 |
| EXPERIMENT IN THE LAB |
The American Chemical Society has stated: "To learn chemistry, students must directly manipulate chemicals, study their properties and reactions, and use laboratory equipment and modern laboratory instruments." and "This hands-on experience is necessary for students to understand, appreciate, and apply chemical concepts." (ACS Guidelines for Chemistry in Two-Year College Programs, Spring 2009)
Commercial laboratory manuals contain experiments that range from trivial (those dumb measurement labs) to challenging (e.g., applications of thermochemistry to solar energy). Some experiments serve little purpose other than busy work to illustrate a principle and leaves students asking "so, what?". On the other hand, there are a lot of independent experiments developed by individuals and posted on the Internet that are on the cutting edge of today's research (e.g., nanotechnology), apply principles to applications (e.g., build a wind turbine), or explore consumer products (e.g., make a perfume). Don't look for these in commercial manuals. Many school and university teachers tend to be dinosaurs and are reluctant to try something new and are slow to change.
I am a firm believer in integrated lecture-laboratory classes and utilize a range of experiments, some traditional and some non-traditional, in my classes. Some experiments are intended as introductions to course topics, some are used to reinforce concepts taught in class, and some are investigations to accompany course material.. Although I list most experiments on separate course pages for students to download, I am assembling many of those experiments on this page to make them easier to find on my website.
All the following are experiments used, written, or modified, by David A. Katz:
These are PDF files and require Adobe Acrobat Reader. You can get these pdf in the following link of CHEMISTRY EXPERIMENT
