Classroom activities

Your students may find it interesting to compare the acid content of a low-acid apple juice or a low-acid orange juice to that in a regular juice of the same brand. These sample types could be added to an existing acid-base titration experiment, form the basis of a new experiment, or be used as project topics.

The cover photograph of the November 2014 issue of Chem 13 News (pictured above) is more interesting than it might appear at first glance. (Consider this demonstration 1.)

Penney Sconzo presented this nifty demonstration at the ChemEd 2015 Generations Symposium in Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw GA. This is an easy, colorful and safe microscale version of the Ammonia Fountain.

Heat flow and temperature control are important topics in chemistry and chemical engineering. In a recent paper in Chem 13 News one of us (CM) analyzed the cooling curve of hot water in an insulated cup as an example of a first-order process. 

The cost of everything keeps going up! What’s a laboratory science instructor to do when it comes time to place an order for chemicals and equipment for the next year? One solution is to find cheaper substitutes that can still achieve the desired student outcomes.

Part 1 of this article was published in Chem 13 News in November 2014. This second part presents three titration exercises of increasing sophistication, suitable for students with some titration experience. Citric acid and sodium hydroxide are used for all three presented titrations. 

Enzyme catalysis is an important topic which is often neglected in introductory chemistry courses. In this paper, we present a simple experiment involving the yeast-catalyzed fermentation of sugars.