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Product Highlights

• Observe the behavior of gases using the mystery flame, Charles’s fountain, ideal sports ball, and Gay-Lussac’s cooler demonstrations, then apply the gas laws to explain the observations.
• High school teacher-led, student-engaged demonstration with enough materials for 5 performances of each of the 4 demonstrations.
• Carolina Kits 3D®–Labs that use phenomena to support NGSS and 3-dimensional instruction.

Students observe 4 phenomena of gas law behavior. In the mystery flame demonstration, students attempt to explain why a combustion reaction draws a floating, burning candle up into the neck of an inverted flask. In the second demonstration, Charles’s fountain, students use Charles’s law to explain why cool water creates a fountain inside an inverted flask fitted with a 1-hole stopper. In the third demonstration, the ideal sports ball, students use the measured mass and internal pressure of an inflated football for calculating the volume of the ball, as well as the mass of the deflated ball. In the fourth demonstration, Gay-Lussac’s cooler, students use Gay-Lussac’s law to explain why a football at reduced temperature has a reduced internal pressure.

Time Requirement
Total, 70 minutes. Teacher prep, 15 minutes. Demonstration 1, 15 minutes. Demonstration 2, 5 minutes. Demonstration 3, 15 minutes. Demonstration 4, 20 minutes.

Digital Resources
Includes 1-year access to digital resources that support 3-dimensional instruction for NGSS. Digital resources may include a teacher manual and student guide, pre-lab activities and setup videos, phenomenon videos, simulations, and post-lab analysis and assessments.

Performance Expectations
HS-PS3-2

Crosscutting Concepts
Energy and Matter

Disciplinary Core Ideas
PS3.A: Definitions of Energy

Science and Engineering Practices
Developing and Using Models

Learning Objectives

• Predict what will happen during each demonstration on the basis of prior knowledge.
• Illustrate and explain gas behavior at the particulate level.
• Explain gas behavior in each demonstration using their understanding of the gas laws.

Prerequisite Knowledge and Skills
Students should be familiar with the relationship of temperature, volume, and pressure in the ideal gas law; graphing data and interpreting graphs; and writing and balancing equations for chemical reactions.

NOTE: Instructions for this kit are based on the predict, observe, explain (POE) model. POE is primarily used in science classes. Specifically, POE has optimal effects when paired with demonstrations that allow students to make and record observations and then follow those observations with explanations.