Curated OER
What Is Special About Polyethylene Food Storage Bags?
Students participate in an investigation in which they compare a polyethylene bag designed for recycling or disposal with a polyethylene food storage bag. Students use hexane to determine the differences between the low density...
Curated OER
Real-World Projects: Challenges from the Polymer Industry
Two scenarios are presented for chemistry detectives to decipher. Both require the use of an infrared spectrometer and focus on the examination of polymer materials. In the first, lumps in polyethylene bottles are analyzed. In the...
Curated OER
Sorting Plastics For Recycling
First, young chemists practice polymer identification by density and flame tests. With the data collected, they propose a method of separating polyethylene from other plastics and determine what property makes it desirable for recycling....
Curated OER
Oils and Plastic
Peruse the properties of polymers with your materials engineers, chemistry aces, or emerging ecologists. The inquiries in this resource include puncturing polyethylene plastic bags, dissolving polystyrene cups, creating a polymer ball...
Curated OER
Investigation of Crystallinity in Polymeric Materials
A kaleidoscope is constructed using polarizing polymer paper and then low-density polyethylene, high-density polyethylene, and polypropylene are all melted onto individual glass slides and examined through a microscope. The intent is to...
Curated OER
Determining the Density of a Liquid
Students find the density of diet soda and regular soda. In this density lesson plan, students measure the mass of a graduated cylinder with 10 different volumes of each soda. They find the mass of the liquid alone and use the volume to...
Curated OER
Multi-Vitamins
Hear is a close-up inspection of some of the compounds found in the Centrum Multi-Vitamin. Each slide shows the steps required for forming one. The compounds are as follows: chromium (III) chloride, cupric sulfate, manganese (III)...
Curated OER
Can You Bag It?
Put your class's observational skills to the test with a science experiment about paper and plastic bags. After reading some background knowledge about the materials in plastic grocery bags, third graders interpret a chart to answer a...
NASA
Foam Rocket
When going for distance, does it make a difference at what angle you launch the rocket? Teams of three launch foam rockets, varying the launch angle and determining how far they flew. After conducting the series of flights three times,...
Chymist
Alum from Waste Aluminum Cans
Turn aluminum cans into pickles! An engaging experiment has learners chemically change aluminum into a substance with many purposes including the manufacture of pickles. After performing the chemical conversion, the experimenters verify...
Royal Society of Chemistry
Metals—Gifted and Talented Chemistry
Malleable, magnetic, mesmerizing metals! Pupils love learning about metallic elements, especially through the hands-on activities in an engaging lesson plan. The resource provides thorough instruction on the properties of metals, the...
Royal Society of Chemistry
Polymers—Gifted and Talented Chemistry
Polymers are an important part of our day-to-day lives, but how much do your pupils know about them? Learn the basics and beyond in a series of activities designed to build skills in observation, planning, organic chemistry, and bonding.
MENSA Education & Research Foundation
Roller Coaster Mania!
Raise the energy level of your physical science class with this exciting hands-on activity. Applying their knowledge of kinetic and potential energy and Newton's laws of motion, young engineers use foam tubing and marbles to create...
Curated OER
Sports Helmets and Impact Testing of Polymers
Students examine the importance of good quality safety gear. In this investigative lesson, students will tests various polymers, collect data, and analyze the data to determine which polymer is best for safety helmets. They will design a...
Curated OER
Plastic Identification Lab
In this plastics worksheet, students experiment with an unknown plastic and determine the polymer name and resin code by using a flow chart of various tests. They answer five questions after they collect their data.
Curated OER
The Influence of Carbon Dioxide on the Chemistry of Soda
Students investigate the carbon dioxide content of different sodas. In this chemistry lesson, students explain why PET containers are preferable than HDPE for soda bottles. They collect data and graph them.
Curated OER
Lightning in a Jar
Learners create lightning with two common objects and observe the colorful "discharge" of electrons on a smaller scale. By exploring the phenomena of static electricity, students relate their knowledge to the real-life weather phenomena...
Curated OER
Color and Light Spectrum Demonstrations
Students explore the light spectrum. The teacher uses holographic diffraction grafting film on an overhead to demonstrate the true nature of color. After observing a vivid rainbow, students recognize that white light is composed of all...
Curated OER
Plastics by the Numbers
Students investigate plastic resins and their uses. In this plastics lesson plan, students describe major plastic resins and what they are used for, they compare and contrast the properties of plastic resins and they list products that...
Curated OER
Design That Makes a Difference: Focus on Shelters and Water
Students analyze three different types of temporary shelters and their designs for environmental factors. In this shelter design lesson plan, students analyze how designers address environmental problems for homeless or refugees....
Curated OER
To Smell or Not to Smell, That is the Ester
Students explain the basic concepts of polymerization. Students participate in a lab to create a crude preparation of carboxyl esterase and test its effectiveness in reducing the residual monomer in an emulsion such as paint.
Curated OER
PROTOPLAST PRODUCTION
Students are allowed to strip away the cell walls of plants cells (using enzymes) and then observe the resulting spherical protoplasts (plant cells minus the cell wall). They see that plants cells indeed have a plasma membrane in...
Curated OER
Thermochemistry
In this thermochemistry worksheet, students calculate the enthalpy of vaporization as well as the write the thermochemical expression for the production of the chemical reaction.
Curated OER
Cling On's
Students define the term static electricity and how to it. In this electricity instructional activity students design and implement an experiment to show how static electricity affects their daily lives.