Starting a series of chemical reaction labs, sophomores in Chemistry teacher Theresa Sager‘s classes are learning how atoms react to each other based on mixing chemicals.

“Labs make it exciting for students otherwise it looks like applied math and some students dislike math,” Sager said. “If they see the reaction in the lab they get to explain the reaction back to me. They’re more open to wanting to learn it and finding out the explanations. [Students are] just more curious and excited about the material.”

Students had the choice to participate in five different labs including; rusting tin foil with bleach, filling up balloons with baking soda and vinegar, mixing baking powder into mustard, using fire to create a reaction and melting aluminum using a copper solution.

“It’s really hard to not participate because labs are some of the things that change my education environment and have me actively moving,” sophomore Christine Wu said. “Labs are always interesting because they let you see things from a different point of view vs just reading about it in a textbook. I always look forward to labs as they are more engaging and I can actually feel I’m learning.” 

Specific steps during experiments, such as mixing certain chemicals, help students determine how successful the lab went. 

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“For me [the best lab] to be either the helium balloon or the fire bubbles,” Wu said. “Both relied on a lot of instructions but it was definitely worth it, seeing the chemical reaction happen in person felt exciting. As the borax and the vinegar mixed to fill the balloon, or when bubbly formula lights the fire, I had a lot of fun learning and experimenting.” 

As quarter one ended, Sager finished off with labs to ease students into the next quarter after learning about electron configurations and more. 

“I think that if you’re not doing chemistry labs, in chemistry, you’re going to lose a lot of students; they won’t be interested,” Sager said. “But if you offer the labs, the students will want to learn that material that much more or like they’ll be more memorable, whatever you’re going over. It’ll stick with them.”