Students in grades 5-8 create shimmering snowflakes using a simple chemical process. They supersaturate hot water with borax, then suspend a pipe cleaner shape in the liquid, allowing the crystals to form overnight.

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Filed under: Class Activities, Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Grades K-5 | 3 Comments »

Tags: Chemistry, Crafts, Crystal study, grades 5-8

This website on gas hydrates and crystallography from the University of California-Irvine provides resources, information, and class materials for teachers. It offers information, documents, presentations, photos, and data from past programs and projects, as well as lab activities, experiments, lesson plans, software, and an online tutorial.

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Filed under: For Teachers, Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, K-12 Outreach Programs, Web Resources | Comments Off on Website: Gas Hydrates and Crystallography Resources

Tags: Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, National Science Foundation, Physical Science, Software

This fun — but gooey — experiment with cornstarch has students in grades 3-8 creating, then testing, a batch of cornstarch ooze. They learn about the unusual properties of this and other non-Newtonian fluids.

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Filed under: Class Activities, Grades 6-8, Grades K-5 | 1 Comment »

Tags: Chemistry, Class Activities, Grades 3-8, Polymers, Slime

A Texas bioengineering professor believes that students will be more ready for college science and engineering if exposed to university-level research while still inhigh school. He’s testing that notion with the help of a $500,000 National Science Foundation grant that brings students into his neuro-tissue lab to help with engineering research and then studies their progress.

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Filed under: K-12 Education News | Comments Off on High-End Science for High School Students

Tags: Biomedical Engineering, Chemistry, Programs for Students, Research on Learning

Would you believe that slime is a member of the Space Shuttle team? As an advanced viscoelastic material, slime is an amazingly lead-proof hydraulic fluid used in all critical positioning systems in space. Check out these slime recipes from the Inamori School of Engineering, Alfred University.

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Filed under: Class Activities, Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Grades K-5 | Comments Off on Activity: Making Slime

Tags: Chemistry, Class Activities, Physical Science, Physics

Visit the chemistry activity page from CSIRO — The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Australia’s national science agency — to find simple, fun chemistry and physics projects for students. Other sections of this science Website offer information, videos, links, the Double Helix Science Club, and local resources for Australia teachers.

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Filed under: Class Activities, Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Grades K-5, K-12 Outreach Programs, Web Resources | Comments Off on Class Activities: Chemistry and Physics from CSIRO

Tags: Chemistry, Experiments, Physics

There aren’t too many high schoolers who carry out a chemistry experiment that might save lives. Samantha Piszkiewicz and Nicolai Doreng-Stearns, however, did just that. Leading a five-student team at Laguna Beach High School in California, they developed a synthetic antivenom for the treatment of poisonous snakebites.

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Filed under: Special Features | Comments Off on Feature: Where an Interest in Snakes Can Lead

Tags: Biomedical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, Nanotechnology

The American Chemical Society offers a number of resources for teachers interested in teaching environmentally friendly chemistry. Their website features books, online tools and networks, activities and experiments ranked by study level, and an index of colleges with green chemistry programs.

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Filed under: Web Resources | Comments Off on Resource: Green Chemistry from the American Chemical Society

Tags: American Chemical Society, Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, Class Activities, Green, Internet Resources, Web Resources

Students grades 4-12 conduct a simple experiment that demonstrates how a familiar chemical — liquid soap — can be used to break the surface tension of water and propel a toy boat. Older students move into further inquiry of chemical dispersants and their use in combating oil spills.

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Filed under: Class Activities, Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Grades K-5 | 1 Comment »

Tags: Chemistry, Grades 4-12, Lesson Plan