Chemistry

Explore chemistry online with these Web sites for students and teachers.

Quick Links: Elementary and Middle School | High School | Teachers | Periodic Tables

Elementary and Middle School

Kitchen Chemistry from the PBS Zoom Web site hosts an interactive kitchen science lab. Students perform online experiments with acids and bases. Instructions for real experiments in a brick and mortar kitchen are also provided.

Strange Matter: Discover the Secrets of Everyday Stuff encourages kids to explore the world of materials science. Four sections correspond to the four main areas materials scientists study.  Students can visually zoom in to the atomic level on an aluminum can to learn about matter and microscopes, or try transforming raw materials like silicon, iron and carbon into a cell phone using different processes. The Materials Smackdown compares how different materials will react under pressure, and the Change the World Challenge looks at how new materials can help fight cancer, save the environment or make better sports equipment.  Along the way students learn about chemical structure and other properties and see video of materials scientists talking about their work. This site was produced by the Ontario Science Center with the materials Research Society and the National Science Foundation.

Dragonfly TV from PBS features videos of students devising and conducting their own experiments. The Chemistry of Makeup shows kids experimenting with different combinations of everyday ingredients in order to create and test batches of lip gloss. The Nanosilver episode involves students investigating the ability of nanosilver to kill bacteria and its tendency to leak into the environment. In another episode, students look into Water Cleanup technologies.

More than 20 Home Experiments are featured on the University of Wisconsin’s Science is Fun Web site.

Science for Kids from the American Chemical Society includes lots of experiments which you can print out and try at home or in school.  The site also includes online tutorials on things like chemical reactions, states of matter, polymers, and more. Another feature called What Chemists Do is a set of one-page interviews with professional chemists.

The BBC's KS2 Bitesize Materials site features simple interactive about the properties of solids, liquids and gases for elementary students.

The BBC's KS3 Bitesize Chemical and Material Behaviour site features tutorials, short videos and quizzes on chemical and material behavior for middle school students.

Teachers' Domain has a large collection of chemistry video clips and lesson plans. Create a free account, search by grade level and topic, and save clips to your own folders. For example, Acid Lake introduces acid rain, using the pH scale, and describes how it affects aquatic ecosystems.

Hands-on Experiments to Test for Acid Mine Drainage provides a set of hands-on experiments for students to test the water in their own local waterways. Experiments in this document from the USGS are designed for communities where creeks may be polluted.

High School

The Museum of Models provides online interactives that demonstrate concepts in chemistry, biotechnology and nanotechnology.  Watch simulations of the gas laws, Brownian motion, ion transport, intermolecular forces, chemical bonding, polymerization, x-ray crystallography and more. You will even find 3D rotatable models of all twenty amino acids. This site is from the Concord Consortium and the National Science Foundation.

Molecular Stepping Stones features interactive simulations and activities to help students understand 10 physical-chemical principles. Students can use these interactive to experiment with atomic structure, random motion, spatial equilibrium, strong chemical bonds, compounds, intermolecular forces, self-assembly, proteins, chemical reactions and catalysis, DNA, and the genetic code. Some activities include tutorials and questions which students may answer for evaluation by the teacher. The Web site is from the Concord Consortium and each activity comes with learning objectives and suggestions for classroom practice.

The Molecular Workbench offers interactive, visual simulations and activities for science teaching for students of all ages. It includes the Molecular Stepping Stones activities, the Science of Atoms and Molecules (SAM) and other science curriculum materials and online activities.

The Science of Cooking from the Exploratorium provides experiments, recipes and explanations that span chemistry and cooking. Why do wintergreen LifeSavers spark in the dark? How can you make apple pie without apples? How does osmosis make pickles crunchy? Find the answers to these questions at this site that features sections on candy, bread, eggs, pickles, meat and seasoning. Each section includes a kitchen lab, science explanations and activities and more.

Meet a Chemist from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences ChemHealthWeb Web site gives students a peek into the lives of chemists in a variety of different fields. The site also includes information on chemistry in the health and medical fields.

The Virtual Museum of Minerals and Molecules displays 3-D visualizations of molecules and minerals created by chemists at the University of Wisconsin and the University of Minnesota. The models can be zoomed and rotated so they can be viewed from all angles, much as with a real molecule. They can also be programmed with highlighting features that allow identification of specific atoms, structural sub-components, and mineralogical planes. Students can choose to view the molecules as ball and stick, space fill or polyhedral models.

Teachers' Domain has a large collection of chemistry video clips and lesson plans. Create a free account, search by grade level and topic, and save clips to your own folders. For example, Chemical Bonds features animated demonstrations in an interactive periodic table. Click on the tabs to see how pairs of elements in the periodic table bond together.  Learn about the role of valence shell electrons and attractive forces in three types of chemical bonds: covalent, ionic, and metallic.

Tox Town, from the National Library of Medicine, highlights the environmental and public health concerns related to chemicals used in everyday life.  Four neighborhoods -- City, Town, US-Mexico Border, Farm or Port – are illustrated, with an overview of environmental health concerns in those settings. Chemicals are described in non-technical language, supplemented with Internet links about a chemical and its possible impact on human health.

What’s That Stuff? from the Chemical and Engineering News features a collection of articles about the chemistry behind a wide variety of everyday products, from Silly Putty to Cheese Wiz.

The Corning Glass Museum hosts the Glass Chemistry Game; create three types of glass as you learn about silicon, sodium and calcium and other elements.

The Chemical Heritage Foundation provides many resources including biographies of notable chemists, and an exhibit on women in chemistry. Explore chemical history through timelines and illustrations, or view slide shows featuring items from the museum’s collection. Web Quests and classroom activities are also featured.

The World of Chemistry is a 26-program video series from Annenberg Media, designed for high school or college chemistry students.

Teachers

The NOVA Teachers page lists many NOVA programs with chemistry topics. Look in the green box for teacher guides and online interactives that accompany each program.

Science is Fun from the University of Wisconsin-Madison hosts a collection of chemistry education resources, including a periodic table with articles on each element, a chemical of the week essay, and simple chemistry experiments.

Exploring the Nano World from the University of Wisconsin-Madison includes two sets of printable lesson plans:  Nanotechnology Modules for Teaching High School Chemistry and Materials Science and Technology for the Middle School.

Countertop Chemistry from North Carolina State University features a number of experiments, inquiry activities and other chemistry teaching materials.

The National Science Teachers Association Learning Center provides web-based science learning activities for teachers. There are four Science Objects in the Chemical Reactions SciPack: A World of Reactions, Categorizing Chemical Reactions, Rates of Chemical Reactions, Matter and Energy in Reactions.

Essential Science for Teachers: Physical Science is a video course for K-6 teachers from the Annenberg Media. A full professional development course, including video programs, is available online.

Chemistry in its Element features podcasts about each element from the British Royal Society of Chemistry. The Society’s Chemistry World site provides daily chemistry news.

Periodic Tables

The Periodic Table interactive activity from Annenberg media helps students discover how the table is organized into groups; the atomic structure of each group; characteristics of isotopes; the scientific notation that is used to define atoms and elements; and how the chemical properties of elements are determined by their atomic composition.

The Periodic Table of the Elements from the Los Alamos National Laboratory provides an online guide to basic chemical principals and the periodic table.

The American Chemical Society provides this periodic table, which includes electron configuration and plot data.

The Interactive Periodic Table of the Elements from the Merck chemical company also includes a multilevel quiz in which students get points for identifying, grouping and arranging elements correctly.

Graphing the Periodic Table from Teachers' Domain demonstrates how the electron configurations and properties of the elements vary according to their place in the table. Investigate the patterns by plotting and comparing the elements by molar mass, atomic radius, ionic radius, melting point, boiling point, electronegativity, and ionization energies.

Click an element name on this Periodic Table from the American Elements company to learn more about its properties and applications, and see recent research regarding its uses.  You may also search alphabetically by the element name.

The Periodic Table of Videos from the University of Nottingham  offers a video clip for each element.

The Photographic Periodic Table offers beautiful images and information from the author of the book Elements.

And just for fun, the Periodic Table of Comic Books.


Created 1/2010
Last updated 5/31/2011