Redox Equations and the Half-Reaction Method

A large diagram of an electrochemical cell tops this page. Young chemists write equations and perform calculations for the half-reaction that occurs in the drawing. Use this handout as a review of electrolysis after they have carried it...

By completing this thorough set of practice exercises, your chemistry stars will shine! They will demonstrate their handling of kinetics problems: order of reactants, rate constants, rate law, and half-life. You will definitely want to...

Explain the importance of radioactive half-life as your high school biologists demonstrate the concept by performing a series of steps designed to simulate radioactive decay. Pupils use pennies to perform an experiment and gather data....

What is half-life and how can decay be used to date items? Viewers find out in this video that details half-life and radioactive decay, as well as the difference between alpha and beta decay.

The breakdown of your breakfast and plants photosynthesizing all relate to the simple movement of electrons. Learn about the complex manner of redox reactions, where electrons move from one compound to another, changing and propelling...

In previous videos, Sal talks about oxidation vs. reduction when acids and bases are reacting together. In this presentation, he goes into the "nitty-gritty" of exactly how and why electrons "choose" to leave one compound and "join" with...

Sal continues his discussion of decay by showing students the math involved in determining how much a substance is left after one half-life, two half-lives, and even three half-lives have gone by. He sets up a general function of time...

A activity prompts scholars to use candy to figure half-life. Combining class data allows them to find the graph of best fit and to determine if it should be linear or exponential. 

Toss 100 pennies (or poker chips or any other two-different-sided objects) and remove all of those displaying tails. Line them up and repeat. The lines of pennies collected get smaller each time, successfully representing half-life.

Does a radioactive cat have 18 half-lives? An understanding of half-life is important in both chemistry and biology, so start your young scientists off the right way — with the good foundation provided by a video that begins with a graph...