Lab Activity: Exploring Changes with Gas Pressure

gases, properties of gases, gas pressure, bell jars, creating models, particle diagrams

This highly student-centered lab will help your students understand how gas pressure affects different substances. Students will observe different phenomena and create explanatory models to illustrate the relationship between the macroscopic and microscopic nature of gases. Setup and implementation is easy with my teacher prep guide - see the product preview for details.

Concepts and skills addressed:

• Gas properties
• Pressure
• Forces
• Kinetic Molecular Theory
• Developing and Using Models
• Constructing Explanations

This activity is perfect for setting the stage for your unit on states of matter or gas laws.

Learning objectives: Your students will be able to…

1. Construct explanatory models that help to explain the nature of gases
2. Investigate the properties of gas pressure and its effect on different substances

Materials your students will need:

• Microscale vacuum apparatus includes: bell jar, base plate, vacuum pump, syringe, suction cup, balloons, plastic cup
• thermometer
• warm water
• marshmallows
• balance

This lab activity includes:

• 5-page student lab handout
• Explanatory model quick reference
• Scaffolded sections for obtaining data and constructing models
• Guiding questions
• Safety precautions
• Clean up instructions
• Teacher’s prep guide
• Answer key

All rights are reserved by the author. This product is for personal classroom use only and may not be redistributed or posted to any website or educational blog in part or in its entirety. Store Copyright © 2011 by Karen Randazzo (a.k.a. MsRazz ChemClass)