Chemistry Concepts and Experiments

From the earliest recorded times, people have used chemical processes to enhance their lives, including making dyes to color cloth and, starting in the Copper Age, extracting metals to create tools. Today, chemistry continues to be used to develop new products, to find solutions to such problems as acid rain and to decipher the genetic code of human DNA. Explore chemistry concepts and perform some experiments through these direct links on The Times Launch Point Web site: https://www.latimes.com/launchpoint

* Prepared by the UC Irvine department of education

Level 1

Hypermedia Textbook: Matter can have physical properties, such as color, texture and taste, as well as chemical properties, which can be observed only when a substance changes into something else, like yeasty dough baked into bread. Learn about water, matter, energy, atoms and molecules through illustrated chapters and try some fun hands-on experiments.

https://www.nyu.edu/pages/mathmol/textbook/elem_home1.html

The Chemistry of Smell and Taste: Did you know that when you smell something, molecules from the object actually travel up your nose and cause smell receptors to send a message to your brain? Find out how your senses of smell and taste work through some delicious experiments.

https://www.acs.org/wondernet/activities/activities.html

Kids’ Corner: pH Scale: The term “pH” stands for “Potential of Hydrogen” and a pH scale is used to determine how acidic or alkaline a substance is. Learn how litmus paper is used to test the pH of a substance, find out what acid rain is and read about ways that you can help reduce the pollution that causes acid rain.

https://www.ec.gc.ca/acidrain/kids.html

Level 2

Chem4Kids: Tap water is an example of a mixture, while distilled water is an example of a pure substance; it contains only water molecules. Find out many interesting facts as you learn about mixtures, the four states of matter, the structure of an atom and the periodic table of elements.

https://www.chem4kids.com/index.html

Reeko’s Mad Scientist: Find out why people pour salt on icy sidewalks or how to send electrons through a table through this fun collection of experiments you can try together with your parents.

https://www.spartechsoftware.com/reeko/MoreExperimentsSortCategory.htm

BBC: Science in Action (Mixtures): Learn about mixtures through a visit to the Great Salt Lake and use an online interactive lab that lets you discover what happens when you combine solvents and solutes in different ways.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sia/game_index.html

Level 3

General Chemistry Online: This extensive set of chemistry resources ranges from interactive periodic tables and graphing tools to tutorials, searchable databases, articles, online quizzes and even a glossary that has audio pronunciations of chemical terms.

https://antoine.frostburg.edu/chem/senese/101/

Chem Team: A Tutorial for High School Chemistry: Learn about chemistry concepts by tracing how these ideas were discovered and expanded upon over time. Visit the photo gallery for pictures of famous chemists and prepare for the AP Chemistry test by trying out National Chemistry Olympiad tests from years past.

https://dbhs.wvusd.k12.ca.us/ChemTeamIndex.html

Chem101: Who discovered the electron? What kind of chemical reaction can produce energy in the form of light without producing heat? Find out through this site, created by students, which features a helpful online textbook and a collection of experiments featuring video clips.

https://library.advanced.org/3310

EXPLORER’S QUEST

The answer to this Internet quiz can be found in the sites at right.

Why does normal rain have a pH value of about 5.6?

CLUE: See Kids’ Corner: pH Scale

Find What You Need to Know: Have a project on California history? Need help doing a math problem? Launch Point now covers more than 100 topics for getting your schoolwork done. Go to https://www.latimes.com/launchpoint/ for the full list of subjects and direct links to the best Internet sites.

Answer to the July 5 Quest: The Drinking Gourd Song recommended that slaves leave in winter so that they could cross the Ohio River when it was covered with ice.

Launch Point is produced by the UC Irvine department of education, which reviews each site for appropriateness and quality. Even so, parents should supervise their children’s use of the Internet. This column was designed by Priya Singh, Jennifer Foster, Alicia Hsieh and Anna Manring.