There isn't much money left in most 2014-2015 science department budgets. For inexpensive chemistry lab ideas, buy my lab book "Chemistry on a Budget" for $20.56 at amazon.com or $23 at lulu.com. It will take a few weeks to get to you, so order now!
http://www.amazon.com/Chemistry-Budget-Marjorie-R-Heesemann/dp/0578129159/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1389410170&sr=1-1&keywords=chemistry+on+a+budget
http://www.lulu.com/shop/marjorie-r-heesemann/chemistry-on-a-budget/paperback/product-21217600.html
This book contains 13 labs using consumable materials purchased from local stores. There are two versions of each lab, one with a ten-question conclusion and one with directions for a full lab report. This way the teacher has the option! Each lab is two pages to allow for one two-sided handout.
My recent blog posts discussed Boyle's Law and Charles' Law. Today, I am focusing on Gay-Lussac’s Law, the direct relationship between the pressure and temperature of a gas.
Remember that all temperature calculations in the gas laws use Kelvin temperatures:
Kelvin = Celsius + 273
I previously discuss Gay-Lussac’s Law on 02/01/2014 and two demonstrations were shared. Check out the videos, one of an egg being drawn into a bottle as the pressure decreases, and the other using atmospheric pressure to crush a quickly cooled soda can.
Here is another demonstration using atmospheric pressure to move water as the air above it cools:
This video doesn’t have any narration, but it has captions that contain a simple explanation of the phenomenon, in under a minute!
Many labs available on the Internet use a computer pressure sensor and either a computer or graphing calculator. Some schools have access to that technology and it should be used; however, this is a large expense that may not have occurred yet in your department.
Maybe acquiring the sensors can be a future goal – talk to the head of your science department to find out what has to be done!
Check out the Topic List to help you to find past Blog entries. I hope it helps!
Have a good weekend!
PS: The current "deflate-gate" scandal with the New England Patriots may be related to the effect of temperature on pressure (Gay-Lussac's Law)!
Here's one discussion:
http://www.ksdk.com/story/sports/nfl/2015/01/21/deflate-gate-could-weather-played-role-deflated-balls-bernhard/22104795/
Maybe this could be a topic for your student's to research...