tried many different LeChatelier's Principle labs - and got really poor results. In the end I ended up doing a virtual lab for this: http://www.harpercollege.edu/tm-ps/chm/100/dgodambe/thedisk/equil/8perform.htm. Hope everyone is having a great quarter - I imagine that you are nearing the beginning of the fourth quarter.