AACT Chemical Measurements Unit Plan Updated

As chemistry teachers around the country are planning activities for both distant and face-to-face learning, AACT will be highlighting resources from our high school resource library that can be used to reinforce topics in different units throughout the school year. Last week we updated our Chemistry Basics unit and we are now moving on to resources that can be used to support a Chemical Measurements unit.

We have added a few resources related to this topic to the high school library, which are highlighted below. We have also updated our unit plan to help you teach an introductory unit on chemical measurements. In the sidebar of this page, we have included links to resources that are appropriate for virtual learning.

Accuracy and Precision

Students make measurements of length and width using four measuring tools with the Accuracy, Precision, and Error in Measurements lab. By measuring the same object using measuring sticks of different precision, they observe that the exactness of a measurement is limited by the precision of the measuring instrument.

Unit Conversion

With the Dimensional Analysis with Notecards activity, students can practice dimensional analysis using pre-made conversion factors on notecards to demonstrate the importance of cancelling units to solve conversion problems.

Density and Calculations

The Captivating Chemistry of Coins lesson allows students to 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. This lab is introduced with the ChemMatters article, The Captivating Chemistry of Coins. The activities in this lesson plan can be used as a summative assessment.

Significant Figures and Scientific Notation

Students analyze sixteen chemistry-based clues to explore the concepts of scientific notation, significant figures, and measurements with the Quantitatively Puzzling activity. After reading through all of the clues, students use numbers from zero through fifteen as a possible answer for each.

We hope that these resources can help you to reinforce several of the topics covered in a unit about Chemical Measurements. Most of these lessons were made possible by great teachers who shared their own resources. We need your help to keep the collection growing. Do you have a great demonstration, activity, or lesson related to this topic that you would like to share with the community? Please send it along for consideration.