More New Resources from the 2018 AACT AP Chemistry Content Writing Team

By Kim Duncan on November 1, 2018

This past summer AACT hosted an AP Chemistry Content Writing Team to create AP chemistry focused teaching resources for our High School Classroom Resource Library. The four teachers chosen focused on creating teaching resources directly related to the Learning Objectives for the topics of equilibrium, intermolecular forces, photoelectron spectroscopy, Coulomb’s Law, electrolysis, reaction mechanisms, and kinetics. This week we are publishing two more resources from our content team.

Making Connections in Kinetics, Equilibrium, and Thermochemistry

Christine Taylor, a teacher at Christ Church Episcopal School in Greenville, South Carolina focused on Big Ideas 5 and 6 for her second lesson, specifically Learning Objectives 5.18 and 6.25. In her lesson plan, Making Connections in Kinetics, Equilibrium, and Thermochemistry, students make connections between the equilibrium constant (K) and the reaction quotient (Q), and learn how to determine the favorability of a chemical reaction. In addition to extensive teacher notes and student answer keys, this lesson provides a video link for the introductory demonstration and two online simulations to increase student understanding of these difficult concepts.

The lesson begins with a teacher demonstration, Catalyzed Decomposition of Hydrogen Peroxide Using Manganese Dioxide, to show students the effect of a catalyst on the rate of a chemical reaction. In addition to a material list, links to SDS, disposal options, and detailed instructions, the teacher notes include a list of guiding questions to ask students as the demonstration proceeds, along with expected student responses.

The demonstration is followed by a guided inquiry activity, Determining Rate Favorability, to help students explore several topics, including: equilibrium constant, relationships between Q and K, connections between equilibrium and ∆G, and how kinetics is related to the favorability of a reaction. This lesson includes several different potential energy diagrams and data sets created by Christine that will help your students see the relationship between equilibrium, kinetics, and thermochemistry.

Q, K, and Le Chatelier

Rose Dunlap, a teacher at St. Mary’s Episcopal School in Memphis, Tennessee concentrated on Learning Objectives 6.8, 6.9, and 6.10 for her second lesson plan, Q, K, and Le Chatelier. The lesson uses a chemical simulation and a demonstration to allow students to consider how a change in concentration of one species in a chemical reaction will affect all of the species present as equilibrium is reestablished.

Part 1 of the lesson includes pre-activity questions to elicit student understanding of the concepts of equilibrium, Le Chatelier’s principle, and the relationship between Q and K. They then use an online simulation to gather concentration data for reactants and products for different reactions as they reach equilibrium. There is a student activity sheet to guide them through the activity that includes post activity questions to help you assess their understanding.

Part 2 of the lesson is a Milk of Magnesia demonstration that will show students the effect of adding small portions of an acid to a suspended solution of magnesium hydroxide and water. There is a student activity sheet for students to record observations and answer questions as the reaction proceeds. The teacher notes provide detailed instructions for the demonstration, along with links to similar procedures.

In addition to detailed teacher notes and student answer keys, this lesson provides links to questions from recent AP Chemistry exams related to this topic in addition to other simulations to increase student understanding of these concepts.

We hope that you find these resources useful with your AP Chemistry classes. If you missed the AP resources from this team that were published earlier this fall, you can still access them:

The final two AP resources created by this content writing team will be published in December. If you have an AP Chemistry resource that you’d like to share with the AACT community, please send it along for consideration.