In this lab, chemistry students practiced classifying chemical reactions as endothermic or exothermic. Before diving in, they discussed how all chemical reactions release or absorb energy. Releasing chemical energy in the form of heat is an exothermic reaction. Absorbing heat energy is an endothermic reaction.
For this lab, the chemistry students had to be cautious since they were dealing with toxic chemicals. They set up the thermal probes together as a class. After that, the students added reactants to a test tube in their lab groups. Then, they recorded the temperature with the thermal probe and stirred in the second reactant. Once the temperature stopped changing, the students used the SparkVUE software to find the initial and final temperatures of the reaction and recorded the data. They repeated this for six different reactions. Amongst those were the reactions between acetic acid (vinegar) and sodium bicarbonate (baking soda), tap water and calcium chloride, tap water and ammonium nitrate, and more.
The chemistry classes do many labs with many different units, data, and subjects. Often times, math crosses over into the curriculum. Completing this endothermic/exothermic lab takes a lot of focus and precise calculations. Students got to learn about an important concept in chemistry while doing a hands-on lab.
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