Holy mole-cules!

Posted by lapazfarm on December 4th, 2007 filed in science, Curriculum or Lack Thereof..., Superboy Work Samples

Back to the business at hand:Chemistry!

This is week two of our “chemistry blitz“, and despite the distraction of those homeschool blog awards, we are all business here at LaPaz. We want to earn our vacation, that’s for sure!

So, without further adieu:

MOLECULES! They are EVERYWHERE!

Or, at least they are covering my kitchen table!

After a lengthy discussion about chemical bonding, Superboy finally got to use those atoms he painstakingly painted last week and put them together into molecules. He really enjoyed this activity. And he really seemed to ‘get’ how to use the periodic table to tell how many bonds to make between atoms to form molecules. He can also quite easily match the names of the compounds to the models. Here are a few of his creations close-up:

Superboy especially liked making the carbon compounds. He also learned how to name them according to the number of carbons and the type of bonds.

And here are his science journal pages to prove he did learn to draw the molecules properly and write the chemical formulas:

And do you remember the naked eggs he made last week, all bubbly from the reaction of calcium carbonate and acetic acid (in vinegar)??

Well, here is what he did with them once the shells were gone:

He put one egg in fresh water, one in salt water, and one in corn syrup and let them soak overnight.

He has been studying the role of sodium in maintaining osmotic balance in animal cells and made some predictions as to what would happen:

Results:

You can see that the eggs in fresh and salt water swelled considerably (it’s hard to tell from the photo, but the fresh water swelled more than the salt water did), while the one in corn syrup really shrank. This is due to diffusion: the movement of water molecules through the semipermeable membrane. Pretty cool, right? Though I don’t think we’ll be frying these eggs for breakfast!

And speaking of breakfast, do you remember the curdled milk experiment from last week? Well, here are the results of that one:

Very hard plastic!

So, week two is off to a great start, with more molecular fun in store!

3 Responses to “Holy mole-cules!”

Robin Says:
December 4th, 2007 at 5:40 pm
Theresa, these chemistry experiments are great! Our little Real Chemistry 4 kids textbook doesn’t have enough experiments for GB. So between web searching, and your blog, I think we’ll just bulk it up a bit. I love your styrofoam molecules, too!
Btw, I remember you asking me about this textbook we are using, and judging by these past few entries of yours, I think Superboy is WAY beyond this textbook. Whatever you are using, I’d just stick with that.
What are you using? I know you were a Science teacher before, is this old materials that you used to use?
Angel Says:
December 4th, 2007 at 6:24 pm
Ok, I’ve totally dropped the ball on chemistry. We’ve got the Elements book, but I honestly haven’t had a chance to look at it. Which of the books you’re using would you recommend for experiments? And for building molecules? This is what my G wants to do (although WWI is battling for his attention), and I skipped WAY too much class to remember this! (I need to look through my Montessori chem manual, too, but as predicted am feeling challenged at lack of visuals.)
eclecticeducation Says:
December 5th, 2007 at 5:29 pm
Hi Theresa, thank you so much for your encouraging words. I really appreciate it. It’s helpful to hear from people that have “been there, done that” and survived.

Btw… I love your blog. I would love to try some of your projects with my kids. Hopefully, when we are through this ordeal, I’ll have the energy to try some of them.