This unit on Chemistry is chocked full of demonstrations and experiments for two big reasons. First, they’re fun. But more importantly, the reason we do experiments in chemistry is to hone your observational skills. Chemistry experiments really speak for themselves, much better than I can ever put into words or show you on a video. And I’m going to hit you with a lot of these chemistry demonstrations to help you develop your observing techniques.



In most standard chemistry lessons, a teacher walks in and says, “Now I will demonstrate the insolubility of barium sulfate by mixing equal volumes of zero point one molar barium chloride and zero point one molar sodium sulfate and observe what happens.” Anyone still awake?


In this unit, you’ll be mixing up things that bubble, ooze, slither, spit, change color, crystallize, and fizz. (I think there’s even one that belches.) And rather than announcing things in a dull and boring fashion, I’m just going to outline the steps and ask YOU to notice any and all changes, no matter how strange or weird. Or small. Even a tiny temperature difference can indicate something big is about to happen.


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4 Responses to “Introduction to the course”

  1. Aurora Lipper says:

    The best thing would be to have your order shipped to a friend or family member outside of DC. However, you can order the C3000 kit directly from Thames & Kosmos here: https://store.thamesandkosmos.com/products/chem-c3000. For other chemistry and biology supplies, Amazon is a good option. Otherwise, you may need to do a search online.

  2. jennifer_mueller says:

    Home Science Tools no longer ships to Washington DC (at all, and they will not say why, just that it’s company policy). Any other suggestions for supplies for chemistry and biology? We have the C3000 kit (the old one, I think) but need several additional items and were planning to get into micrcosopy as well.

  3. Yes there are assessments for each subject with each grade. Click on GRADES and pick the grade level your student is at.

  4. Are there tests that I can give my student so that I can give them a grade at the end of each semester?