Experiences

It is the magic of chemistry

A.D.

Romania

High Secondary School

Chemistry

Teaching in class

Direct

A simple experiment is one of the best ways to motivate your students and raise their curiosity. Make each demonstration look like a mystery: it is the magic of chemistry. Later in the course, when you are teaching the topic illustrated by the demo, remind them of the demo. Students will remember and make the connection between the lesson and the demo, enhancing their understanding of the topic.
There are lots of experiments that do not require sophisticated and expensive materials. Some require little in materials and equipment, but are great incentive for learning. Before doing the experiments try these out on your own. Here is one of my favourite experiments:
Hit a large nail into a board so that the nail stands. Put a second large nail on a flat surface and then lay other nails across it. Finally, place another nail on top of this assembly, head to tail with the second nail. If you carefully pick up the assembly you can balance it on the upright nail! Students will be interested in your explanation: in a gravitational field, any object is most stable when its center of mass is as low as possible. The center of mass of the nail assembly is below the point of support and it is at its lowest when the assembly is balanced. If the assembly swings to the side, its center of mass rises. Gravity that exerts a restoring force to bring the assembly back into balance.