LabsAndActivities

It is my intent for this page to include some of my favorite classroom-tested labs and activities. As I add content, I will, where possible, include pertinent directions, handouts, and photos (as available).
- Dr. Schrempp

The Wet Dry Ice Lab [click picture for video]

Candle-Making
[click pictures for directions]

Benzoic Acid Snow Globes

Silver-Mirrored Ornament Balls [click pictures for directions]

Tie Dye Lab [click pictures for directions]

Blueprinting with the Cyanotype Process
[click pictures for directions]

Questions, Comments, More Information?

Ice Cream in a Zip-Lock Baggie!

Using the classic "silver mirror" reaction, students silver-plate the inside of ornament balls, then decorate the outside with acrylic paint.
This is an excellent lab for that last week of school before Winter Break. With a cost of less than $1 per student, materials can be purchased ahead of time off of the Internet. Provides students with a memorable science lab experience while teaching about redox reactions at the same time!

      This is a lab students look forward to all year. It is an excellent choice for that post-standardized-testing period that arrives right before school is out for the summer.
     Students bring in their own cotton shirt or other clothing item. Dyes and supplies can be purchased for ~$2.00 per student or less.
     Get dynamite results. Promote science. Increase excitement and enrollment in chemistry. And get that old Woodstock feeling back again (ugh!).

Bismuth Metal Crystals [click picture for directions]
     Making bismuth metal crystals works either as a great demonstration or lab - depending on how much time and money you have...
     The majority of the cost is in the bismuth metal. It runs around $12 to $20 a pound via the Internet.
     Other materials that will be required include hot plates, metal cups or dishes, heat resistant gloves, and glass stir rods.

This is a great lab for general chemistry, or for AP chemistry after the test. Illustrates reactions, gases, and stoichiometry. Students use small 6-oz plastic water bottles and berel pipets to make hydrogen and oxygen generators. A rocket launcher is formed from a spent barbeque lighter and a small piece of wire.
(Handouts available soon)

Hydrogen Mini-Rockets
[click picture for directions]

Home Demonstration Manual DVDs Demo Kits Lab Equipment Free Video Viewing
Support/FAQs Quik 'n Easy Demos Labs/Activities

     This is a lab that we piggyback onto the tie dye lab in the spring. It is growing in popularity with students as I slowly figure out the best process and results improve.
      The classic cyanotype process uses two reagents, potassium hexacyanoferrate and ammonium iron(III) citrate, along with UV light from the sun, to produce prussian blue.
     The shirts need to be soaked in the reagent solution and then are allowed to dry in the dark overnight. The next day a stencil is pinned to the shirt and it is exposed to sunlight. When it is rinsed, the vivid prussian blue color is acheived.

We save this "freezing point reduction lab" for the last week of school. Simply take a bunch of quart and gallon zip-lock bags from Costco. Add milk, sugar, and vanilla to the quart bag. Throw it in the gallon bag with some ice and rock salt and shake. 10-15 minutes or so later - delicious ice cream. Students will rave! Do it outside. Get other teachers on board. Bring a camera - you will see hundreds of smiles. What a party!

Using crushed dry ice, a plastic berel pipet, some plyers and a cup of water, students are able to view the triple point of carbon dioxide and witness three phases at once - solid, liquid, and gas. The problem is doing it without getting soaked!
This is a great lab for states of matter and phase diagrams. Click on the picture at right to see the video. (Handouts available soon)

cschrempp@exploscience.com

"Hand Boiler" Distillation [click picture for instructions]

Hand boilers are slick little devices made of glass with a colored ethanol solution enclosed inside. There is a glass tube going from the bottom of the lower bulb up to the top and ending with the upper bulb. When the bottom of the boiler is held in the hand, the ethanol warms and evaporates faster. This builds pressure in the lower bulb and pushes the fluid up the tube into the top bulb.
The design of the device makes it suitable to invert and use as a mini distillation apparatus. Since an organic chemistry laboratory distillation set-up can run hundreds of dollars, this small device can enable an economical alternative. See the Hand Boiler Distillation Page for more information and handouts.