Stoichiometry (Chemistry)

At a glance:

Topics: chemistry, balancing equations, conservation of mass, ratios, proportions, stoichiometry

Grades: 9-12

Standards: NGSS HS-PS1.2, NGSS HS-PS1.7

Duration to complete: 10-15 minutes

Learning outcome: Students will sharpen their skills in balancing equations and begin to recognize how to proportionally scale balanced equations up or down.

Intro for students: What exactly is stoichiometry anyway? In our Stoichiometry experience, you’ll get hands-on experience with this simple and powerful concept in chemistry. (Hint: it’s all about proportions and ratios.) Play with reactants and products, scale them up and down and achieve balance in your equations and perhaps in life as well. #stoichiometry #reactants #products #chemistry #e-learning #experiential #conservationofmass #ratios #proportions

What makes this topic challenging for kids?

Chemistry will always be difficult for a new student to conceptualize at the molecular level. Students do not have a visual frame of reference for conceptualizing atoms and chemical reactions. In addition, the idea that matter cannot be created nor destroyed may be unintuitive to some (one may think, “if salt is dissolved in water, then the salt goes away forever”).

What’s our approach?

Our experience builds upon the simple visual framework for chemical equations first introduced in our Balancing Equations experience. The game revolves around playing with interactive molecule counters and checking if the amount of matter on the reactant side and products side is the same, thus reinforcing the key concept of conservation of mass. This experience builds upon our Balancing Equations Experience by introducing the notion of scaling chemical equations up or down using proportions and ratios.

By playing this experience, students can expect to continue building a dynamic mental model for thinking about chemistry.