Thru the Microscope

This experiment is also known as the Black snake, Black cobra or Sugar snake firework. This experiment allows students to safely work with fire in the classroom! Students place a baking soda and sugar mixture into a pile of sand. Alcohol is spread around the sand and then lit on fire! The black snake rises from the sand almost immediately! This lab includes questions on the types of chemical changes that occur and students can balance chemical equations! If you want to see pictures or videos

This document allows students to create chemical structures using marshmallows. Students create a variety of structures and then they have to identify if they are elements, compounds or mixtures. This was a great visual activity for students to see this and apply the concepts. Answer Key included! Note to teachers: I was unable to find different color marshmallows so the night before I lightly dyed them using food coloring. Worked perfectly!

This activity is composed of two days worth of activities. You can decide to do one or both! The first activity has students go to an interactive link, gather information about the atmospheric gases and create a brochure (rubric included). The second activity allows students to go to a Smithsonian website and explore the history and timeline of the atmosphere. Students then create a model of the atmosphere (rubric included).