From: Tim/Joan Merrill (tmerrill@hotmail.com)
Date: Tue May 10 2005 - 20:31:22 PDT
Message-ID: <BAY101-F25E779496D1AB3A0601152DA100@phx.gbl> From: "Tim/Joan Merrill" <tmerrill@hotmail.com> Subject: RE: Pinhole Digest #1749 - 05/10/05 Date: Wed, 11 May 2005 03:31:22 +0000
Hi Marc,
A fun lab I used to do when I taught chemistry is to make crystals in
gels. Essentially, you put one ionic species in a gel and another species,
that would normally precipitate the other in aqueous solution, in a solution
above the gel. As the upper solution diffuses into the gel, it
precipitates, but very slowly, causing beautiful crystals to form over
several days. The gel supports the crystals which can grow large and quite
beautiful. The recipes I have come from Tanya Phillips at Piedmont High.
for days my kids would rush to their test tubes at the beginning of class to
see how their crystals had developed since the day before. N.B. Many of the
prettiest crystals use toxic solutions ( heavy metals) so if your kids are
going to drink the solutions, many of the choices won't be good. But one of
the best uses a tartrate solution and makes "diamonds". Wine sediment is
a tartrate so it's no big deal to drink.
If you or anyone else is interested in the recipes, email me at
tmerrill@hotmail.com and I'll scan in the sheets and email them to you.
All credit goes to Tanya Phillips though.
Hope you have fun,
Ciao,
Tim Merrill
I left myself a week at the end of the quarter to do some "just
for<br>> >fun" labs in my chemistry class. I was thinking along
the lines of some<br>> >polymer stuff but haven't come across anything
that appealing. does<br>> >anyone have any good suggestions that
they've done in the past?<br>> >Doesn't have to be polymer, can be
from any unit/ any experiment or<br>> >demo, but something that will
send em off with a desire to take more<br>> >chemistry.<br>>
><br>> >I've never hadfree time before.;thanks,marc
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