Chemistry Labs - Dr. Tang's syllabus vs Illustrated Guide?

[justkeepswimming]

DD is planning to use the "honors chemistry" lesson plans from the Dr. Tang site and use Chang Essential Concepts in Chemistry book.

 

The Dr. Tang site has 9 labs.

 

The Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments recommends 36 labs for a student heading towards a science major in college.

 

So..... that's a big difference? :001_huh:

 

I prefer the Illustrated Guide to Tang (Tang uses chemical formulas in the materials list and Illustrated Guide spells it out in good old English for us non-Chemistry folks... so it was much easier to make a list of what we need while flipping through the Illustrated Guide because I didn't have to translate things into a layperson's language).

 

But, is 36 labs overkill? There are probably 2 or 3 that we won't be able to do due to lack of materials or equipment, but everything else in his first year labs seems very do-able. But when I look at the syllabus for Tang, and it being Honors Chemistry, and it only having 9 labs... I dunno. Time is a precious commodity for dd and although I am quite sure she would love nothing MORE than 2-3+ hours per week doing JUST Chemistry Lab work, I worry about it swallowing up more precious time than is perhaps really neccessary for a thorough first-year Chemistry class.

 

She will also have Environmental Science labwork to do on top of the Chemistry.

 

So - thoughts? Pick and choose from the Illustrated Guide, or attempt them all (that he suggests for 1st year labs)?

[Julie of KY]

I teach from the Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Labs and I've taken a number of students through the book. I googled the above Dr. Tang's labs, but couldn't find a site. If you can give me a link I'll look at it and compare the two.

 

I've put together some note on the labs in Illulstrated Guide. If you want a copy of this, just pm me.

 

In the Illustrated Guide, some labs are important; some are fun and inspire desire for chem lab; some are boring, but have great learning principles; others can be just as easily learned by reading rather than by doing. I don't necessarily agree with the author on which labs are best for beginning students. Feel free to ask me about any specific labs. I love the book and think it's a lot of fun, but it is a lot of work (time and money) to put together.

 

If you want to pick and choose from the Illlustrated Guide, I'll be happy to give my input on what I'd recommend.

[Julie of KY]

DD is planning to use the "honors chemistry" lesson plans from the Dr. Tang site and use Chang Essential Concepts in Chemistry book.

 

 

 

Do you have a link to this? I'd love to look at it.

[jennynd]

 

Do you have a link to this? I'd love to look at it.

 

http://www.doctortang.com/Honour%20Chemistry/units.htm

[TexasRachel]

Julie what do you recommend from the Guide? 9 labs is more in line with what we did in high school. 36 is what I did in college with dedicated labs. So I've wondered about the difference as well.

[justkeepswimming]

Oh yes - please - I would LOVE your BTDT input in the Illustrated Guide!!! Absolutely!! After putting together a supply list, we could do the 36 labs (minus a couple) for $200-$300 total (because we already own so much lab equipment and a fair amount of chemicals and materials).

 

 

Jenny above linked to Dr Tang's site. :)

 

Thanks!!

 

I teach from the Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Labs and I've taken a number of students through the book. I googled the above Dr. Tang's labs, but couldn't find a site. If you can give me a link I'll look at it and compare the two.

 

I've put together some note on the labs in Illulstrated Guide. If you want a copy of this, just pm me.

 

In the Illustrated Guide, some labs are important; some are fun and inspire desire for chem lab; some are boring, but have great learning principles; others can be just as easily learned by reading rather than by doing. I don't necessarily agree with the author on which labs are best for beginning students. Feel free to ask me about any specific labs. I love the book and think it's a lot of fun, but it is a lot of work (time and money) to put together.

 

If you want to pick and choose from the Illlustrated Guide, I'll be happy to give my input on what I'd recommend.

 

[Julie of KY]

It's always interesting for me to find more labs to look at/try out.

 

My impression is that the Tang labs are to be done after a separate set of labs of more basic chemistry, but I may be mistaken. They skip much of basic lab learning. They do not include as much teaching about what should happen, but occatioanly reference prelab excercises. This might be where more teaching is done. Also these labs frequently use sulfuric acid when there are safer ways to demonstrate the same principles. Many of the Tang labs correlate to more than one lab in Illustrated Guide.

 

Tang lab 1 - Diagnostic tests for hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon dioxide - ; there are many ways of doing this and I have my favorites. If you do Illustrated Guide these tests are incorporated into other labs when you test for the gas.

 

Tang lab 2 - The Tang lab does not tell you how much copper sulfate and sulfuric acid to add. It says to measure the amount in the pre-lab exercise. These labs are the same principles taught in Illustrate Guide labs 7.1 and 7.3

 

Tang lab 3 - Part A - pricipitation rxn - this is a double displacement rxn as in Illustrate Guide 9.4 (also many other precipitation rxns in Illustrate Guide)

Part B - titration - this is similar to Illustrated Guide11.4

(NOTE - Tang doesn't do any composition or decompostion reactions.)

 

Tang lab 4 - Ideal gas - I like Illustrate Guide lab 14.4 better for Ideal gas

 

Tang lab 5 - Molecular shapes - this is molecule building from a kit; no benchwork - No correlation to Illustrated Guide

 

Tang lab 6 - Part A - Heat of Solution of NaOH; This correlated to lab 15.1 in Illustrated Guide but 15.1 tests heat of solution of NaOH, HCl, table salt and calcium chloride (much more interesting to test more)

Part B - Heat of Fusion - Similar to Illustrated Guide 15.2

 

Tang lab 7 - Heat of Combustion (easy lab) - No correlation in Illustrated Guide, but Illlustrated Guide does Heat of reaction which is more interesting.

 

Tang lab 8 - LeChatelier's Principle - this is a more compiicated lab than Illustated Guide and talks of needing a fume hood; This correlates to Illustrated Guide labw 13.1 and 13.2

 

Tang lab 9 - Titratition and calculation of the acid dissassociation constant; Lab 13.3 in Illustrated Guide is similar calculates the solubility product constant; Both are difficult labs and have difficult math.

 

I think the Illustrated Guide would be easier if you are not familiar with techniques and safety. I'll review my recommendations of Illustrated Guide in the next post.

[Julie of KY]

Basic Lab Recommendations of Illustrated Guide based on ease, time learning, and interest.

The labs that I recommend skipping on the interest of time can be learned from a book if you don’t want to spend as much time doing labs.

(I’ve written up notes on the book including notes on each lab; where to find common chemicals, and other notes about the book. Email me if you would like this document.)

 

I generally skip three labs in the book:

12.4 – no endpoint to the titration

13.3 – very difficult math (only do if your student is proficient with logarithms)

22.4 – too dangerous – too easy to explode your whole setup in trying to ignite the hydrogen gas

 

 

Lab 6.1 – I substitute sand for sugar since sugar caramelizes so easily; good lab to start leaning basic techniques

Lab 6.3 – Fun lab but takes about 3 hours; could skip in interest of time but I have all my students do this

 

6.2 – distillation – optional

6.4 – quick, fun lab, ok to skip

6.5 – Chromatography – important to understand, but I would skip based on time

 

7.1 and 7.3 are important to learn about molar solutions

7.4 – optional, but if you are going to use phenthalein later you might as well mix it now; I reduce everything be a factor of ten and make only 10 ml of solution

 

7.2 and 8.1 have been revised by the author – 8.1 has major mistakes and 7.2 was changed to use sodium carbonate instead

I group 7.2, 8.1, 8.2, and 8.3 together (over two days). These labs are interesting, but take about six hours and I would tend to skip them in the interest of time.

 

I would do 9.1, 9.2,and 9.3 – all good reaction labs and 9.1 and 9.2 have good math; I’d probably skip 9.4 in the interest of time but it is a fun lab.

 

10.1 and 10.2 – interesting, but don’t teach major principles; see notes for futher info; okay to skip based on time

 

11.1 – good (long) lab on pH

11.4 (adv lab) good lab to teach titration

 

Chapter 12 – 12.1, 12.2, and 12.3 are good basic kinetic labs, but the principles can be learned by a book in the interest of time. These labs always surprise my students however.

 

13.1 and 13.2 – Would do these only if you want to do all the basic labs, otherwise I’d tend to skip these.

 

Chapter 14 – gas laws – principles are generally easy to learn from a book and I don’t think you gain a lot by doing 14.1, 14.2 and 14.3

I do really like 14.4 (ideal gas law lab) and would add this even though it is listed as and adv. Lab.

 

I’d recommend 15.1 and 15.3 – probably skip 15.2 as it is messy and doesn’t produce good numbers

 

16.1 – electrolysis – If you’ve never done this it is worthwhile

The rest of chapter 16 is all doable by beginning students if you have the time

 

18.1/18.2 – do if you have time

18.3 – fun lab as you get to burn things; BE SURE YOU HAVE ADULT SUPERVISION!

 

19.1 – I do the alternate procedure and dissolve each salt in methanol on a watchglass; fun lab to create different colored flames

19.2 – would skip based on time as it is difficult to do correctly

 

Fun advanced labs:

19.4 – long lab but many colorful precipitates

19.5 – quant analysis of bone

Chapter 20 – any of these labs are interesting titration labs

22.2 – fun lab

[Julie of KY]

I teach Illustrate Guide out of my garage to a group of students and have taken quite a few all the way through the book with the exception of the three labs listed above. It's a fun book loaded with information, but takes a lot of time to do the labs as well as set up and a lot of money. :confused1: I think it does a good job teaching safety as well as disposal of chemicals.

Have fun in your chemistry persuits.

[justkeepswimming]

Thankyou-thankyou-thankyou!!! You made my life much easier! Printing off your replies to line them up with my list.

 

I will be learning along with dd. When I did Chemistry in high school, we memorized the periodic table and did pages and pages of math. That's all I remember. lol DD is good at the math part, so she'll help me out there (lol) - and the Illustrated Guide really did seem very user-friendly for those of us who aren't quite sure what we're doing... (but thankfully we're really good at reading, following directions, and using common sense, so I don't foresee too many complications.)

 

Thank you so much for taking the time to write all that up. It is an enormous help!

 

P.S. I sent you a PM here regarding your notes on the experiments... :) TY!

[Julie of KY]

Thankyou-thankyou-thankyou!!! You made my life much easier!

 

 

You're welcome. Have fun with whatever you do.

[StephanieZ]

deleted. already answered upthread.