Department of Chemistry
200 University Ave. W
Waterloo, Ontario,
Canada N2L 3G1
Chem13News@uwaterloo.ca
Magazine puzzles
-
December 2019Chemist's palette puzzle
Enter your students’ correct solutions into a draw on or before February 1, 2020. The prize is Instant Snow Polymer donated by Educational Innovations. Author: Avi Ornstein, Classical Magnet School, Hartford, Connecticut
Category: Feature Student challenges Magazine puzzles -
October 2019Elementary word search puzzle
Enter your students’ correct solutions into a draw on or before December 1, 2019. The prize is a Bismuth Crystal and is donated by Educational Innovations (www.teachersource.com). Author: Avi Ornstein, Classical Magnet School, Hartford, Connecticut
Category: Feature Student challenges Magazine puzzles -
September 2019Periodic message puzzle
Can you translate this code, adding punctuation to get a clear message? Author: Avi Ornstein, Classical Magnet School, Hartford, Connecticut
Category: Feature Student challenges Magazine puzzles -
May 2019Hidden chemical puzzle
Write the answers to the questions in the grid. One vertical column will be the chemical name of an over-the-counter medication. Author: Avi Ornstein, Classical Magnet School, Hartford, Connecticut
Category: Feature Activities Student challenges Magazine puzzles -
April 2019Hidden chemistry words puzzle
A dozen six-letter words commonly used in chemistry have been separated into individual letters and jumbled throughout the box. You need to find the correct first letter for each word and then follow the given route noted below each line to spell the answer. Author: Avi Ornstein, Classical Magnet School, Hartford, Connecticut
Category: Feature Student challenges Magazine puzzles -
March 2019Elemental compounds puzzle
Each of these elements appears in at least one of the listed chemicals. However, if you are careful, it is possible to select the correct choices so that each element is matched with a compound and each chemical is used only once. Author: Avi Orstein, Classical Magnet School, Hartford, Connecticut
Category: Feature Student challenges Magazine puzzles -
Hidden elements puzzle
Enter your students’ correct solutions into a draw on or before January 10, 2020. The prize is a pack of 30 Large Heat-Sensitive Periodic Tables donated by Educational Innovations Author: Avi Ornstein, Classical Magnet School, Hartford, Connecticut
Category: Feature Student challenges Magazine puzzles -
February 2019Quotegram puzzle
Complete the sentences. For the complete version of this fun Quotegram puzzle with grid, print this full version printable PDF.
Category: Feature Student challenges Magazine puzzles -
December 2015 - January 2016Colour-by-numbers chemis-tree
Use the following colours for each numbered flask
Category: Activities Classroom Themed and special days Student challenges Magazine puzzles -
November 2018Chemical anagrams
Each of these terms can be rearranged to create a common name for an actual chemical with the given chemical formula.
Category: Feature Activities Classroom Outreach Student challenges Magazine puzzles -
October 2018Chemistry nomenclature puzzle
First, write the chemical formula for each chemical. Then count the number of atoms present in each formula. Finally, convert the number to a letter (A=1, B=2, etc.) and place the letters in the appropriate space to create a hidden quote.
Category: Feature Student challenges Magazine puzzles -
October 2018Celebrating decade of the 70s - Lab safety puzzle
This puzzle is a reprint from Chem 13 News from the 1970s. It was one of many safety articles by Nick Ozaruk, University of Waterloo, Waterloo Ontario. Shown is a sketch of a fictitious laboratory. It isn’t ours. However, there are conditions or actions that could result in accidents, some very serious. List the unsafe acts and/or conditions that you can spot in the drawing.
Category: Feature Activities Classroom Classics from 50 years Student challenges Magazine puzzles -
September 2018Elemental percentages puzzle
Each percentage relates to a particular element — students will need to know how to do percentage composition. Place the abbreviation for each element in order, and you will find the answer.
Category: Feature Student challenges Magazine puzzles -
September 2018Nomenclature nonsense puzzle
Zach Miller, a student from Jodie Davis’ class was selected for having the correct answers to the puzzle in December 2017 and January 2018 issue.
Category: Feature Student challenges Magazine puzzles -
September 2018
A forgetful crostic winner
The book winner for solving A forgetful crostic in the December 2017 and January 2018 issue is Rida Ahmed, a student of Dr. Robert Corell, a teacher at Princeton High School in Princeton, New Jersey. The quote was taken from Grammatical Man by Jeremy Campbell.
Category: Feature Student challenges Magazine puzzles -
April 2018Chemistry criss-cross puzzle
Enter your students’ correct solutions into a draw on or before June 30, 2018. The prize is the book, Chemistry with Charisma: Volume 1. It will be awarded to the teacher.
Category: Feature Student challenges Magazine puzzles -
March 2018Scrambled chemistry quote
The letters in each column fit in the spaces directly below the column. The black squares note the end of a word. If the letters are placed in the correct spaces, you will wind up with a quote of Richard Feynman. It is a good quote to display in your chemistry classroom.
Category: Feature Student challenges Magazine puzzles -
February 2018Winter Olympics chemistry puzzle
Each letter represents another letter in the alphabet. Each chemical “term” matches the definition of how this aspect of chemistry relates to the Winter Olympics. As a clue, the terms are listed in alphabetic order.
Category: Feature Student challenges Magazine puzzles -
December 2017 - January 2018Nomenclature nonsense
Just in time for Christmas, here is an organic nomenclature quiz to test your knowledge, as well as your sense of humour. The purpose of this quiz is to match up the following “structures” with their “correct” names (page 10).
Category: Feature Student challenges Magazine puzzles -
September 2017A chemistry history puzzle
A bit of history: September 23, 1916, the National School of Industrial Chemistry was inaugurated in Mexico City, by Juan Salvador Agraz, a visionary chemical engineer...
Category: Student challenges Magazine puzzles -
May 2017Valuable knowledge
Find the related message by solving for a pair of words that each match the definition below. The second word is identical to the first word, with one letter deleted. The deleted letter then is placed in the appropriate position to form the message. [For example, if the clue was “a substance that neutralizes a base and has an irritating and unpleasant taste or odor,” the answer might be ACRID ACID and the resulting letter would be R.
Category: Feature Student challenges Magazine puzzles -
April 2017Famous scientists
First identify the scientists who match the given clues. Their names are used to solve the hidden quote. Lower case letters refer to the scientists’ first names and upper case letters refer to their last names.
Category: Feature Student challenges Magazine puzzles -
March 2017Decoding the chemicals in our food puzzle
André Dumais’s classroom submission from Hearst High School in Hearst, Ontario and Curt Peters from Kristi Deaver’s Honors Chemistry class at Ankeny Centennial High School in Ankeny, Iowa were selected for having the correct answers to the contest in our October 2016 issue.
Category: Student challenges Magazine puzzles -
February 2017Valentine’s su-chem-du
Using the symbols of the nine elements listed below, complete the su-chem-du to find the answer to the clue! The letters of the elemental symbols in the bolded boxes, when unscrambled, will spell out a Valentine’s message.
Category: Feature Student challenges Magazine puzzles -
November 2016Messages from the mole
[The puzzle reprint on the next page is from the February 1994 issue of Chem 13 News. It has an interesting story. It was originally sent in by Aaron’s teacher, Bruce Hemphill.
Category: Feature Student challenges Magazine puzzles -
December 2016 - January 2017Seasonal message
secret Christmas message
Category: Feature From our readers Letters to the Editor Student challenges Magazine puzzles Article -
December 2016 - January 2017Across the pond - Continental Europe
Now we travel further east to discuss other Europeans before Brexit makes it harder to leave England.
Category: Feature Student challenges Magazine puzzles Article -
December 2015 - January 2016Another chemistry Christmas logic puzzle
For a North American Christmas party, three Christmas trees are decorated — one for each of the largest countries: Mexico, United States and Canada. Each tree is designed with ten hexagonal shapes — pictured below.
Category: Student challenges Magazine puzzles -
September 2015Sodium and potassium reacting with water, in the absence of air
As the piece of metal skitters across the surface of the water in a beaker and — particularly in the case of potassium — it appears to catch fire, it is not obvious that the explanation for both phenomena lies in the production of hydrogen gas. There is a simple and safe way to demonstrate the reaction.
Category: Feature Student challenges Magazine puzzles -
October 2014CEMPAZUCHITL, a puzzle celebrating the Mexican Day of the Dead
Although Halloween is celebrated in a few areas in Mexico, the traditional festivity is the Day of the Dead, which falls on November 2. Many families visit the tombs of relatives and place thousands of yellow-orange flowers named “CEMPAZUCHITL” along with other items on an offering table, called “ofrenda”.
Category: Feature Activities Themed and special days Student challenges Magazine puzzles -
September 2014Elements of Safety
This first day of classes puzzle is for all students when safety needs to be reviewed...
Category: Feature Student challenges Magazine puzzles -
November 2013Mysterious gas riddle — a discussion
In the September issue, Yehoshua Sivan from Safed, Israel had a mysterious gas riddle for Chem 13 News readers. Below is a quick recap of the riddle.
Category: Feature Student challenges Magazine puzzles -
September 2013A mole of lightning
Lightning strikes Earth about 100 times each second, or 8.6 million times a day. Based on the information above, estimate the minimum number of years it will take for one mole of lightning to hit the earth.
Category: Student challenges Magazine puzzles -
September 2013
Mysterious gas riddle
When demonstrating the acidity of nitrogen oxides (in connection with acid rain), I prepare NO2 by the reaction between concentrated nitric acid and a piece of copper...
Category: Feature Student challenges Magazine puzzles -
April 2013Photo challenge: what is it?
These images were obtained by Jay Leitch in the Nanoscience Laboratory at the University of Guelph, Guelph, ON using an FEI Inspect S50 Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM).
Category: Feature Student challenges Magazine puzzles -
March 2012A classroom limerick challenge
Scott Hopkins from the Chemistry Department at the University of Waterloo sent us a little chemical limerick. For St. Paddy’s Day — March 17 — we thought we might gather up some other chemical limericks from past issues of Chem 13 News and other sources.
Category: Student challenges Magazine puzzles