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Freezing Point Depression Activity: Ice Cream Spring brings showers, sunshine, and the prospect of summer break. Celebrate with this cool, fun activity. It requires just a few inexpensive materials and can be the basis of an engaging lesson on colligative properties. View »
Periodic Table Mystery P is less dense than S. S is an alkali metal. E is a noble gas. In this activity, students generate a periodic table from clues and predict the missing properties of several elements based on the elements’ locations in the table. View »
Petri Dish Electrolysis Activity Introduce your students to reduction-oxidation reactions and some of the basic terms of electrochemistry (such as electrode potential, anode, and cathode) with this activity—creating electrolysis in a petri dish. View »
Infographic - Rock Candy for Rookies: A Beginner’s Guide to the Sweet Stuff Science can be as sweet as candy. Take a fun approach to studying solutions and dissolution by growing your own rock candy. Chemistry never tasted so good. View »
More Paper Clip Chemistry Who knew the common paper clip could be such a versatile teaching assistant? This activity uses several paper clip styles to help students understand empirical formulas and relative masses. View »
Molecular Geometry with Balloons For some students, molecular geometry can be tricky to understand, but with this hands-on, engaging activity, it doesn’t have to be. View »
Mitosis Match Up: Student Activity Sheet With this activity, students identify and label pictures of plant cells in varying phases of the cell cycle. View »
Teaching Chemistry with Manipulatives Manipulatives can help students (especially visual and tactile learners) understand abstract concepts by allowing them to “see” a chemical structure or process. We offer 2 ideas for creating manipulatives and how to use them. View »
Strawberry DNA Extraction Introduce students to DNA with this activity. A discussion of how this DNA extraction procedure works might also touch on the plant cell wall, the cell membrane, and DNA's lack of solubility in ethanol. Includes materials list and step-by-step instructions. View »
Traffic Light Reaction This demonstration is a twist on the classic blue bottle reaction, and you use it to review reaction rates. View »
Kool-Aid® Chromatography Students encounter mixtures every day though they may not realize it. Use this chromatography activity to teach an important lab technique and introduce or reinforce key science terms and concepts. View »
Copying Nature’s Success: Teaching Students About Biomimetics Ready to create a model home that draws on biomimetics? In this activity, students research, design, and build structures that incorporate ideas inspired by the natural world. View »
A New Approach to Teaching Atomic Theory For chemistry teacher Siobhan Julian, teaching the history of atomic theory by lecture “was dry and tedious and boring for everyone involved.” Then she took a fresh approach—one that focuses on doing science to learn science history. View »
ChromoSock™ Meiosis What if understanding meiosis were as easy as folding laundry? In this activity, students use special socks to model chromosome behavior during meiosis. View »
One in a Million: Using Serial Dilutions to Understand Concentration In this activity, students will learn about concentration while performing a serial dilution. View »
Fractional Distillation of a Carbonated Soft Drink How is crude oil refined into many valuable products? Students can find out with this lab activity. Substituting a soft drink for crude oil, they use fractional distillation to separate the soft drink into its components, or fractions. View »
Carolina Quick Tips®: Paper Chromatography of Pens and Acid-Base Indicators In this activity, students use paper chromatography to separate the components of black ink in pens and of an acid-base indicator solu- tion. View »
Making a Scientific Claim: The Origin of Life Students can use this graphic organizer to construct a scientific claim about the origin of life. View »
Making and Evaluating a Scientific Claim Students can use these 2 graphic organizers to make and evaluate scientific claims. View »
Analyzing and Evaluating Data: Engaging in Argument from Evidence Cover best practices for engaging in scientific argumentation with this resource. Includes links to relevant graphic organizers. View »
Thermochemistry: An Endothermic Reaction In this thermochemistry demonstration, students observe an extreme, spontaneous endothermic reaction between 2 solid compounds, measure changes in temperature, and make observations. View »
Carbon Snake In this teacher-directed demonstration of an exothermic reaction, students observe the dehydration of a carbohydrate using concentrated sulfuric acid. View »
Ocular Dominance How does the brain process information from both eyes? This short activity introduces the senses, sensation and perception, and evolutionary differences in predator-prey relationships. View »
A Visual Introduction to Ionic and Net Ionic Equations With this activity students explore the phenomenon of chemical precipitation and construct an atomic level model of precipitation using ionic and net ionic equations. View »
Elephant Toothpaste This demonstration showing the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide, catalyzed by iodide ions, provides students with visual evidence of a chemical reaction. View »
Borax Snowflakes This lab activity will guarantee a snow day! Teach solutions and crystallization while making snowflake decorations for your classroom. View »