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Chemistry Experiments

This is a collection of chemistry experiments and research projects. Most of the experiments involve general chemical principles. Sites offering general and physical science are included; too, providing the website offers chemistry experiments.

Younger Students 1-5

Blowing, Bouncing, Bursting Bubbles Bubble Bomb - Using baking soda and vinegar, you can pop a plastic bag with the power of fizz. Balloon Blow-Up -Not all bubbles are made with soap! Bubbularium - Make an observatory to see the amazing colors in bubbles! It's All Done With Mirrors Up Periscope! - Build a mirrored tube that lets you see around corners and over walls. Mysterious Mixtures Outrageous Ooze - This stuff can't make up its mind -- is it a liquid or a solid? Go With the Flow - Spin the bottle to make beautiful swirling shapes! It's Colorific! Black Magic - Discover secret colors hidden in a black marker! Reflecting Rainbows - Decorate your white walls with rainbow colors! Surprising Structures File Card Bridges - How many pennies will your bridge hold? Geodesic Gumdrops - Make amazing architecture with gumdrops and toothpicks.

Dramatic Static Super Sparker - Make very, very, very tiny lightning, anytime you want! Remote Control Roller - Rub a balloon on your head, then watch a soda can race across the floor! Seeing the Light Pringles® Pinhole - Recycle a potato chip can into a simple camera. Pictures From Light - With a lens, you can bend light to make pictures of the world. Making a Sun Clock - Before there were clocks, people used shadows to tell time! Taking Things Apart Dissect a Disk - Find out what's inside a floppy disk. Sink Or Swim Salt Volcano - Make your own miniature "Lava Lite" Glitter Globe - Make a fantastic toy that shimmers when you shake it. The Amazing Water Trick - Do hot water and cold water mix? Seeing Isn't Believing Flipsticks - A do-it-yourself cartoon kit. It's easy to make pictures move!

Hear, Hear! Ear Guitar - Share some scecret sounds with a friend. Secret Bells - An ordinary metal spoon can make some astounding sounds! CANdemonium - Recycle some cans to make after-dinner music! Rings, Wings, and Other Flying Things Roto-Copter - This simple paper toy spins through the air like a mini-helicopter! Spinning Blimps - Become an aircraft designer! Hoopster - Most paper airplanes are flat, but these paper hoops can really fly! What Do You Say? I M O K. U R O K. - You can make sentences without words! Making Changes Crystal Creations - Grow spikes of crystals in the sun. Mold Terrarium - Watch tiny blue, green, and white plants grow on leftover food. Copper Caper - Watch old pennies turn bright and shiny right before your eyes!

Older Students 6-12

Chemistry Laboratory Safety Rules
Make your chemistry laboratory experience safe by following these simple rules.

Effect of Acids and Bases on the Browning of Apples
Perform an experiment to observe the effects of acids, bases, and water on the rate of browning of cut apples or other produce.

Identify an Unknown - Experiment with Chemical Reactions
Use this chemistry lesson plan to help students use the scientific method to design experiments to identify the components of an unknown mixture.

Baggie Chemistry - Experiment with Chemical Reactions
Introduce students to chemical reactions and experimentation using common materials and baggies.

Experimental Determination of Avogadro's Number
Did you know that Avogadro's number isn't a mathematically derived unit. The number of particles in a mole of a material is determined experimentally. This easy method uses electrochemistry to make the determination.

How to Make Aspirin - Acetylsalicylic Acid
Learn how to synthesize aspirin, acetylsalicylic acid, from salicyclic acid. Get information about the history of aspirin, the effects of salicylates, and see the structures of the reactants.

Make a Bouncing Polymer Ball
Use chemistry to make a bouncing polymer ball, then alter the procedure to see the effect the changes have on the charactertistics of the bouncing ball.

Consumer Chemicals
This is a collection of general chemistry lab experiments. The collection states that the materials derive from common consumer products or are inexpensive, but I disagree - you need a stocked chem lab to perform them. Good experiments, anyway.

Countertop Chemistry
This is a collection of activities relating to chemistry that can be performed using common household or grocery items. Each activity includes a description of materials, procedure, and teacher's notes. From North Carolina State University.

Edible/Inedible Experiments
Some of the science experiments listed here may be eaten before, during, or after the experiment, and some should not be eaten at all. They are categorized into the subjects of astronomy, biological sciences, chemistry (several), earth sciences, mathematics, and physics.

Kitchen Chemistry
Chemistry experiments and demonstrations, using common household products and kitchen ingredients. Recommended age range is K-6.

Quick and Easy Activities
Hands-on science lessons for grades pre-K to 12. All aspects of science are represented. The labs are very clearly explained, but be aware that many require special chemicals or a traditional lab setting.

Science Experiments You Can Do
This is a collection of physical science experiments and projects. So far, the activities are mainly presented as topics or ideas, so you will need to work up a lab or experiment.

SMILE Program Chemistry Index
This is a collection of around 200 single concept lessons. Some fall into the category of demonstrations and others are complete laboratory exercises. Hosted by the Illinois Institute of Technology. Highly recommended!

T.W.I.N.K.I.E.S. Project, The
This is a series of experiments conducted during finals week, 1995, at Rice University. Most of these experiments can be repeated safely at home.

More Incredible Experiments

Afterimage	A flash of light prints a lingering image in your eye.
Anti-Gravity Mirror	It's all done with mirrors!
Balancing Ball	Suspend a ball in a stream of air.
Balancing Stick	Does it matter which end is up?
Benham's Disk	A rotating black-and-white disk produces the illusion of color.
Bernoulli Levitator	Suspend an object in air by blowing down on it.
Bicycle Wheel Gyro	A bicycle wheel acts like a giant gyroscope.
Bird in the Cage	Stare at a color and see it change.
Blind Spot	To see or not to see.
Blue Sky	Now you can explain why the sky is blue and the sunset is red.
Bone Stress	Polarized light reveals stress patterns in clear plastic
Bridge Light	A thin layer of air trapped between two pieces of Plexiglas™ produces rainbow-colored interference patterns.
Bronx Cheer Bulb	Some lightbulbs appear to wiggle and flash when you give them the raspberry, but the only thing wiggling is you.
Bubble Suspension	Soap bubbles float on a cushion of carbon dioxide gas.
Bubble Tray	Create giant bubbles.
Cardboard Tube Syllabus	Your brain combines information from your eyes in surprising ways.
Center of Gravity	How to balance a checkbook using the physics method.
Charge and Carry	Store up an electric charge, then make sparks.
Cheshire Cat	Make a friend disappear, leaving only a smile behind.
Circles of Magnetism I	You can make a magnetic field that's stronger than the earth's!
Circles of Magnetism IV	Two parallel, current-carrying wires exert forces on each other.
Cold Metal	"Cold" metal and "warm" wood may be the same temperature.
Colored Shadows	Shadows are not all black and white.
Condiment Diver	The world's simplest Cartesian diver.
Convection Currents	Make your own heat waves in an aquarium.
Cool Hot Rod	Objects change size when heated or cooled
Corner Reflector	See yourself as others see you.
Coupled Resonant Pendulums	These pendulums trade swings back and forth.
Coupled Resonant Pendulums 2	Take advantage of resonance.
Critical Angle	Why your phone calls don't leak out of optical fibers.
Curie Point	When a piece of iron gets too hot, it is no longer attracted to a magnet.
Cylindrical Mirror	This cylindrical mirror lets you see yourself as others see you.
Depth Spinner	What happens when you get off the merry-go-round?
Descartes' Diver	To paraphrase the French philosopher René Descartes: "I sink, therefore I am."
Diamagnetism	Push me a grape.
Diffraction	Light can bend around edges.
Dipping Bird	The dipping bird seems to go forever but it's not perpetual motion!
Disappearing Act	If you want to stay hidden, you'd better stay still.
Disappearing Glass Rods	You can make glass objects disappear.
Downhill Race	Two cylinders that look the same may roll down a hill at different rates.
Drawing Board	A pendulum moving in two directions creates beautiful designs.
Duck Into Kaleidoscope	Make multiple images of yourself.
Eddy Currents	A magnet falls more slowly through a metallic tube than it does through a nonmetallic tube.
Electrical Fleas	Start your own electric flea circus!
Electroscope	What's your (electrical) sign?
Everyone Is You and Me	See yourself become someone else.
Fading Dot	Now you see it; now you don't. An object without a sharp edge can fade from your view.
Falling Feather	Prove to yourself that Galileo was right!
Far 0ut Corners	Your experience of the world influences what you see.
Fog Chamber	Make a portable cloud in a bottle. Now you see it, now you don't!
Gas Model	Caged molecules do their thing.
Geyser	Cyclic hot water fountain.
Giant Lens	A lens creates an image that hangs in midair.
Giant Sieve Sorter	Create a series of boundaries that keep some things out while letting other things through.
Give and Take	Dark-colored materials both absorb and emit energy more readily than light-colored materials.
Glue Stick Sunset	Why is the sky blue? That's a sticky question.
Gray Step	Without a boundary, it's hard to distinguish different shades of gray.

Hand Battery	Your skin and two different metals create a battery.
Hand-Held Heat Engine	You can make the liquid in this toy rise and fall in a cycle.
Hot Spot	You can focus the invisible light from an electric heater.
Inverse Square Law	Why the world gets dark so fast outside the circle of the campfire.
Jacques Cousteau in Seashells	There's more to seeing than meets the eye.
Laser Jello	Use gelatin as a smoked lens, to view total internal reflection, and as a color filter.
Look Into Infinity	Images of images of images can repeat forever.
Magic Wand	See pictures in thin air.
Magnetic Lines of Force	Iron filings will trace out the lines of a magnetic field in three dimensions.
Magnetic Shielding	Magnetic lines stop here.
Magnetic Pendulums	Copper coils become electromagnetic swings.
Magnetic Suction	This experiment shows how your doorbell works.
Milk Makes Me Sick	Exploration of the basis of lactose intolerance.
Mirrorly a Window	What you see is often affected by what you expect to see.
Moire Patterns	When you overlap materials with repetitive lines, you create moire patterns.
Momentum Machine	How ice skaters, divers, and gymnasts get themselves spinning and twisting faster.
Motor Effect	A magnet exerts a force on a current-carrying wire.
Parabolas	It's all done with mirrors.
Peripheral Vision	We are not usually aware of our eyes' limitations.
Persistence of Vision	Your eye and brain hold on to a series of images to form a single complete picture.
Pie Pan Convection	By heating a solution of soap, water and food coloring, fluid motion can be visualized.
Pinhole Magnifier	Who needs expensive optical equipment?
Polarized Light Mosaic	With polarized light, you can make a stained glass window without glass.
Polarized Sunglasses	If you rotate a pair of polarizing sunglasses, you will find that they cut road glare much better in some positions than in others.
Proprioception	Wiggle where you're at.
Pupil	Your pupil changes size to control how much light enters your eye.
Radioactive Decay Model	Substitute coins for radiation.
Real Image	A snack version of Mirror Mirage.
Resonant Pendulum	Big swings from little pulls grow.
Resonant Rings	One reason not all buildings are equal in an earthquake.
Resonator	If you vibrate something at just the right frequency, you can get a big reaction.
Seeing Your Blind Spot	See your blind spot.
Seeing Your Retina	Catch a retinal net.
Short Circuit	What happens when you blow a fuse?
Size and Distance	A clueless way to determine the size of an object.
Slinky in hand	Making waves.
Soap Bubbles	Create geometric art with soap films.
Soap Film Painting	A soap film becomes an ever-changing work of art.
Solar Brightness	By finding a position at which the sun is as bright as the lamp the power output of the sun can be estimated.
Spectra	Fingerprints for light sources.
Spherical Reflections	Discover art and science in a myriad of spherical reflections.
Spinning Blackboard	Create graceful loops and spirals by drawing on a spinning dish.
Spinning Cylinder	Like a wheel within a wheel.
Squirming Palm	This visual illusion makes the palm of your hand appear to squirm and twist.
Strange Attractor	The attraction and repulsion of magnets produces entrancing, unpredictable motion.
Stripped Down Motor	As motors go, this is about as simple as it gets.
Take It From the Top	How does this stack up?
Thread the Needle	Using two eyes gives you depth perception.
The Three Little Pig(ments)	Investigate how light and color interact by aligning three colored and one black overhead transparencies.
Tired Weight	Calculate the weight of a car by using air pressure.
Touch the Spring	You can see the spring, but you can't touch it.
Vanna	A face seen upside down may hold some surprises.
Vector Toys	This toy uses components of force to walk and to stop at just the right time!
Vortex	Whirling water creates a tornado in a bottle.
Water Sphere Lens	Make a lens and a magnifying glass by filling a bowl with water.
Water Spinner	Rotating water has a curved surface.
Whirling Watcher	When you view short bursts of moving images, you see some interesting effects.
Your Sense of Taste	Relationship between taste and smell.