One of my favorite ever projects was these Borax Snowflake Christmas Ornaments that I made a few years ago with my chemistry students with coffee filters. The ornaments are super glittery and sparkly in person. The pictures I took of my students’ finished ornaments really didn’t do them justice. It may be too late to …
Labs
I used this Mix and Match Mass Mini Lab with my Chemistry students at the beginning of the year to give them some practice estimating mass and measuring mass using the triple beam balance. I wanted my students to get a feel for different masses. For example, I wanted my students to have a visual …
When I was prepping to teach chemistry a few years ago, I ran across this Spot the Safety Hazards Picture. I thought it would make the perfect addition to my beginning of year lab safety review. I took the image and prepared a file to print the picture on 11 x 17 cardstock to use …
Years ago, when I was teaching chemistry, I came across a free lesson plan online that had students work through real-world safety scenarios involving chemical accidents. I thought it was a great way to emphasize lab safety at the beginning of the year and give students a chance to practice reading a SDS (Safety Data …
While preparing to review lab safety at the beginning of my chemistry course, I ran across a “Spot the Safety Hazards” story on Ms. Randall’s Science Weebly. On page 3 of this PDF, she includes a story that students must read. As they read, students must underline or highlight all of the lab safety violations …
What Not to Do Laboratory is a great way to review lab safety procedures at the beginning of the school year. I used this a few years ago with my chemistry students, and it sparked many great conversations. Source of Activity The original What Not to Do Laboratory poster is the creation of The Laboratory …
I made this summary of lab report requirements for my chemistry students to glue in their interactive notebooks. Free Download of Lab Report Requirements
We made ice cream in a bag as our last lab of the year in Chemistry. My students were pretty skeptical that the process would actually result in ice cream, and they were pleasantly surprised as a result. One student brought in M&M’s and Heath bits as topping. Super yummy! Here’s our recipe if you’re …
My chemistry students requested that we do something fun for Valentine’s Day. We haven’t done a lab in a while, so I put together a Conversation Hearts Lab. I saw that you could do the standard Dancing Raisins activity with conversation hearts, so I decided to try it out. It turns out I should have …
In chemistry, we did a density challenge this week. Students had to calculate the maximum amount of sand that could be placed in a film canister so that it still floated. We tested our canisters today, and every canister floated! I ordered a set of 24 film canisters from Amazon especially for this lab. The …