Inquiry Projects

The following projects are designed to be extensions of the course materials and used as a source for extra-credit in AP and Honors Chemistry. In many cases, the projects are simply a reorganization of currently existing assignments; in others, there are suggestions on utilizing specific available visualizations.

Periodic Table Trends. Students will obtain data(ionization energy, atomic mass, atomic size) from Net Periodic Table sources. The students will analzye the data graphically and identify trends.

Nuclear Power. Student teams will create "Time" like magazines featuring the theme "Nuclear Power". This assignment will require researching nuclear energy issues using reference and electronic resources.

Molecular Shape: Students may select a molecular visualization to download from internet Molecular Shape list of links. Responsiblities could include downloading the specific molecular link, obtaining the necessary downloadable software (Shockwave, Chime,etc) and presenting the visualization with a short paper or journal recording the steps taken to accomplish the task. This paper or journal should include a paragraph describing how this model integrates or extends concepts covered in class.

Element Project. Students locate information about an element and convey the information to the rest of the chemistry students in the form of a poster, mobile, hypercard stack or mediatext document.

Element Poster Project. Students locate information about an element and convey the information in a poster.

Atmospheric Science Project. Student teams will create a slide show or a web page to incorporate information learned about an atmospheric issue. This assignment will require researching atmospheric issues using reference and electronic resources.

Scientist Scrapbook: Students collect bibiliographic information about a scientist and present it as a scrapbook

Comparing Consumer Products: Student reseach reporter teams devise analytical tests, collect and analyze data to determine recommend commercial products.

Industrial Chemicals: Students collect information to determine the most important industrial chemicals, how they are used and produced, as well as toxicity, cost, and sources.

Transition element project. Ruth Rand at Albuquerque Academy created this project for her AP students. It is a second semester project designed to review concepts as well as learn new ones.

STS Project: The Project Outline, Project Timeline, Project Rubric

POSSIBLE LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS:

Determination of the Thickness of Zinc on a Piece of Galvanized Metal
Distillation of Water from an Aqueous Solution Using a Disposable Apparatus
Candy Chromatography
A Comparison of the Solubilities of Carbon Dioxide in Water at Various Temperatures
Determination of the Molar Volume of Carbon Dioxide
A Penny's Worth of Hydrogen
Preparation and Properties of Oxygen
Determination of the Relative Viscosities of Liquids
It's Getting Colder (Freezing Point Depression)
Reactions Between Ions in Solution Using Consumer Materials
Physical Properties and Intermolecular Bonding in Solids
Effect of Composition on the Melting Point of an Alloy
Fire and Brimstone (Reactions of Sulfur)
Colloidal Sulfur
The Effect of Temperature on the Rate of Dissolving
The Effect of Temperature on the Rate of Reaction
Balloon Race (The Effect of Temperature on the Rate of Reaction)
Effect of Surface Area on the Rate of A Heterogeneous Reaction
The Effect of Concentration on the Rate of a Reaction
An Inexpensive Kinetics Experiment
The Effect of a Catalyst on the Rate of a Reaction
Catalysis Using Enzymes in Pineapple
Say pH with Flowers, Fruits and Vegetables
Acid-Base Titrations Without Burets
Activities of Metals
Establishing a Displacement Series Using Consumer Materials
Electrolysis of Water Without a Hoffman Apparatus
Making and Testing a Simple Galvanic Cell
Tracking Electrons
The Chemistry of Copper Plating
Production of Cuprammonium Rayon
Photochemical Reaction: Ammonium Oxalate and Iodine
Photochemical Bromination of Hydrocarbons
Ion Exachange
Complex Ions and the Spectrochemical Series