End of Year Lab

[Knoton]

I just took the AP Chemistry test and now my teacher is having me find a lab to use as an end of year lab. I am looking for a challenging, interesting(maybe something that isn't usually covered in AP Chem) lab that can be done using high school equipment and completed in about an hour and a half. Any ideas on a specific lab, a particular topic, or where I should look for a lab would be greatly appreciated.

[UncleAl]

We've got a little problem with Homeland Severity, the BATF, and the War on Drugs. Any and all would enthusiastically thermonuke your high school if you touched chemicals, to save the children!!!. Piss on 'em.

 

Academic library. "Journal of Chemical Education." Loaded with reasonable fun stuff.

 

How about making your own rayon via the cuprammmonium process? Colorful, cute, produces a harmless trophy for display. Try filer paper, absorbant cotton, newsprint... Will nickel or zinc substitute for copper? Will large bore (18 ga.), medium bore, or small bore (diabetic's syringe) needles give better fiber? Think about it, plan it out. Set them all up the first day, then extrude them sequentially the next day.

 

Do you see hydrodynamic instabilities onset (e.g., fiber crimping) as the flow rate through the needle increases?

 

http://www.woodrow.org/teachers/chemistry/institutes/1986/exp31.html

http://jchemed.chem.wisc.edu/Journal/Issues/1999/Nov/abs1512.html

http://www.apparelsearch.com/Education/Research/Nonwoven/2001_Kermit_Duckett/education_research_nonwoven_rayon_fibers.htm

Rayon overview

[Knoton]

Well, the lab really needs to be quantitative. Just making something won't cut it, and what is measured should really be chemistry related, not which needle gives the best fiber.

[Mercedes Benzene]

May I suggest an activity involving titration. In high school, I always enjoyed labs that involved hands-on experiments that produced quantitative results. Some sort of titration experiment would be easy for you to set up with minimal effort, and would provide a challenging lab requiring calculations.

You could make it as intricate as you want, although titration is generally covered in AP Chemistry, so it is not very original.

I also suggest the professor Steven Zumdahl, who I believe wrote a book specifically outlining the processes of designing labs that would be appropriate for an AP level class. I would take a look at some of his publications.

Best of luck to you!

[Knoton]

Well, I think I've found one on my own. Thanks for your help though. It's a spectroscopy lab with a little forensics thrown in. Check it outhere. If anyone knows exactly what the reaction equation is that takes place that would be helpful.

[Mercedes Benzene]

I would be glad to help you with the equation, but I believe the link you provided is broken. :hihi:

[Knoton]

http://faculty.coloradomtn.edu/jeschofnig/drowned.htm

here

[UncleAl]

Dissolve a nickel in nitric acid. Determine its metal content qualitatively and quantitatively. Nickel comes down from ammoniacal solution as as Ni(DMG)2. How do you separate and recover the other metal(s)?