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Reaction Rates
Syllabus Ref. 6.1
Class practical
Students carry out three test-tube reactions and use their hands on the base of the test-tube to detect whether the process gives
out or takes in energy and is classified as being exothermic or endothermic.
They are shown a teacher demonstration which illustrates an endothermic dissolving process. A similar experiment, involving a
set of reactions carried out in a insulated cup and using a thermometer to measure temperature changes, is described
elsewhere in Practical Chemistry.
Lesson organisation
This works very well as a class experiment with students working in small groups of two or three. The three student experiments
together with the teacher demonstration should take no more than 30 - 40 minutes. The teacher demonstration using ammonium
nitrate should take no more than 5 minutes.
Apparatus
Chemicals
Each group of
students will
need:
Eye protection
Test-tubes, 3
Spatula
Dropping pipette
Measuring
cylinder, 10 or 25
cm3
Glass stirring rod
The teacher will
need:
Eye protection
Boiling tube
(Note 1)
Spatula
Glass stirring rod
Thermometer
(Note 2)
Procedure
Carry out the following reactions. Find out whether the reaction:
Teaching notes
In this activity students meet two exothermic reactions (1 and 3) and two endothermic reactions (2 and 4).
More able students should be encouraged to appreciate that although these experiments demonstrate gain or loss of energy to
or from the surroundings, chemists are more interested in the loss or gain of energy by the chemicals themselves.
Thus, for an exothermic process, the surroundings gain energy whereas the chemicals lose an equivalent amount.
In endothermic reactions the surroundings lose energy, which is gained by the chemicals themselves.
Students can be asked to draw simple energy diagrams for each type of reaction. It may be necessary to provide an introduction
to explain the conventions of energy-level diagrams.
Health & Safety checked, September 2014
Credits
This Practical Chemistry resource was developed by the Nuffield Foundation and the Royal Society of Chemistry.