List of Chemistry Experiments for High School – Fun and Simple

In education, especially these days when kids are no longer that interested in studying, old-fashioned education method won’t work effectively anymore. Well, it might be easier to make them sit behind their desks and listen to your lecture. But, it’s also easier for them to doze off and get nothing out of your lecture, especially, if you’re teaching science. Although we know that science is actually very close to our everyday life, it’s not easy to understand it just by reading or listening explanations.

In order to find a method, a way of learning that children would probably like, teacher need to think harder. Trying to involve them right in the process, using real models that they can see and touch. Don’t just show them how that dialysis process being done, but more than that, try to make them be the one who’s doing it or you can say, by experimenting.

One thing to keep in mind, you shouldn’t just ask them to do experiments that are dangerous and too hard. Simplifying is the key. Creativity is the right spices that you need to dig in while preparing a chemistry experiment. Although your students might be a teenager, adding fun to the process will excite them more. Here are few list of chemistry experiments for high school :

List of chemistry experiments for high school: 

There are a lot of experiments that you can choose from, sometimes even a theory can be modified into different type of experiments. The key is to make the material acceptable and making it easier for student to  understand without changing the essential points. Here are few list of chemistry experiments for high school :

Test of Protein Experiment

Test of Protein Experiment can be used to examine if there are any proteins in a substances .

This test divided into 3, Xanthoproteic Test, Biuret Test, and Millon Test.

What to do :

1. Xanthoproteic Test

• Take 1 ml of the solution in a test tube
• Give 2 drops of nitric acid
• Heat the test tube
• Cool it down
• Give Sodium Hydroxide drop by drop until it changes its color

2. Biuret Test

• Take 1 ml of the solution in a test tube
• Give 2-3 drops of Copper Sulfate 1%
• Give 1 ml of Sodium Hydroxide
• Watch its changes

3. Lead (II) Acetate Test

• Mix 10 drops of Sodium Hydroxide 6M and 40 drops of acid acetate 3M in a test tube
• Close the test tube with a filter paper which had been wet with Lead (II) Acetate
• Heat the test tube
• Watch its changes. Also read: List of Chemists in Australia and Their Contribution

Density Jar

Density Jar is an experiment which will show us that density will also effects on surface tension

What to do :

• Take 7 cups of water
• Put a different amount of sugar in each cup and stir (A tbsp in first cup, 2 tbsp in second cup, 3 tbsp in third cup, and so on)
• Put a different food coloring in each cup (red in the first cup, orange in the second cup, yellow in the third cup, and so on)
• Then you will have 7 cups of sugar water with different density and color
• Prepare a bigger cup
• Slowly pour each small cups into a bigger cup, start from the most dense liquid to the less dense (start from the cup which has been mixed with 7 tbsp of sugar to the cup which has been mixed with 1 tbsp of sugar)
• It will come up like a rainbow in layers. Also read: Chemists Who Contributed in the Development of the Periodic Table

Colored Flames

Colored flames will help us to analyze if there are any specific elements by its spectrum.

What to do :

• Prepare all the materials you need as a colorants, they are :
  • Sodium Chloride (NaCl)
  • Potassium Chloride (KCl)
  • Calcium Dichloride (CaCl₂)
  • Strontium Chloride (SrCl₂)
  • Barium Chloride (BaCl₂)
  • Nickel (II) Sulfate (NiSO₄)
  • Lead (II) Nitrate (Pb(NO₃)₂)
  • Copper (II) Sulfate (CuSO₄)
  • Manganese (II) Sulfate (MnSO₄)
  • Magnesium (Mg)
• Put half teaspoon of each chemicals in a spot plates
• Dip the nichrome wire into Hydrogen Chloride (HCl)
• Take one of the chemical in a spot plates using nichrome wire
• Burn the nichrome wire which has chemicals on it (The nichrome wire won’t burnt)
• Each chemicals will produce a different flames color
• When you’ve done with the first chemical, dip it again in a Hydrogen Chloride (HCl) and burn it again until it is clean.
• Feel free to experiments the whole chemicals, and see what color each chemicals forms.

Also read: Scientists Who Experimented on Themselves and Died

Salty Snowflakes Experiments

What to do :

• Pour 120ml of water in a pot, then boil it
• Pour as much salt as you can and stir until all the salts dissolve
• Pour more salts until it couldn’t be dissolve anymore, because the quantity of the salts more than the water could handle
• Pour the solutions slowly in a clean jar, and don’t let the salts residue also poured
• Make a snowflakes shape with a rough wire
• Tied it on a pencil
• Put the pencil right in the center of the jar
• The crystal will appear within an hour, a day, or even weeks, depending on what kind of salt we use. Table salt needs a day or two to form a crystal, alum needs only an hour or two to form a crystal. Also read: List of Chemistry Universities in China

Learning through experiencing is such an effective way of absorbing new information and turn it into a long-term memory. Well, that also explains, why you can remember all of the scenes in the Avengers movie series along with the character and the actors so easily, and find it hard as hell just to memorize a list of cation and anion which contains at least less than 50 points. That’s the list of chemistry experiments for high school.

Chemistry is fun, only if you know how to learn it in a fun way. Just remember to always be careful in doing any kinds of experiments.

You might want to read : Cool Experiments to Do at Home with Household Items